Guest guest Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 I am a vet on this list using Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture to treat dogs, cats and horses. The extent of my formal training in acupuncture is 4 x 4 days through IVAS (the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society) and 6 x 4 days for herbal medicine (a course given in Belgium for vets taught by Jim Skoien - human herbalist with significant experience training vets). I have a passion for Chinese medicine and philosophy and so my own self-study has been far more than most perhaps. I have seen between 20 - 30 animals a week for the last 5 years using initially acupuncture and western herbs and over the last 2 years, Chinese herbs. In the UK at least, the provision of both acupuncture and herbal medicine to animals is limited to veterinarians by law. In my opinion and my experience, while that is the case, short courses that introduce acupuncture and herbal medicine to vets, benefits animals, acupuncture, herbal medicine and vets. There is certainly enough vets out their using herbs to begin getting an idea of what works. For instance in the relevant skin patterns , a few of us agree we don't seem to get the response we would like to Xiao feng san, whereas Long dan xie gan tang seems very reliable. Despite my lack of training and experience in herbal medicine, and despite the fact that few vet teachers exist out there, I have been able to help many animals that I would have been unable to help previously. Basic courses need to emphasise safety and efficacy, and vets need to know the limits of their expertise and the potential of further study. Vets are highly trained in all the basic medical sciences including pharmacology and toxicology. Their knowledge in medicine and pathophysiology is extensive. Vets are also in general well trained to be aware of side-effects of and interactions between medications. They also have a lot of clinical experience - many seeing 6-10 patients in an hour (not that that is a good thing). In my experience they have a hell of a lot of common sense too. In my opinion, it is not difficult to provide them with the information required to integrate safely and effectively many helpful individual herbs and formulae into their practice. The hard part is providing the required evidence base. But that's another discussion. My experience of dosing - I dose a 30kg dog and a 500kg horse the same as I would an average adult. Cats and horses respond to much lower doses of herbs than humans and dogs proportionally. In my experience many older cats do have deficient patterns. Patterns usually complex just like chronically ill humans. Correcting poor nutrition is the first step in treating ay animal in my opinion. I know of no vets using TCM that set themselves up as masters in any sense. They may of course exist. There are many generous enough to share what they know, realising there is an enormous amount still to explore. I would encourage all vets to begin incorporating both herbal medicine and acupuncture into their practices as animals can benefit enormously. Even a 2-day course will empower you to help significant numbers of animals. Don't let anyone scare you off with how much there is to learn. Non-vets have nothing to fear. We are all in this together. Lets collaborate. There is another issue here. There is far more to healing in any modality than one's learning. In my opinion without love all the learning in the world is useless. Unless we know, by direct experience, the true nature of our patient and ourselves, we do not truly know what help is needed. A simple person with no formal training but true Love, and a Knowledge of Reality sees that illness has no reality, and in holding the Truth in their mind, helps us to remember it too. We are in their eyes, and in Reality, already and forever perfect. Both health and disease, concepts only in minds separated from Truth, vanish when wholeness is welcomed in. Health and healing cannot be attained through striving. We are and always will be Perfect. What is there to be healed? Best wishes Jimmy ---- Jimmy Symmonds BSc (Zoology) BVSc MRCVS Veterinary Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Natural Animal Therapy Centre Horsehay Farm Duns Tew Road Middle Barton OX7 7DQ UK Email: jimmy Web: www.naturalanimal.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1869 347050 Fax: +44 (0) 1869 340969 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 , " Jimmy Symmonds " <jimmy@h...> wrote: > > I know of no vets using TCM that set themselves up as masters in any sense. > They may of course exist. There are many generous enough to share what they > know, realising there is an enormous amount still to explore. I would > encourage all vets to begin incorporating both herbal medicine and > acupuncture into their practices as animals can benefit enormously. Even a > 2-day course will empower you to help significant numbers of animals. Don't > let anyone scare you off with how much there is to learn. I find that very disturbing and others should, as well. Talk about disparaging a profession. So what I took 4 years to learn to do effectively a vet can learn enough to do in two days. that is exactly the scary stuff I am talking about. And it is the opposite of what Phil said. Phil is one of the most knowledgeable TCM vets I know and he says after 6 years, he feel inadequate. Everyone sghould be terrified of letting vets with a 2 day TCM course touch your animals just as you would not allow an acupuncturist with 2 days herb training to precribe for you. > > Non-vets have nothing to fear. We are all in this together. Lets > collaborate. I agree. Let's collaborate to set high standards for TCM practice. Veterinary medicine is arguably the most difficult form of medicine. everyone knows vet school is harder to get into than med school. So if vets can practice TCM with 2 days training, that just means TCM is not a deep study on par with vet med. I totally disagree and to accept that statement is to accept that MDs should just take over the practice of TCM for humans, as well. You are saying that there is no real depth necessary to study TCM And Susan implied that an L.Ac. is unqualifed to treat animals due to no vet training. Would you go further and say humans are best treated with herbs by those whose primary degree is also in western medicine. That seems the like the logical absurdity of this argument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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