Need for Natural - Day 200 - Daily Haiku - On Veterinarians and Animal Caregivers, Misunderstandings, and the Value of Good Communication

Ripening Spice Bush Berries

Blessed are we who
have vets who understand our
need for natural

I spent a bit over an hour this morning taking our kitten, Truffle, to the vet for a respiratory infection.

Musica came home over a week ago with sneezing attacks, sometimes rapid-fire staccato sneezing for well over a minute in duration, and clearly not feeling her best.

Happily Bear and Lolo have so far avoided it, but Truffle started sneezing four days ago, and the following day lost interest in food . . . not a good thing for a cat, and far more serious than for a dog.

Two days ago, after she had gone virtually without eating for over two days, I was ready to go the whole antibiotics route, which I usually shy away from, as it is essentially bombing the immune system out of existence. But it was looking pretty dire.

Then, night before last, when I fed the big kitties, Truffle barged in and started eating their food, and they let her.

After a few minutes, I took her into the bedroom, as I've been feeding her in our master bath, the better to protect her food from marauders, better known as Lolo, Bear and Musica, all of whom seem to prefer her kitten food to their own. And, of course, now she prefers theirs, and left her own food strictly alone, but at least she had eaten a substantial amount. Sigh.

Yesterday morning, and last night, same deal. Barged in on the big kitties' food, and ignored her own, which they were more than happy to finish off later.

I made the appointment yesterday morning, and since I wasn't sure what tests they would need to run, I didn't feed her before we went. Naturally, since she and Lolo were in the bedroom with me last night, he had finished off her food by morning. She leaves bits and pieces in the bowl. Lolo scarfs it all.

Unlike our previous trip to the vet, when we first brought her home, this time she cried the whole way to the vet. I sang to her, all about how much she and I love being in the car together, but she wasn't having any of it, which I put down to the respiratory infection, and her generally still feeling crappy.

She wasn't any happier when they stuck the thermometer up her butt, though the vet tech was sweet and apologized to her for being rude. ;-)

In speaking with the vet tech, I commented that I probably wouldn't have worried had she not stopped eating, but that I was somewhat less worried since she had started eating again, and was clearly feeling much better.

She had also been having trouble breathing, which is much improved, and I mentioned that I've been building up her immune system with probiotics since we got her, and want to avoid antibiotics unless absolutely mandatory.

The tech asked if she had been drinking, and I said yes, and I've also been syringing her with water mixed half and half with raw honey, in order to keep her well hydrated, which she said was good.

Then the vet came in, a nice young man who clearly loves animals, and as Truffle came to us as a stray, recommended that I have her tested for feline leukemia and AIDS, with which I agreed. Always good to know precisely what you're dealing with, in order to choose the appropriate response.

He then stated that, in treating her respiratory infection, "naturally I'll give her antibiotics," to which I immediately responded that I did not want to take that route unless it was the absolute last resort, as I have spent the past month building up her immune system with probiotics, which antibiotics would wipe out completely.

He chuckled and gave a flippant comment, then walked out to take her blood for the blood test, and about ten minutes later, the vet tech brought her back in to me. Truffle was restless, but calmer, and snuggled against me most of the time while we waited.

A bit later, the vet came back in, and the first thing he said was, "I owe you an apology. I don't like being told how to do my job."

And, in that moment, he gained more of my respect than he could have in nearly any other way.

Let me make this clear: while his flippant response to my rejection of antibiotics made it abundantly clear that he disagreed with my decision, strongly, he was in no way rude.

More than that, he is clearly a good and caring man, as were he not, apologizing would never have even occurred to him. I've dealt with a number of vets, and doctors, who were overtly rude, and I'm pretty sure that apologizing wasn't even in their repertoire.

As we talked further, he commented that if I was giving her a really good probiotic, such as kefir, then that might do the trick, to which I replied that homemade kefir is what I've been giving her since I brought her home.

One of the things I've always loved about Sparta Vet Services, and about Dr. Colwell, the vet who runs the practice, is that he has always been willing to work with me for the best of our animals, even when he has disagreed with my stance on using the least invasive treatments first, and choosing against the majority of vaccines.

And this new(er) vet, Dr. Green, seems to be made of the same stuff. Not having any holistic vets in our area, finding a conventional vet who will work with you is golden, and finding one mature enough to apologize for his actions? Damned near unheard of.

I'm going to write him a thank you note, and introduce him to Dr. Juliette di Bairicli-Levy's works, as he stated that without antibiotics, he had only one option to offer to Truffle; if he actually reads Dr. Di Bairicli-Levy's books, it will give him a far greater arsenal of treatments for pet parents, such as myself, seeking the most natural treatments possible.

And her treatments work. Dr. Juliette di Bairicli-Levy was a licensed veterinarian, and lifelong herbalist, and in 1930s London, England, she ran a successful veterinary practice that was curing dogs of distemper, rabies, and what we now know as parvo, all of which are still considered to be "incurable" by "modern" veterinary science.

When she was about to start college, she told her father she wanted to become an herbalist, to which he responded that herbalism was not a "real" profession; he would not pay for her schooling to become an herbalist, but he would pay for her to become a veterinarian, her second choice.

She spent the next seventy years traveling all over the world and seeking out indigenous peoples, often living with them, in order to study their herbal traditions, as they applied to animals and to people.

She began writing treatises with treatment protocols, intended for other veterinarians, one of which was her well-received procedural manual on how to cure canine distemper. Ultimately, following numerous requests from fellow dog breeders, and others who knew her work, she wrote a number of herbal books for animals intended for laypeople.

For years she declined to write about herbal treatments for people, stating that as a veterinarian she was not qualified to write about treatments for people, but was ultimately convinced to do so, and wound up inspiring generations of today's well-known herbalists, including Rosemary Gladstar and Susun Weed.

Natural medicine has a lot to teach us all.

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