Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine
Dr. Sherebrin
What Is Veterinary Integrative Medicine?
Veterinary integrative medicine is the combination of Traditional Chinese Medicine with the most up-to-date techniques available to conventional veterinarians.
Eliminating symptoms is the goal of Western medicine when a definitive injury or disease cannot be identified. Correcting the imbalances of the body through Chinese medicine allows the animal to heal itself.
Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine
Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) is growing in acceptance and practice in veterinary clinics around the world. In China, it has been used in veterinary practice for over 3000 years to treat many ailments. The Chinese regularly practiced acupuncture on horses, as evidenced by Dr. Bo Le's canon of veterinary acupuncture "Bo Le Zhen Jing", written between 659 BC and 621 BC. Later it was gradually tried on other farm animals and finally dogs, cats and birds.
TCVM focuses on health maintenance, illness prevention and non-invasive treatment through its four branches:
- Acupuncture
- Chinese Botanical (herbal) medicine
- Nutritional (food) therapy
- Tui-Na bodywork massage
In human therapy there is a fifth branch: Qi-gong meditational exercise. One might argue that companion animals already spend a good part of the day in meditation, so do not require this technique! The philosophy and practice of TCVM are consistent with the most significant developments in veterinary health care today:
- emphasizing regular examinations and preventive care
- less-invasive or non-invasive approaches
- balancing environmental, physical, emotional and spiritual factors in health
- the role of the veterinarian as a partner with the animal's guardian to facilitate the patient's health and well-being
About Dr. Sherebrin
Dr. Sherebrin graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1991, and entered private practice in a large, busy, extended-hours veterinary hospital.
After ten years in practice she became increasingly frustrated with the chronic nature of many of the cases she saw, and the inability to do more than suppress symptoms. She then began studying Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) to try and address the underlying disorders that produced the symptoms.
Dr. Sherebrin is a Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist, and has completed the coursework leading to the designation of Certified Veterinary Tui-Na Practitioner. She is working towards her Masters Degree of TCVM (joint program Chi Institute of Chinese Medicine and the Southwest China Agricultural University).
When not working or studying she finds time for her cat, husband, three children and gardening.