Sidewalk Dogis a Twin Cities based service which provides a directory of events, places, and services for the urban dog. It’s been good to find out what stores allows dogs or restaurants with pup friendly patios, and all the rest.
So, they’re claiming the #1 rememdy for injury and bruises also doesn’t cover any of the symptoms. Because what’s the purpose of a remedy for an injury if it doesn’t stop the pain or the bruising or …OK, I really just don’t understand the purpose of Arnica 30C.
But wait, this gets even crazier. The vet-and it pains me to use that word for her- who is running this class also runs a clinic that eschews things like vaccines.
And before it’s all over, let’s talk about those bad subluxations that chiropractic care will resolve in your dog:
To me, if an adult of sound mind wants to believe in homeopathy and subluxations for themselves. Fine. Be stupid. But it’s only their own body and wallet that they’re damaging. However, when an animal who can’t voice their objections or needs is being preyed about by this charlatan bullshit, I want to bring the hammer down.
I would say that people are free to treat their pets in any way until that treatment becomes abuse. If there is no distress and no major illness then treat away with homeopathy. If there is distress or observable illness thenand recognised veterinary medicine should be used. Dog remains healthy, no problem, dog suffering from lack of veterinary attention by use of homeopathy as a replacement, then it becomes a public issue in the same manner that simple failure to treat would be.
Any vet who prescribes homeopathy, or other disproven treatments, is ripping off her patients. That’s fraud.
And it doesn’t matter if quack treatments are in addition to scientific medicine. Charging thirty dollars for diluted water doesn’t become ethical if you also charge them a hundred bucks for the office visit. If the vet wants to prescribe a placebo, then she prescribes something free.
You bring up interesting considerations and contradictions with this Vet’s ideas/promotions, OP.
Most jurisdictions DO require (at least) rabies vaccinations. Most jurisdictions also still view pets as “property”; the rights a “property” has are much more limited than a human’s rights - including the rights of minors. If one is able to get out of vaccinating a child due to one’s religious/personal beliefs, are they similarly able to get out of county-mandated vaccinations of animals?
On the rest of it, I’m mixed; I can see a benefit (actual or psychological) to pet owners’ supplementing medical care with homeopathic care. I can even see someone being SO against Big Pharm/Big Medicine that they’d prefer ONLY homeopathic care/natural remedies.
Lose her licensing? I dunno. It reads to me like she’s simply given her name/prestige to a latest business venture…like Dr. Oz is wont to do - and for which he’s been under fire, lately. Dr. Oz is making big bucks off his product endorsements - and those ARE products for human consumption.
A personal example and experience: my 6-year old dog has epilepsy; he was born with it and had his first seizure at 2 months old. Unmedicated, he averages about one seizure every 3 weeks; each one lasts approximately 7 minutes (unusually long for a dog, according to his vet).
The treatment is expensive pills, taken daily which are supposed to lessen the frequency/duration/strength of his seizures. While on them (for over 3 years), he once went 7 weeks without a seizure; it was still as violent and lasted just as long.
Unfortunately, a side effect of the medication is liver damage, so 2 sets of (expensive) blood panels are taken each year to measure the rate of damage. His liver damage was on the high end. My choice was to either let an epileptic seizure kill him, or let the liver damage and/or an epileptic seizure do it.
A couple of years ago, I took him off the [expensive] meds. I’ve recently been introduced to positive results derived from natural dosages of Omega-3s in human epilepsy patients; I’m currently trying that.
It’s too soon to see if it’s working. If the medical field introduces an operation/therapy/treatment that is better than what they’ve currently got, I’ll be happy to try it.
Oh, and my chiropractor suggested I bring my dog in for sessions, as he claimed treatment can work wonders on epilepsy. I didn’t notice any difference, other than the $35/session out of my wallet…and the odd feeling I got while sitting in his office that I was becoming one of those pet owners.
States should have laws requiring certain vaccinations. As long as the vet is not recommending against those I don’t see grounds for removing the vet’s license. However I would not take my best friend to see that vet.
A vet who offers “homeopathic vaccines” for pets should be sanctioned by his/her board of veterinary medicine, in my opinion. Such “vaccines” (also promoted by quacks for humans) are useless.
A 30C solution is so highly diluted as it make it extremely unlikely that a single molecule of the “active” substance remains in the product. Naturally, this also makes side effects and drug interactions extremely unlikely as well.
Newsflash: dogs (some breeds in particular) are good at hiding pain, so an owner (and even vet) may not be aware of just how badly they are suffering. Offering ineffective treatments in such an instance (i.e. chiropractic or homeopathy for degenerative arthritis) is an abuse of the pet.
Charging for ineffective treatments smacks of fraud.
My bad. I was responding to the Vet’s use of “homeopathic” in its generally and colloquially used sense nowadays of meaning alternative/natural treatments, not in its dictionary definition:
the treatment of disease by minute doses of natural substances that in a healthy person would produce symptoms of disease."
Obviously, treating a disease WITH a disease would require a Vet/Doctor to administer it, so the whole idea of teaching people how to homeopathically administer diseases to their pets withOUT the necessary licensing to do so would simply be illegal.
I don’t think you’re quite getting the picture yet. When something is homeopathically diluted, it is sometimes to the point where a molecule from the original substance no longer exists in the solution itself. Using homeopathetic “medicine” in addition to real medicine is an incredible waste of money, and using it instead of real medicine is dangerous.
@Czarcasm:
Again, I took the use of “homeopathic medicines/therapies” as used when quoting this Vet (within the OP) to be in the context to be referring to “natural and organic” as opposed to its true meaning of ‘introducing controlled amounts of a disease to fight the disease’ within a pet.
As I stated earlier, she can’t very well hold DIY classes on how to inject diseases into one’s pet if, to get ahold of the disease to begin with, one has to have the proper [medical] licensing.
The 30C in the name of the drug is homeopathy-speak for a dilution of one part in 100^30 (or one part in 10^60). Another way to express that, besides the one by StPauler, is that this is about a teaspoon of active ingredient diluted by a cube of water 100 light years on a side.
