Maxine’s trip to the Holistic Vet

[Sarita]

After talking with my traditional vet and deciding that there isn’t really anything that can be done for her mobility problem – she has a problem with one of her legs losing strength and is pretty much dragging herself – I decided to take a Holistic approach and my vet thought it was worth a try as well and knows the holistic vet.

I have never gone to a holistic vet before and am really quite ignorant of all the different approaches they use – I’ve used herbs tinctures before through  a master herbalist but have never consulted with a holistic vet before but have been very interested in the idea of alternative medicine since I’ve known a few experienced rabbit friends on other lists who have done some alternative medicines for their rabbits.

Needless to say, it was very overwhelming and I really know nothing at all about what the vet was talking about other than things I’ve heard of here and there as I’ve never studied anything along these lines.  My head was reeling when I left but in a good way from information overload.

This vet has not done anything with rabbits before but is very interested and plenty of resources to help her with rabbits so I’m excited to learn more and try more for Maxine and also for Twizzler my bladder sludge rabbit who she would like to see as well.

She did ask me to go ahead and get an x-ray on Maxine’s leg so I set that up for next Wednesday because she wants to see what the problem is – she said it all depends what the actual problem may be so she wants to see an x-ray to see how much help she can be with Maxine. 

She did go ahead and do an acupuncture therapy with her yesterday and said that this is accumulative and you won’t see results right away other than she should be a little more bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning – I honeslty could not tell this morning but she had eaten all the greens which I would have expected anyway.

It was hard for me to tell what Maxine was thinking during the acupuncture – it’s not comfortable anyway being away from your routine when your a rabbit.

She showed me how to do some massage techniques as well which I want to try with all my rabbits – they aren’t very difficult and look pretty easy to do and hopefully will relax them and get their blood circulating.

I’m hoping to learn more as we have more sessions – I probably can only do this once a month though becuase it is pretty expensive but hopefully if I bring both rabbits in together it won’t be as much since I think she charges per session.

I’m anxious to  learn more and there is ALOT to learn – she does acupuncture, chiropractic, chinese medicine, homeopathic medicien, massage/reiki, and food therapy (which food therapy sounds like it’s geared more towards carnivores from what I understand from her since she thinks rabbits already have a good diet).

[Beka27]

That is so cool! I hope you’ll continue to update us on what she does and how it works out for Maxine and Twizzler!

[jerseygirl]

It’ll be interesting to hear if you get some positive therapy from this. I have heard animals respond really well to alterative therapies. So they are trained vets who then train in some holistic techniques?

[BinkyBunny]

Sarita – I was the same as you when I started alternative treatments for Bailey. Just wasn’t sure about it all, but open. My regular rabbit savvy vet knew accupuncture, T-touch, other massages, and a few herbal treatments. Bailey had acupuncture. It was amazing how Bailey stood so still throughout the 15 minutes of sitting with all of the needles in. Bailey was used being held because I had to clean her bum everyday but doing that and having little needles stuck in all over her body are two different things so I had no idea how she would react. The first needle the vet put in was supposed to “relax”. Well, that sure worked for her.

The vet also suggested leg circles with weak legs, and massages, and t-touch, along with encouraged exercise. Though those things seemed to help stop the decline, it was actually after a few accunpuncture sessions that I saw noticeable improvement in her strength and coordination.

Since Bailey’s weakness was due to e.cuniculi and her brain wasn’t making connections to her legs and then her legs therefore atrophyng, I think having the combination of strength, massage along with acupuncture was still very important.

I also look forward to updates regarding this! Thanks so much for sharing.

[RabbitPam]

Thanks for posting this, Sarita. Maxine reminds me of Spockie. It wasn’t possible to regain use of his leg, but it was clear that he felt better from some meds and didn’t have pain at times. Any techniques that gives relief is worth a try.

[KatnipCrzy]

Sarita-  Thanks for posting this and please keep up updated!  I have no experience with Holistic Medicine for humans or pets.  When our first dog was diagnosed with cancer and radiation and chemo was not an option- my vet was kind enough to call one of her classmates that was a Holisitc Vet across the state.  I never did see the vet but she recommended a whole course of supplements to give Hershey along with the Prednisone that was being used as a cancer treatment-  milk thistle, fish oil capsules, mitake mushroom caplets, and a chinese herbal tea to mix into the food that I had to get directly from her clinic.  I think all of these things helped extend Hersheys quality of life for another 5 months.

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