By Gloria Stravelli
LITTLE SILVER – For Richard Yacowitz, D.V.M., of Little Silver Animal Hospital, adding integrative therapies like acupuncture, therapeutic laser and Chinese herbs to his practice is in line with a multidisciplinary approach to veterinary medicine.
“Just because there’s never one answer to a problem,” he said of being open to integrative treatment options. “I think that if you just keep an open mind in medicine, you can see things that you can add to your practice repertoire.
“I started to offer acupuncture as I learned more and more about it,” he said. Yacowitz received certification from the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society in 1996.
“Once I was done with that, I started to practice,” he said, adding Little Silver Animal Hospital was one of the first local veterinary practices to offer acupuncture.
And some pet owners were open to the integrative focus, he said.
“It was relatively new but there were people open to the idea of trying it,” he said, recalling a particular case involving a skeptical owner.
“I remember there was a well-known judge in the area who lived in Rumson,” Yacowitz recounted.
“He brought me his dog and I said why don’t we try acupuncture? I had just finished my course and he was known to be a very tough guy and he said, ‘OK, we’ll try it, but you know, I’m a judge and I can make your life miserable.’
“So I said, ‘Nah, you’re not going to make my life miserable. Give it a try. If it works, it works – and it worked.”
In line with his integrative focus, Yacowitz employs other complementary therapies.
“I always use a multimodal approach, other things that don’t rely on just acupuncture or just cosequin (a nutritional supplement for animals). There’s also therapeutic laser and Chinese herbal medicine. I never rely on one thing.”
According to Yacowitz, many pet owners are open to the integrative therapies, which in addition to acupuncture and herbs, include stem cell therapy to address osteoarthritis, joint damage and chronic allergies and diseases.
“Veterinary medicine is always advancing,” Yacowitz said. “We’re way ahead of the human medicine, because we can do things. We don’t have to have 10-year studies with 100,000 patients. We can simply try things.
“Research is great, but we don’t have that ability to get the very big numbers you need but we do have lots and lots of veterinary research going on all over the world.”
Another local practice embraced integrative therapies when holistic veterinarian Alexia Tsakiris, who holds a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine, took a class in acupuncture that set her practice on a new path.
“I saw how much it was helping me and went to a conference and learning about it sparked my interest,” she said.
In 2016, Tsakiris opened Blue Sage Veterinary Wellness Center in Little Silver, incorporating both traditional and integrative treatments for pet patients.
“I was doing conventional medicine alongside using a couple of herbs and I realized the time had come,” she said. “We are blessed to live in an area where there are many conventional veterinarians who do fantastic jobs in what they do. I wanted to be able to solely focus on what my passions are, which are acupuncture and herbs and holistic modalities.”
While some were skeptical, all of her patients stayed with the practice and support also came from the local veterinary community.
“I was better able to build relationships with veterinarians in the area because they knew what we were doing and they could see how it was helping the patients and everybody is able to do their best medicine in the interests of the pet,” Tsakiris said.
She has found pet owners are open to the new therapies, particularly in difficult cases.
“I had this one little dog who couldn’t move,” she said, “he was paralyzed from the neck down. I said, ‘I can’t pretend I’m a miracle worker but I’m going to do my best.’ It took two weeks, and he started to move his head, by three weeks he was able to stand up and now the little guy is running around and it’s amazing.”
“It is even amazing for me sometimes,” she said about the results she achieves.
According to Tsakiris, acupuncture addresses a broad range of pet health issues from arthritis and back issues to chronic issues and complements traditional treatments.
“That’s where they start to thrive in these chronic conditions where conventional medicine doesn’t have any more answers,” she said.
“That’s where acupuncture and herbs can really start to help even more. The treatments can help for chronic kidney disease, skin issues, behavior and cancers. “The thing is that what I do can integrate with whatever the conventional vet is doing or we can do it alone. I take that case by case.”
In addition to acupuncture, Tsakiris recently earned certification as a registered herbalist.
“My real big focus is on traditional Chinese herbal formulas. It’s an interplay of all of the different herbs from all of the different traditions and now all of the scientific research behind them.”
The benefit of adding herbs with acupuncture, she said, is being able to tailor treatment to patient needs.
“So, I’m looking at the whole body and not just at the skin or an ear infection,” she said. “I’m looking at the underlying causes and I’m better able to treat those root causes that are creating the disease processes.”
The article originally appeared in the April 15 – 21, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
