When I tell my veterinary colleagues about Botanical Veterinary Care, and how herbal medicine has revolutionised my practice, their initial reaction usually goes something like this: 

“Oh cool! So what herbs do you use for diabetes/sweet itch/dementia/pancreatitis/etc?” 

This is a very reasonable question. Throughout our veterinary training, we are taught to focus on diagnosing particular conditions and to know what drug or drugs we use to treat the condition. Condition X = drug y.

Of course, it isn’t always so simple. Sometimes there is a reason why we can’t use drug y – for example, the patient has multiple conditions and one of them doesn’t work with drug y. So we have to use drug z instead. This still oversimplifies things, as often conditions require several drugs to manage them effectively, and there can be complex interactions between different drugs and different conditions. Good vets also look at non-pharmaceutical ways of managing conditions, and what impact the illness has on other areas of the patient’s life. But essentially we work in a way that diagnoses a condition, and then prescribes the “correct” drug/drugs based on that.

So it can seem a bit strange when I say “erm… herbal medicine doesn’t really work like that!”. I could see 50 patients with the same diagnosed condition (diabetes/sweet itch/dementia/pancreatitis/etc) and prescribe a totally different combination of herbs for each one.

In herbal medicine, we first look at how all the diagnosed conditions affect the patient at a body-system and cellular level. We also look at the patient’s character, their individual properties (for example do they seek warm places or cool places?), and for subtle signs of a body system that needs some help, but isn’t affected enough to be a diagnosed disease (prone to dandruff, change in tongue colour, thready-feeling pulses). If the patient is on any pharmaceutical drugs, this might affect our choice too – to aid the drug’s action or reduce potential side effects. Next, we select which herb actions are appropriate – for example immune modulator, antioxidant, circulatory stimulant, hepato (liver) protectant etc. We then list appropriate herbs next to each action. All herbs have multiple actions, so each list can be quite long – there are hundreds to choose from. We can then pick the best five herbs that between them cover all the herb actions we need. We also need to take into account the other actions of these herbs, their thermal properties (warming/cooling), if they can be mixed together if there are any possible side effects or drug interactions to be aware of, and how palatable they are.

Because each animal will have subtle individual differences, it can never be as simple as a certain herb mix is “right” for a certain condition. Each tincture is totally tailored to the individual, in a way that isn’t possible with pharmaceutical drugs. Sometimes before going through the process we know at least one herb that we want to include in the mix – for example, Hawthorne has an affinity for broken hearts (literal and metaphorical), and pretty much every cat tincture needs the anxiety-busting valerian. But the other herbs in the tincture, glycetract, tea or capsule will depend on all the factors discussed above.

Herbal Medicine has given me the freedom and creative outlet that is missing in traditional medicine. Being able to tailor and adjust the formulation for each individual patient is incredibly satisfying, and the results of doing so can be quite incredible. I urge other vets to explore this too – it is wonderful to find something so new and satisfying even after over a decade of veterinary medicine!