At Monique Maniet's Veterinary Holistic Care clinic in Bethesda, Md., the atmosphere is part of the cure. Like many other vets around the country, Maniet has turned to alternative healing as an adjunct to traditional medicine. Veterinarians may treat a flea-ridden cat with garlic instead of flea spray, an arthritic dog with acupuncture rather than painkillers. No one knows how many practitioners are adopting alternative techniques, but the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association claims the field is expanding rapidly. Reliable evidence that alternative veterinary medicine actually works, however, is in short supply.
Acupuncture is by far the best substantiated method.
The new breed of vets say it is successful for conditions as diverse as back pain in horses and epilepsy in dogs. It was the only technique fully accepted by the American Veterinary Medical Association in its 1996 guidelines for veterinarians on the use of alternative treatments. Among the veterinary schools responding to that call is the University of Guelph in Canada, where two herbal treatments for arthritis in dogs are under study. Looking for cures. Many vets who turn to alternative treatments say they do so out of frustration with the conventional medicine they were taught.