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Freedom of choice

Joe Olson

Published 2003 in A & A Practice

ABSTRACT

WHAT one person finds surprising or incomiipr-ehensible may be commonplace and matter-of-fact to another. Wheni holidaying in Maine recenitly, I took (in American parlanice) a bit of a coachdriver-'s Vsacation, and called in at the local veterinarian's clinic. She was in the process ot treating an old dog for chronic renial failure, not with conventional ACE inhlibitor-s or anabolic steriods, but with a combination of homeopathy and kinesiology, plus a novel low-protein diet t'resh lobster. I was astonished; this dog ate what I regard as a luxury f'ood, but since its owner was a lobsterfisherml[anl, it was in fact both normal, and economic, to feed it like this. This is by way of an introduction to a topic raising its head m)ore and ImoreC these days, namely alternative medicinies. Where's the coninection'? Well, some people would see this choice of therapy very much like eating lobster; something unusual, expensive and possibly even unpalatable. Others would see it like eating lobster; a normal, everyday, thing to do. Now I have an open mind about some alternative medicine techniques, but am rather sceptical about others; we recently started doing acupuncture in our practice with a cautious, even cynical approach, but were very impressed with the results obtained. The demand fo)r these novel therapies can be high; maybe it's the novelty value, the possibility of cheaper costs compared to modern medicines, the hope that a combined approach may be synergistic, or the belief that if things don't work out there are always modern therapies to fall back on. But I do worry that it's all too easy to take advantage of owners with this sort of treatment, especially where a much-loved pet has a terminal condition or a chronically debilitating problem; desperate owners svill try anything. Another aspect of alternative medicinie is that if the owner is uncertain about which discipline to g(o for, the vet can make that choice for them, and even try more than one option at a time, with no worries about possible drugy interactions or contraindications to fog the issue. I did notice that, in the USA at least, it's even possible to get software programns which do the hard work for you. You type in the animal's clinical signs and get an instantaneous print out of homeopathic substances to try, acupuncture points to skewer, or herbal vegetations to puree together. Sorry to be so cynical but it does seem like a win-win situation for the vet, if not the owner. I set out to write this piece thinking that I could go on about how the cloak of alternative therapy mysticism clouds things for the client and allows the vet to hide behind an impenetrable curtain of apparently superiorknowledge, but it occurred to me that orthodox veterinary medicine is in fact no better. Too often, perhaps, those vets who practise conventionial medicine (most of us) may, either deliberately or inadvertently, do exactly this; hide the facts beneath a veneerof medical j'argon and professional superiority. What we regard as commonplace is only because we deal with atopy, cancer or whatever every day the poor client doesn't. Anyone for lobster'? ,. ; 0 , Si 6,

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