The time when herbal medicine (Pflanzenheilkunde) or phytotherapy, as it is scientifically known, was labelled as alternative medicine should finally be a thing of the past. It has nothing in common with homeopathy, bioenergetics, Bach flower therapy or other non-scientific “holistic” attempts at treatment.
The plants used in responsible phytotherapy are mostly listed in monographs in the pharmacopoeia. They have a proven healing effect. And they have no or negligible side effects, they have strengthening side effects in addition to the main effect, they have no habituation effects.
So much for their advantages.
What plants cannot do is act quickly. And this limits their use in acute life-threatening conditions and any responsible vet will not treat pneumonia with thyme alone. Or an acute inflammation of the uterus with yarrow. Plants can only ever have a supportive effect here.
But there is a herb for almost everything that aches and pains us, for everything that usually makes us ill. And even better, there is an herb for everything that makes us strong, for phytotherapy and for everything that keeps us healthy. Herbal medicine is effective for gastrointestinal infections, coughs, colds, hoarseness, wounds and wound infections. But also for nervous, psychological and psychosomatic illnesses, chronic pain such as arthrosis and arthritis. Even the urinary tract infections, age-related zips and skin diseases are a target for plants.
Plant therapy (Pflanzenheilkunde) is particularly beneficial for chronically ill patients. This is because there planst can utilise all the advantages they have. Chronic pain patients often suffer from the side effects of painkillers or have to take medication, e.g. omeprazole or pantopraozole, which in turn have many side effects.
Herbal painkillers have no such side effects, because in combination with camomile, which itself acts as a painkiller and relaxant, there are no side effects. There are even plants that are used to treat stomach ulcers and also contain salicin as a painkiller.
In addition, herbal preparations do not lose their effect even after prolonged use. There are therefore no habituation effects as with chemical preparations.
This is why they are also excellent for prophylaxis, i.e. for preventing illnesses. In this case there is nothing wrong with mixtures with many medicinal plants (up to 10). After all, I am not treating anything, but want to provide my pet with as many helpful plant substances as possible.
All these benefits should gradually convince even the biggest sceptics. Plants and herbal preparations are a very old part of our conventional medicine and have nothing to do with hocus-pocus, like many other “holistic” quackery.
And precisely because plants have an effect, they do not belong in the hands of amateurs or companies who want to make money from the “plant boom” without the appropriate preliminary examination of the animals. And I would also like to make this appeal to pet owners. It makes a difference whether they give camomile for the stomach or lavender. And you shouldn’t put 20 medicinal plants in a mixture just because you don’t know what these plants are used for and what the underlying disease is.
Because a certain level of active ingredients must also be achieved with plants.
Medicinal plant mixtures with more than 3 herbs are nothing more than a herbal tea, a mixture of embarrassment because you don’t know what you are doing. I personally find the mixture: “gastrointestinal herbs” the worst. What do you want to treat, the stomach or the intestines? The large intestine or the small intestine? Constipation or faecal water? Too little or too much intestinal motility? Inappetence or too much feed intake? Because these are opposite conditions and different medicinal plants are needed for each of these problems. So there is no mixture “gastrointestinal herbs” only in prophylaxis.
I hope I have been able to explain why it makes sense to work with a vet who is experienced in herbal medicine (Pflanzenheilkunde). And no, our herbs are not much more expensive than those of the relevant companies on the market. Our advice is more expensive, but good advice is usually expensive. And to be honest, I’m the last person to be happy with the vet fee system in its current form.
We are there to help animals. Not to live the high life at the expense of animals, buying ourselves one expensive diagnostic device after another and giving suffering and no treatment to animals whose owners can’t afford vet bills of €600 or more. I hope something changes here soon.
However, the vets and owners will also have to change something. As a vet, I only need an X-ray or ultrasound in a few cases. Osteoarthritis can be recognised by the way the movement of the joint is restricted. The position of the coffin bone in the horn capsule on the first 1-2 cm of the hoof horn under the seam and the deviation of the toe wall. And the location of the injury with the help of conduction anaesthesia or careful movements and feeling. Also the picture usually changes neither the diagnosis nor the therapy. It is the patient owner who really wants to have a picture because they want to see it for themselves. Or we take the pictures to protect ourselves legally, because we have to.
But it serves neither the patient nor, in the vast majority of cases, good therapy. It only makes it expensive for the owner, because we have to pay off expensive equipment at the bank. This is something to think about.
Here, too, there is a great opportunity in therapy with plants. Healing with plants requires more care, more time and a good relationship between vet, patient and patient owner. We often produce our therapeutics, or rather botanicals, ourselves and know exactly what is in them and, above all, what is not.
And we have to communicate this to the animal owner. We have to work with the animals and their owners and not against the clock and for the highest possible profit.
This is because herbal veterinary medicine is about trust and fruitful cooperation, rather than quick and expensive equipment-based medicine.