Could Your Moggy Teach the Vet a Thing or Two
Added: (Thu Jul 28 2005)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Could your moggy teach the vet a thing or two? As outlandish as this may seem it may well be true as Zoologists and Botanists involved in the relatively new science of Zoopharmacognosy are discovering more and more about the self medicating practices of animals. It has been found that there are many ways in which animals instinctively use nature as their pharmacy, selecting available plants to use as medicines to provide relief from myriad complaints, and vets are proving keen to learn from them.
Perhaps the example which we have all experienced is the family dog or cat eating grass before proceeding to be sick. As annoying as this may be as far as the state of the carpet goes, this behaviour fulfils a purpose as it acts as an emetic to induce vomiting, or as a mechanical scour to expel intestinal parasites, depending on which end of the digestive tract the problem is. Cats and dogs are not alone in their use of herbal scours – geese, bears and chimpanzees have also been discovered to be pro-active with their use of leaves in the management of intestinal parasites.
Animals all over the world are choosing and using their own natural medicines and this could soon be changing the way vets treat our domestic pets in this country. New findings regarding animal self-medication are one of the factors fuelling the current resurgence in interest in the use of herbs in veterinary medicine, as vets are learning the potency of nature’s pharmacy and starting to integrate the use of herbal medicines into their treatment of domestic animals.
One of the driving forces in the developing modality of veterinary herbal medicine has been Healthy Beast who for the past year have been running their Introduction to Veterinary Herbal Medicine courses, believed to be the only course of their kind in Europe, exclusively for veterinary surgeons. After three successful courses there are now a growing number of vets who are taking their lesson from the animals and looking to herbs for animal health solutions. A fourth course will be running from the 27th-30th of October this year which Healthy Beast hope further expand the growing community of vets looking to integrate a more natural approach into their practices.
Notes for Editors:
• Healthy Beast has many photographs available to the press– for contact details see below.
• www.healthybeast.com The Healthy Beast website provides further information about the company.
• “Wild Health” by Cindy Engel is the text on zoopharmacognosy.
• www.vbma.org The Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association is the only veterinary body which represents the emerging field of veterinary herbal medicine.
• http://www.natural-animal-health.co.uk/herbs-european.htm - a useful explanation of Veterinary Herbal Medicine