Herbs
Herbal medicine for animals
How to use them safely and effectively
By Gregory L. Tilford

As ptoent as they are beautiful, medicinal herbs such as skullcap, have been used by healers for millennia.

In search of a healthier, more natural lifestyle, millions of North Americans spend more than $5 billion each year on herbal products. Herbs are a growing niche in the pet care industry too. In almost every pet store, you can find a variety of herbal products for companion animals, from skin-soothing aloe vera shampoos to nerve-calming botanical formulas for hyper-excitable dogs and cats, in almost any pet store. But how safe and effective are herbal remedies for animals? And if they are safe, can they be used for dogs and cats in the same way people use them?

The answer to each of these questions is both "yes" and "no". Provided herbs are used with some common sense and a modest measure of education, they can prove very effective at helping in the maintenance of your animals' health. However, in order to use herbs at their greatest healing potential, the user must first embrace a holistic perspective of their companion animal's health.

Holistic Herbalism 101
In conventional Western medicine, curative efforts tend to focus on suppressing or removing the symptoms of disease with drugs, surgery, or other allopathic measures. The herbalist, however, approaches the task of healing quite differently. In holistic medicine, "good health" is viewed as the maintenance of harmonious balance among all elements of mind, body and spirit. “Dis-ease” occurs when any element of the collective whole being falls out of this holistic balance. From this perspective, herbs are not used for the purpose of suppressing symptoms, but to strengthen and support the body's natural healing energies and mechanisms. In other words, the underlying goal is to assist the body in what it is naturally designed to do -- heal itself and stay healthy.

Herbs can help bridge the gap between what your dog or cat receives from diet, and what it needs from time to time in terms of special systemic support. With this in mind, it is very important to realize that before herbs can be truly effective, the body must receive the nutritional tools it needs to do the job of healing itself. Don't expect to see favorable results from medicinal herbs if you are feeding your animals low-quality pet food. In fact, if you are serving your dog or cat bargain-basement brand "X", don't even waste your money on herbal remedies -- they probably won't work.
A good case in point comes to mind when I think of a small mixed breed dog that was being treated by a veterinarian friend of mine. The dog had epilepsy, and throughout most of his life had been experiencing violent, grand mal seizures almost daily. The poor little guy also had a dull, dry, flaky coat, and seemed to be perpetually constipated. To help suppress the seizures, the dog had been on phenobarbital for quite some time, and it was apparent that the drug was causing damage to his liver. My vet friend immediately weaned the dog off the drug and prescribed a daily dose of skullcap tincture, as a substitute for the phenobarbital. Skullcap (Scutellaria spp.) is known among veterinary herbalists for its ability to sometimes reduce the severity and frequency of epileptic seizures. However, even after a month of giving the dog large doses of skullcap tincture, he was still experiencing daily seizures. So, the vet and caregiver discontinued the tincture.

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Published in the Summer 2001 issue of Animal Wellness