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Vet profile

Richard Allport BVetMed MRCVS VetMFHom

I qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the Royal Veterinary College in London in 1973 and for seven years worked in veterinary practices as an assistant before opening my own practice in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire in 1980. I ran this as a single-handed practice for three years (doing all my own on calls!) before taking on an assistant which gave me a little more free time. It was at this point that I saw a seminar in veterinary homoeopathy advertised. I had already begun to realise that 'conventional' medicine did not offer all the answers to disease, especially chronic disease, and despite no previous knowledge or interest in alternative therapies I attended the seminar out of simple curiosity.
 
What I heard sounded, quite frankly, ridiculous. However I was given a few homoeopathic pills to take home with me; some Arnica, Belladonna and Cantharis if I remember correctly. When I tried these out on patients with trauma, fever and cystitis I found to my great surprise that they worked. I then decided to learn about homeopathy in depth and enrolled on the first VetMFHom course run by the Faculty of Homeopathy, which at that time was run by the Faculty itself. I was lucky enough to be one of the first three successful candidates to pass the VetMFHom examination.
 
As time went by I spent more and more time on treating my animal patients with homoeopathy and less and less time on conventional veterinary work until in 1996 I decide to sell my practice and open a referral centre for pets specialising in natural therapies. As the premises adjoining my existing practice had become vacant, I simply moved next door. At the centre I offer referrals in homoeopathy, acupuncture and herbal medicine; the centre also has the services of an osteopath, and a physiotherapist and spiritual healer for pets.
 
As we have two consulting rooms, the centre has recently expanded into the treatment of people as well as pets, although I limit my own treatment purely to pets!
 
Although I have been qualified as a vet for 35 years, I still find each day a challenge and still thoroughly enjoy meeting fascinating people and their even more fascinating pets. I'm certain that homoeopathy has been instrumental in keeping this interest constantly renewed and refreshed.  Homoeopathy constantly makes me think; there are never any 'routine' cases. Neither are there any easy cases. But because every case is different I can never become stale or indifferent to my work.
 
There are many reasons why I committed my career to homoeopathy but in the final analysis I return to what I discovered after that first seminar. I use homoeopathy because it works.

Holly Mash BVSc MRCVS IVAS VetMFHom

In common with most vets I was quite sceptical of homeopathy. It wasn’t until I’d qualified as a vet and had been in practice for a few years that I began to see the limitations of conventional treatments, especially for recurrent or longstanding conditions, that I started to look into it. To my surprise, homeopathy allowed me to make sense of these cases, so that I could construct a ‘whole patient’ or ‘holistic’ approach to their treatment.

Where previously I had seen their symptoms as unrelated, with knowledge of homeopathy I could begin to put the pieces of the jigsaw together and make sense of their complaint and treat the root cause of the problem! We were also lucky enough to have one of the first homeopathic vets, Mark Elliot, as our family vet. So, when he cured our cocker spaniel Daisy’s eye of a corneal ulcer that the conventional vets had wanted to operate on, I was convinced!

I began my training in homeopathic medicine at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital in 2002 and qualified as a veterinary member of the Faculty of Homeopathy in October 2006. It was a wonderful four-year journey into a completely new medical system – one based on health, rather than disease. It was, and still is, fascinating, challenging and very hard work!

I work as a holistic vet, using homeopathy and acupuncture to treat my patients in Bristol, and also at my weekly clinic in west London. I mainly treat cats and dogs and also increasingly, rabbits! One of the things I really love about the homeopathic consultation is that I am able to spend more time getting to know each one of my patients, (and for us vets this can sometimes mean owner just as much as pet).

It is rewarding as well as a privilege to gain such insights and to provide gentle and effective ‘whole patient’ treatment. I enjoy hearing each patient's ‘story’ of their background and home environment from their owner, and having to add this together with what the animal is telling me about themselves with their behaviour and body language in the consulting room. This can be a challenge and sometimes I do wish they could talk! It is without doubt enormously rewarding when you see the benefit that homeopathic treatment can bring to animals that were suffering – who can call it merely a placebo then?

I work on a referral basis, which means that pets are brought to me for specialist homeopathic treatment. Some of the most common cases that are referred to me are skin diseases, such as allergies, as well as immune mediated diseases and cancer. I also see diseases such as cat flu, kennel cough, irritable bowel, cystitis and ear disease - it’s never dull!

Having recently become a veterinary tutor on the teaching team at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital’s training programme for medical professionals, I hope to spread my enthusiasm and enjoyment of this highly rewarding healing art.