Rocío Puche is a well-known veterinarian in the field of holistic veterinary medicine. In addition to having many years of experience in consulting, nine years ago she inaugurated the Nahual School of Natural Therapies for Animals to teach both the general public and health professionals techniques such as: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Craniosacral Therapy, Telepathy with Animals, Ethology, Shiatsu, Energy healing techniques such as Reiki, Scientific aromatherapy, Tapping, Phytotherapy, Bach Flowers, etc.
She and other specialized therapists offer quality training. In fact, we believe that El Nahual is the largest school in Spain and with the greatest variety of courses for the training of Natural Therapies for Animals professionals. That's why we talked to her, we hope you like this (super interesting) interview:
When and why did you start offering holistic veterinary consultation?
After many years working for veterinary clinics and not having the freedom to administer effective treatments to my patients because my bosses did not know about natural therapies and preferred not to use them, I decided that I had not become a veterinarian to see so much suffering and not put all the remedies to me. scope. I knew it was time to work as a freelancer in my own practice. In it I began to see the true results of treatments with all the conventional and complementary tools that I knew.
I have discovered that conventional veterinary medicine falls extremely short in the treatment of diseases. I treat all types of cases that have not found a solution after long and expensive pilgrimages by veterinary specialists. I am rarely the first to care for an animal. These animals, even terminally ill in some cases, have been treated with antibiotics, corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatories, chemotherapies, opiates... for a long time and the surprising thing is that having been degenerating more and more, previously, no veterinarian prescribed them vitamins or supplements to that the animal could endure such a quantity of aggressive medications. It is logical that these animals do not improve due to the great poisoning they suffer.
On many occasions, simply by withdrawing medication, we began to see great improvement in patients who seemed terminal. And if, in addition to removing toxicity, we supplement your body with what it needs, find out what has happened and add some more therapy, the results are usually spectacular from the first session.
I understand that many veterinary colleagues think that the important thing is that the animal does not suffer for the remainder of its life and when, based on their experience, they believe that it has little life left, they dare to prescribe huge quantities of drugs without even looking at the interactions between they. However, I think that it is not known how much time an animal may have left, but that if you continue poisoning it, it will not be long.
If we compare it to a conventional veterinary consultation, what is a consultation with you like?
It is a consultation where we take the time to listen to what is happening to the animal, being interested in the details of its life that could be influencing its illness or be the cause of it. We ask, for example, if you have had any strange behavior lately, if there have been changes at home that coincided with the onset of symptoms, or if you were vaccinated or dewormed at that time. We are also interested in knowing what the rest of the family thinks about what is happening, if they have any idea why he started to be sick, what things make him worse or better, etc.
In a hurried consultation, key information is lost. I'll tell you the example of a dog that had had serious digestive problems for two months and had been to several veterinarians. After a lot of medication, the animal continued to lose weight due to diarrhea and did not improve. I asked if that time coincided with any event such as a change in diet and they told me: 'Well now that you mention it, yes. I changed the brand of feed.' His treatment was a medicated feed for digestive problems. I completely removed it along with all the drugs and after two sessions of Craniosacral Therapy, good meat and some supplements, I discharged him because he was completely cured. For me it is important to find the origin of the problem because then it is easier to solve it. Just giving more and more medication does not achieve anything, if it is not improving, think about what you are failing.
That is why a consultation can last approximately an hour and a half until we reach something firm. The difference between a classic veterinarian and an integrative one is that the latter has learned that everything that surrounds a being influences it. What he eats, who he lives with, his feelings, lifestyle habits, vaccinations and dewormings, divorces, births of children, arrival of other animals, emotional shocks, moves... These events can trigger a latent disease at a certain time. That is why we must try to ensure that our animals are happy and emotionally balanced so that they can remain healthy with a strong immune system.
How do you use phytotherapy on your patients?
Patients usually bring pathologies so old that their symptoms mix with new ones, sometimes making diagnosis difficult. After focusing on the priority to be treated and doing the work in the consultation, most of the time support with medicinal plants is necessary that will allow the animal to continue improving at home until the next check-up.
I use both European phytotherapy, for example, milk thistle, boldo, cat's claw, harpagofito, horsetail, etc. such as Chinese herbal medicine, that is, ancestral formulas such as Si Jun Zi Wan, Chai Hu Shu Gan Wan or Tian Ma Gou Teng Wan. Depending on the plants used, the weight of the animal, the severity of its symptoms, etc. The dose and frequency of intake are adjusted. These plants can be administered with meals, as a supplement, which makes them easier for the animal to ingest.
The goal is for the animal to regain health as quickly as possible and to achieve this we can rely on food supplements of all kinds: fatty acids, vitamins, ointments, clay plasters, homeopathy, sea water, Bach flowers...
Also sometimes, I have the support of our ethologist Helena Bat to resolve emotional or behavioral problems that in some cases, as is the case with epilepsy, are the origin of the disease.
How do you use phytotherapy on your patients?
Patients usually bring pathologies so old that their symptoms mix with new ones, sometimes making diagnosis difficult. After focusing on the priority to be treated and doing the work in the consultation, most of the time support with medicinal plants is necessary that will allow the animal to continue improving at home until the next check-up.
I use both European phytotherapy, for example, milk thistle, boldo, cat's claw, harpagofito, horsetail, etc. such as Chinese herbal medicine, that is, ancestral formulas such as Si Jun Zi Wan, Chai Hu Shu Gan Wan or Tian Ma Gou Teng Wan. Depending on the plants used, the weight of the animal, the severity of its symptoms, etc. The dose and frequency of intake are adjusted. These plants can be administered with meals, as a supplement, which makes them easier for the animal to ingest.
The goal is for the animal to regain health as quickly as possible and to achieve this we can rely on food supplements of all kinds: fatty acids, vitamins, ointments, clay plasters, homeopathy, sea water, Bach flowers...
Also sometimes, I have the support of our ethologist Helena Bat to resolve emotional or behavioral problems that in some cases, as is the case with epilepsy, are the origin of the disease.
Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Craniosacral Therapy, Chromotherapy, Bach Flowers, Phytotherapy, Aromatherapy... the range of natural therapies is wide, could you tell us which ones you use the most or in which cases?
Depending on the animal, we will use the ones it needs, however, the therapy that gives me the most is Craniosacral, since it allows for accurate diagnoses and effective treatments from the first session. I use the rest if I consider that they can be useful.
I can also complete the work by teaching home exercises, massages, moxibustion, recommending food supplements, herbal medicine, homeopathy or some medicine as appropriate. But it is important not to overwhelm the animal or stress it more, so we will try to prioritize so that it recovers as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, many people bring their animal when there is barely time to act, hoping for a miracle. I always work under a lot of pressure, which is why I have to use very effective tools from both natural medicine and allopathic veterinary medicine. Fortunately, the results that natural therapy professionals obtain are usually spectacular in most cases.
Could you tell us about a specific case?
On one occasion, an English lady brought me an elderly dog who had had a cough for a year. She was upset when, after working on the dog with my hands, I informed her that her cough would go away in 15 days. She told me that they had already consulted six veterinary specialists from three countries, had performed tests, lung aspirates and cultures of all kinds, and tried quite expensive and aggressive treatments. They all agreed and continued treating her conventionally without results. I explained to the lady that if she visited six other colleagues, they would reach the same conclusions, because in the end they had all studied at the same classical school, but that by doing something different the result on this occasion would be different. In ten days the dog stopped coughing and until today. It was a case that Traditional Chinese Medicine explains easily, the cough came from a kidney deficiency. Nothing was happening to the lungs. If these veterinarians had knowledge about the energetic functioning of the body they would have been able to help the animal.
More and more people are looking for a more respectful way to treat their health for their animal. When they ask their regular veterinarian about natural remedies, they discover that he has no knowledge. It is sad that the majority of veterinarians, instead of training, prefer to discredit these therapies by claiming that they take a long time to heal or that they only serve to relieve pain. And it is also sad that natural therapists have to go around 'proving' that natural therapies work and conventional veterinarians do not have to prove anything because it is assumed that everything they do is very scientific even if they do not obtain results.
Have you noticed an increase or appearance of certain diseases in dogs, cats or rabbits in recent years?
Infectious diseases have decreased and, however, other diseases are on the rise such as diabetes, cancer, allergies, serious autoimmune diseases, epilepsies... All of them seem more related to the new lifestyle habits of our animals, sedentary lifestyle, intake of prefabricated feed or administration of drugs or vaccines mainly.
Many people ask me how they can keep their animal healthy. The first thing is always that the animal is happy. That their environment is appropriate to their basic needs for play, fun, stimulation, exercise, and places to rest. Food is also essential, and must be based on fresh foods depending on the species (we must differentiate between whether it is carnivorous like dogs and cats, or herbivorous like a rabbit).
We must know the weak point of our animal and strengthen it. We cannot forget that a chain will always break at its weakest link. If we know that he usually gets sick with his lungs, or his kidneys, or his stomach, we can't wait for him to get sick again with the same thing; We must strengthen these bodies. And so it will take a long time for him to get sick again, or he could even be completely cured.
How important are emotional factors such as stress, anxiety, fear... to you in physical ailments?
There are many diseases caused by poor management of emotions, just as it happens to human beings. For example, veterinarians know the relationship between stress in cats, for example with the arrival of another cat home that threatens their territory, and recurrent cystitis. Stress reduces the effectiveness of the immune system by up to 40%.
There is also a direct relationship with the diseases that both the animal and its caretaker share. In consultation I have seen dozens of striking cases such as people with diabetes and in the same month their dog was diagnosed with diabetes; person with kidney failure and their cats that continually die from this ailment; shared heart problems, epilepsies; or even ligamentous laxity, to name just a few ailments. These animal cases are difficult to treat if the human caregiver does not receive treatment in turn, since the energy of the larger one drags the smaller one down.
To the statement “My dog/cat has been eating food from the supermarket all his life and he is doing great”, what would you answer?
I would answer: 'When I see it I'll tell you if it's great.' It is not enough for me if they present me with analysis reports, ultrasounds and other diagnostic tests. And the thing is that, for example, for a kidney to show high urea or creatinine in the blood, 38% of its filtering function already fails. Now there is another indicator, SDMA, which is ahead of time to discover when the kidney is 'only' 25% damaged. A complete success (ironic tone).
However, with some natural therapies, such as Craniosacral, we can assess the appearance of a disease months before any sign appears in the analysis. It was the case of an older dog who came for a monthly check-up because she had developed facial paralysis. In one of those routine check-ups I discovered that her kidneys were beginning to fail. We did a blood test and an ultrasound and everything came back within normal values. I thought she had made a mistake, but the following month I confirmed that she continued to see them deteriorated. I explained to the family that I was not going to work on them to see the evolution and they agreed. Until three months later we did not see the urea and creatinine values increase!
A body includes millions of chemical reactions every minute, energy moves and the temperature and movement of each organ is controlled autonomously, waste is generated and filtered and eliminated or transformed, making it harmless. The nervous system sends signals to the organs, setting the rhythm at every moment and listening to the changes that occur to rectify and maintain internal balance. Hormones efficiently regulate appetite, happiness, temperature, metabolism of calcium, phosphorus, glucose, etc. Millions of factors including the 'bugs' that live in symbiosis with our cells, for example, it is estimated that 10% of the cells belong to the organism and the other 90% correspond to viruses, bacteria and fungi. These 'bugs' can affect our homeostasis and if it fails we would begin to have symptoms of some disease.
With this, do you still think that with an analysis of 35 substances in the blood you can know how an organism is really functioning?
As also director of AETENA (Area of Experts in Natural Therapies with Animals of the QUIROANATUR Association), what do you think of the accusations that include all types of therapies and even medicines with thousands of years of history in pseudoscience?
First of all, I would like to remember the unfair smear campaign of the Ministry of Health in 2019 against the natural therapies sector, based on alleged reports that have already been proven not to exist. The adult patient is the one who has to inform himself and freely decide what medicine he wants to be treated with, however, in Spain they want to eradicate that alternative. This is a serious attack on personal freedom, health and life.
Specialists in natural therapies for animals have not been much affected by this whole pseudoscience controversy, since veterinary consultations are private, there are no subsidized public hospitals for animals. And our clients are practical people who only want good results, effective solutions.
Finally, if you had to recommend a small natural medicine cabinet for dogs and cats, what products would you recommend?
- ARNICA MONTANA homeopathy for any physical or emotional trauma.
- LAMB (Pueraria lobata -not arrowroot-) for digestive problems (gastritis with vomiting or regurgitation, diarrhea, lowered defenses, fever...)
- OZOONIZED OIL for any skin or wound problem including the mouth. Heals, regenerates and disinfects.
- ORAL CLAYS for any chronic disease, including digestive diseases, and highly indicated for the elderly due to its great mineral contribution.
- Homeopathy to treat anxiety, nervousness, insomnia due to any cause. Especially recommended for epileptics.
- RESCUE REMEDY by Dr. Edward Bach. This mixture of flowers acts in the emotional sphere in moments of crisis such as fireworks, trips, emotional impacts...
- SEA WATER to nourish the body in any circumstance. It is more powerful than administering simple serum for example. And it can be used orally at the appropriate dilution.
- ARTEMISA CIGARS FOR MOXIBUSTION. They are used in certain acupuncture points to strengthen, to remove cold or humidity, to maintain health.
- DMSO FOR TOPICAL USE in any painful area due to osteoarthritis, trauma, inflammation.
- ANIMA STRATH, is a wonderful restorative for all animal species that need an extra contribution.
- CHARCOAL, for poisoning and any gas and diarrhea problem.
*You can find many of these products in our Herbalist for Animals.For the rest of us, we recommend requesting a veterinary consultation with Rocío Puche or attending her natural first aid kit course.
