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| Richard Pitcairn |
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| Copyright 2008 © Barry M. Baker, Canines-and-Felines.com |
How I Became Interested in
Alternative Medicine
by Dr. Richard Pitcairn
Alternative Medicine
by Dr. Richard Pitcairn
I graduated from veterinary school in 1965, from
the University of California at Davis, California. My
idea was to be a practitioner and that is what I did
for the first few years. Starting in a mixed practice
(small animals, farm animals, horses, circus
animals) I saw a wide variety of health problems
and also learned much more about the conditions
of veterinary practice. I did not see the results that I
expected to have using the treatments learned in
veterinary school and this, to me, was a
disappointment.
the University of California at Davis, California. My
idea was to be a practitioner and that is what I did
for the first few years. Starting in a mixed practice
(small animals, farm animals, horses, circus
animals) I saw a wide variety of health problems
and also learned much more about the conditions
of veterinary practice. I did not see the results that I
expected to have using the treatments learned in
veterinary school and this, to me, was a
disappointment.
My assumption was that I was not that skilled, that I needed more
education. This led me to Washington State University and eventually
into a graduate school program. There I worked on a Ph.D. degree
emphasizing the study of viruses, immunology and biochemistry. During
that time I worked intensively with cell cultures and inbred mice, trying to
understand how the different tissues in the body were able to recognize
each other. I also helped teach the classes in virology, running the
laboratory section with another graduate student. This training finished in
1972 and I graduated with a degree in Veterinary Microbiology. Staying
on for a while at the university, I did research in muscles diseases and
taught public health in the veterinary school.
After a few years I left the academic world and returned to practice.
During my training I had learned a great deal about how the body
worked, especially the immune system, but did not know any better how
to cure disease. This led me to study nutrition having realized its
importance in maintaining a healthy body. Finding out about the pet food
industry and what sources were used to make the food led me to
recommend fresh foods for animals, prepared at home. This was very
satisfying and many animals were greatly helped by making this change.
However, there are animals that are not helped by nutrition. These are
the ones that are too ill to eat or have injuries or illness that is so severe
that there is not time for nutrition to have an effect. I continued to look for
some other means of restoring health in a true sense, not just covering
symptoms with drugs or removing diseased tissues with surgery. Looking
into many approaches I settled on homeopathy as the most practical and
effective that I could find. For example, much is known about using herbs
in healing but most animals simply will not take these herbs in sufficient
quantity or for long enough to make this approach practical. If we
compare this to giving one or a few doses of pleasantly tasting pellets as
done in homeopathy we can see the practical advantage of this method. I
also find that homeopathy is much more specific in how the medicines
can be used with extraordinary detail on how even herbs can be used as
medicines.
I found homeopathy to be intellectually complete and satisfying. As a 200
year old system of medicine it has been very well developed and an
incredible amount of experience and information have given us the tools
we need to work with almost any kind of health problem. The difficulty for
me was to learn how to use the books, the repertories and materia
medicas that were developed for human beings, to help animals. This
has taken some years as you might expect, actually some 20 plus years,
but has been very successful.
I have been fortunate that I have been able to teach other veterinarians
how to do this work. Since 1992 there has been a yearly course, the
Professional Course in Veterinary Homeopathy, and to date we have
over 300 animal doctors trained in using this method.
This brief introduction may satisfy your curiosity about how I came to this
work. If you want more detail on my professional career, look at my
detailed biography.
education. This led me to Washington State University and eventually
into a graduate school program. There I worked on a Ph.D. degree
emphasizing the study of viruses, immunology and biochemistry. During
that time I worked intensively with cell cultures and inbred mice, trying to
understand how the different tissues in the body were able to recognize
each other. I also helped teach the classes in virology, running the
laboratory section with another graduate student. This training finished in
1972 and I graduated with a degree in Veterinary Microbiology. Staying
on for a while at the university, I did research in muscles diseases and
taught public health in the veterinary school.
After a few years I left the academic world and returned to practice.
During my training I had learned a great deal about how the body
worked, especially the immune system, but did not know any better how
to cure disease. This led me to study nutrition having realized its
importance in maintaining a healthy body. Finding out about the pet food
industry and what sources were used to make the food led me to
recommend fresh foods for animals, prepared at home. This was very
satisfying and many animals were greatly helped by making this change.
However, there are animals that are not helped by nutrition. These are
the ones that are too ill to eat or have injuries or illness that is so severe
that there is not time for nutrition to have an effect. I continued to look for
some other means of restoring health in a true sense, not just covering
symptoms with drugs or removing diseased tissues with surgery. Looking
into many approaches I settled on homeopathy as the most practical and
effective that I could find. For example, much is known about using herbs
in healing but most animals simply will not take these herbs in sufficient
quantity or for long enough to make this approach practical. If we
compare this to giving one or a few doses of pleasantly tasting pellets as
done in homeopathy we can see the practical advantage of this method. I
also find that homeopathy is much more specific in how the medicines
can be used with extraordinary detail on how even herbs can be used as
medicines.
I found homeopathy to be intellectually complete and satisfying. As a 200
year old system of medicine it has been very well developed and an
incredible amount of experience and information have given us the tools
we need to work with almost any kind of health problem. The difficulty for
me was to learn how to use the books, the repertories and materia
medicas that were developed for human beings, to help animals. This
has taken some years as you might expect, actually some 20 plus years,
but has been very successful.
I have been fortunate that I have been able to teach other veterinarians
how to do this work. Since 1992 there has been a yearly course, the
Professional Course in Veterinary Homeopathy, and to date we have
over 300 animal doctors trained in using this method.
This brief introduction may satisfy your curiosity about how I came to this
work. If you want more detail on my professional career, look at my
detailed biography.
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