I Help People and Dogs Achieve Optimum Health, High Vitality and Longevity and I’m a Qualified Naturopathic Physician, Research (Health) Scientist and Zoologist but, when I’m working with dogs, I often get asked what’s the difference between what I do and what veterinarians do. So I will try to explain:
There are a number of similiarities between studying Zoology and veterinary medicine as well as significant differences. Zoology is the science of studying animal biology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, biochemistry and other subjects involved with the animal sciences. Therefore, zoology covers a wide variety of areas specific to the biology of animals. Consequently, the similarities between zoology and veterinary medicine would be that both fields of study cover the physical animal sciences such as biology, anatomy, etc. However, a big part of Zoology is studying and understanding the animals natural behaviour - which can be very important when treating them in a holistic manner - which takes into consideration their natural behaviour patterns such as their natural diet and so on. This allows you to understand WHY the animal acts as it does which, in turn, can help you to better understand how to treat each animal species in terms of their natural diet, their natural behaviour patterns and so on….this understanding fits in with the philosophy of Naturopathic medicine as it involves working with nature rather than against it.
Veterinary medicine involves studying surgical procedures and a large amount of study relating to pharmaceutical medications - something that zoology doen’t cover at all. This is one of the reasons that I chose the field of Zoology, as performing surgery on animals doesn’t interest me at all, as I prefer to help prevent disease from occurring in the first place, where possible - preventing the need for surgical intervention. In addition, as a well-trained Naturopathic physician, I have studied pharmacology (drug actions, interactions, etc) comprehensivley but decided many years ago that natural medicines were my preference. I feel that they have a much higher level of safety, when professionally prescribed, and can be just as effective in the treatment of most conditions. They also have a much longer documented history - for example, plants have been used for thousands of years to effectively treat diseases and there is plenty of evidence of this.
As a research scientist, I am currently involved in researching chronic, systemic inflammation and the best herbal medicines and nutrient therapies to treat this serious and damaging condition. Sadly the conventional anti-inflammatory treatments are not without potentially dangerous side effects and therefore, I felt it was important to research natural alternatives and identify the most effectives ones available. The research has shown some very interesting results and I now feel that there are certain natural substances that can be used just as effectively as conventional anti-inflammatory drugs but without the potentially serious side effects, which is really exciting.
Sara Rooney BHSc., ND, DC., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS. www.healyourdognaturally.com www.animalnaturopath.com.au