Many acute symptom flare-ups in our pets are often self-limiting and can resolve on their own or with supportive care at home. In fact, I remember the first day of my veterinary school training during the Dean’s introductory remarks, in which he gave us a statistic that probably still holds true today. He told us not to worry about our upcoming four years, but that the hardest part was over for us as new veterinary freshman, and that was getting into veterinary school in the first place. He then went on to tell us that the vast majority of pets that we will see for symptoms of acute illness will get better no matter what we diagnose or prescribe, even if our diagnosis or treatment was wrong. Accordingly, like humans, most acute conditions such as simple upper respiratory flare-ups, diarrhea, or mild vomiting will often resolve with simple or no treatment.
| If given proper nutrition, supportive care, and often a tincture of time, both our pets and our own bodies have the capabilities of often healing themselves on their own. Both veterinarians and human medical doctors have as a major part of their Hippocratic Oath, “Do No Harm.” However, if ever in doubt, or symptoms are severe, a veterinary exam and assessment is still always recommended.
In fact many years ago I read an article in JAVMA on the treatment of parvoviral enteritis in dogs. The article concluded that the more prescription pet meds used in treating dogs for this viral infection, the higher the mortality. In other words, pets treated with simple IV fluids and supportive care had a better survival rate than those pets treated with what is called polypharmacy. |
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Over my 18 years of clinical experience and observation, I’ve seen newer graduates using various antibiotics in larger quantities and differing dosages at the same time, often in nonbacterial or viral infections, where sometimes one or no antibiotics, (depending upon the type and location of infection) should be involved. For instance, in situations such as feline urologic syndrome (known as FUS), antibiotics have been shown to have no effect on the outcome of cats having this common urinary tract disorder. In most cases using supplements like Cosequin for Cats, Cranberry Relief (both available on PetMeds), and vitamin C often work just as well as inappropriately prescribed antibiotics.
In a similar way, I’ve also seen many clients misinformed about their dogs’ diagnosis of Lyme disease and then worry about the long term health ramifications on their pets; some whose pets never had or developed any symptoms at all. In fact, most dogs naturally exposed to Lyme disease get over it on their own. Most medical experts now agree that a Lyme positive dog should NOT be treated if there is no history of Lyme disease symptoms within the past year. These symptoms include lameness, fever, lethargy, or enlarged lymph nodes. In these non-symptomatic pets, a positive Lyme disease test usually means that the pet had prior exposure but overcame the disease on its own. In mildly symptomatic dogs, that are otherwise happy and playful, the use of supplements like Joint Enhancer, Super Joint Enhancer, and Yucca Intensive are often enough support until the symptoms resolve.
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