Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can sound scary. Well guess what? It’s not! TCM goes back thousands of years and is a safe and minimally-invasive treatment when prescribed correctly.
When you hear the word “herbal remedy”, you may picture some yogi living the mellow life (in other words, you probably wouldn’t think that anything could go wrong when using herbs). It’s actually much to the contrary – only well-studied TCVM specialists can correctly prescribe herbal treatments because a wrong prescription can lead to some serious side effects. It takes years of training to know how to correctly treat patients with herbal remedies.
That being said, herbal treatment can be an effective and much less risky treatment option when prescribed by a trained TCVM professional. A pattern diagnosis will be formulated based on TCVM, including tongue and pulse characteristics and behavior patterns at home, to prescribe herbal formulas for chronic conditions. Chinese herbal therapy can be used alone or in conjunction with Modern or Eastern medicine. Herbs are natural and tolerated by pets when introduced slowly. They can be administered by capsules or powders mixed in with your pet’s food.
The ultimate goal of herbal therapy is to treat disorders naturally, and lower the amount of prescription medication a pet’s body is exposed to. A typical example is the arthritic dog, who is frequently placed on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) to treat pain. We opt to treat these patients with herbal therapy in conjunction with acupuncture, and we are usually able to control their pain naturally while weaning them off of the potentially nephrotoxic NSAID medications.
If you have more questions about what we can do for your furry friend, give us a call at 985-718-9991!
