Holistic approaches to healing are getting more popular, not only for humans, but for their best friends.
The sign outside Dr. Marge Lewter’s office in Blacksburg says ‘Holistic Veterinarian.’ That means she uses an integrative approach to treating her patients. The office is scented with geranium oil. She sees one patient at a time and appointments can be more than an hour long as she carefully observes the animals.
Dr. Lewter’s office is the kind of place where the animals are allowed on the couch. There are no metal tables or other animals in the waiting room. The treatment area looks more like a living room than a hospital ward. Dr. Lewter has been a veterinarian for thirty years, but like a growing number of practicing vets around the country, she went for additional training to add this element to her practice.
Dr. Nancy Scanlon, a holistic vet in California, is the executive director of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. “We don’t get trained in this, in most veterinary schools although there are a few vet schools that are starting to have programs, not as part of the core course but as a program that you can take like acupuncture training for example," says Scanlon.