by Mary Boughton of Dorwest Herbs
Member of NOAH's Companion Animal Sub-group
and the British Herbal Medicine Association's Veterinary Committee
Until quite recently many vets would perhaps have said that "Herbal medicine has no place in a modern practice". The veterinary profession have always tended to approach herbal medicines with scepticism and distrust. There is certainly more than one reason for this and it is worth considering some of these in relation to the place of modern herbal medicine, in an age when more and more people are using alternative therapies for themselves and demanding the same for their pets.

Firstly and perhaps the most common cause for this mistrust is that most veterinary surgeons know very little about herbs, having had little training or instruction in the use of natural medicine or its place and relevance to modern day medicine, although recent reports indicate that veterinary colleges are now to include this as part of their courses. Of course, most are aware that many invaluable drugs were originally derived from plants and that synthetic versions are in everyday use. The obvious advantages of synthesising the active ingredient from a plant is that it eliminates variation, removes any possibility of contamination and enables accurate administration. Those trained in herbal medicine would maintain that by administering the whole plant in its natural form in the correct dose, adverse reactions and long term side effects are virtually eliminated whilst the benefits are still appreciable. These two schools of thought, although seemingly opposed, are actually both achieving similar results and using similar drugs, whether synthetically produced or naturally occurring.
Another reason for the suspicion of herbal medicine is that many vets wrongly assume that those advocating this form of treatment expect it to be used for all diseases and conditions. No intelligent person would presume to ignore the need for surgical operations or to dismiss the plethora of effective modern drugs that are regularly and effectively used for conditions where no botanically produced alternative is or ever will be available.

The majority of drugs are not produced from botanic origins and of course they have proved their worth in treating many diseases which would have remained incurable in the past. However, this should not mean that the botanic drugs and their plant origins should be ignored and dismissed as totally out of date. For many chronic but not life-threatening conditions they could, and perhaps should, be the first form of treatment having proved their worth over centuries of use. The two disciplines can and do work together and not against each other, thus giving the client and patient the benefit of appropriate all-round treatment of disease.

Many people will notice that the one aspect not mentioned so far in this article is the enormous amount of money made by pharmaceutical companies and the power that they wield. Like doctors, veterinary surgeons are bombarded on all sides by companies eager to promote their products. Of course, the research and development of new drugs involves great expense and no-one with a sick animal waiting for a new drug to be developed would begrudge them their profits, but would simply be grateful for the cure. Nevertheless the herbal medicine industry is unable to compete with the large pharmaceutical companies in terms of product promotion or profits. You cannot after all put a patent on a plant !

Of course the client or pet owner, albeit unwittingly, also has some responsibility for the lack of alternative treatments available from their local vet. When an animal is presented for treatment, the veterinary surgeon wants to treat it effectively and appropriately and we, the customer, often expect that a single visit and a short course of treatment will deal with the problem. This pressure to cure, also has a part to play in many vets reluctance to use herbal medicines.

This expectation of the 'quick fix' is something that people have become accustomed to, probably ever since the introduction of antibiotics at the beginning of this century which are so quick acting and almost magical in their effects. Perhaps all of us, as dog owners, should reduce our demands, accept sometimes slower results and thereby allow our vets to use alternatives when appropriate, accepting that they may be slower acting but still effective. Licensed herbal medicines can be used with confidence - they are pure, safe, efficacious, of the highest quality and are appropriate for many of the common complaints that we visit our surgery for. Their great advantage has always been the minimal side effects and that after all is the one aspect of modern medicine that causes most concern and which we all want to avoid or minimise whenever possible.

Herbal medicine certainly has a place in the modern veterinary practice and already is again regaining its traditional place in many surgeries for the treatment of many common and chronic complaints. With more information, education and understanding of this old form of medicine it will perhaps soon be as widely available as it deserves to be.