Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine

Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine is a medical system that has been used in China to treat animals for thousands of years. It has become a more accepted practice in our Western world just recently, and its popularity continues to grow as more research is done with both acupuncture and herbal medicine to show a scientific basis to their mechanism of action. What is the difference between Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) and Western Veterinary Medicine (WVM)? TCVM is a holistic approach to medicine, meaning it assesses the well-being of the whole patient and sees everything in the universe, including ourselves and animals, as needing balance. When something internally or externally causes our bodies to be unbalanced, this is when disease develops. TCVM cannot pinpoint illnesses to specific disease-causing pathogens like bacteria or viruses and it utilizes therapies such as acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and food therapy, all of which are non-invasive and have very few side effects. WVM on the other hand has the scientific tools to diagnose illness with great precision and can target therapy using antibiotics and other effective procedures. Where WVM is very targeted and precise, it may miss some “bigger picture” problems and that is where TCVM can come in handy as it will look at patterns of disharmony. Pattern diagnosis differs from conventional Western medical diagnosis in that it not only considers disease signs, but also looks at how those signs relate to the individual patient. WVM can act swiftly in the case of an acute infection, or injury however may be more limited with chronic conditions. TCVM is better suited to help in the case of chronic conditions like liver failure, atopy and arthritis. They complement each other and an integrative approach to medicine is best so that the strength of each can compensate for the weaknesses of the other. Cinema Veterinary Centre is located at 23460 Cinema Drive, suite L in Valencia 91355, (661) 253-9300.