Holistic medicine is an approach that considers the animal as a whole, which encompasses the body, mind, spirit, diet, and environment. In our attempts to meet your pet's total needs, at Schulhof Animal Hospital we combine contemporary medicine with proven alternative practices and remedies that work in harmony with nature. Holistic medicine is designed to stimulate the body's natural healing abilities. It can also complement traditional treatments, reducing their side effects. Among our holistic approaches are dietary considerations and nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, acupuncture, and homeopathy.

Nutritional Supplements
We offer several brands of dog and cat food, designed for both healthy and ailing animals. Choosing the right food may help control weight, as well as bladder, kidney, liver, and particularly skin and joint problems. Depending on your pet's condition, our doctors will help you choose the right diet for your pet. A proper diet can also help control diabetes and arthritis, and can help older pets maintain a better quality of life. We can also prescribe many natural vitamin, mineral, and enzyme supplements, as well as a variety of joint and coat supplements.

Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is the basis for what we know today as traditional allopathic medicine. Most of today's pharmaceuticals were originally derived from the purified "active component" of herbal folk remedies. However, more recent science has shown that in fact a number of the constituents of a particular plant may actually work together to cause the healing effect. And, when the "active component" is isolated from these other plant compounds found in nature, its healing effect is diminished. Therefore, there has been somewhat of a movement to explore and use more ancient complex plant-derived medicines. A number of our practitioners are studied in the use of herbs for healing.

Acupuncture
Is an ancient Chinese art involving balancing energy flow in the body. According to this philosophy, illness is a result of an imbalance of vital energy within the individual. Using hair-fine needles inserted through the skin, the doctor gently stimulates points along the meridians, or energetic pathways, and thereby clearing any blockages that may have formed due to injury or illness. Acupuncture is a proven aid in treating chronic diseases, arthritis, respiratory and heart problems, nerve injuries, intervertebral disc disease, geriatric problems, and epilepsy.

Homeopathy
Homeopathy, like Acupuncture, is a form of energy medicine and works by stimulating the body's natural healing force. The science of homeopathy was begun by a German physician, chemist and Greek scholar by the name of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann. Dr. Hahnemann stumbled upon the Socratic principle of "like treats like" or the Law of Similars when translating medical books from Greek into his native German language. By experimenting upon himself, Dr. Hahnemann discovered that an extracted and diluted substance which produces a certain pattern of symptoms in a healthy person, will, if given to an ill person with the same symptoms, heal them. He used his new found knowledge to bring about seemingly miraculous cures in a time when western medicine was limited to cupping and leaching. Today we have over 2000 homeopathic "remedies" developed by Hahnemann and his followers.