I'm Dr. Aja Senestraro. I'm a holistic veterinarian and my practice is called Sea to Sky Holistic Vet but this blog isn't really about me or my practice. It's about sharing my knowledge and expertise with as many people as possible so I can help as many animals as possible.
My philosophy is to look at the whole animal and it's environment and to take things like their history, personality and genetics into account. I try to find the underlying causes of disease so I can treat these and help support the body to heal itself. To do this I draw from multiple medical traditions including Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (acupuncture, herbs, tui-na, food therapy), Western herbalism and aromatherapy, rehabilitation and conventional Western medicine to come up with a plan tailored to the exact needs of each animal.
Every day I hear a lot of the same questions and concerns from my clients and I see a lot of the same issues in my patients. Things like: What's the best pet food? How do I know if my pet is painful? Should I give my dog fish oil? Is it normal for cat's to have hairballs? What can I do to help with my pet's arthritis or thyroid problem or chronic diarrhea or cancer or anxiety?
We all want to do what's best for their pet, but how do you know what's best? There's a lot of information on the internet but a lot of it unfortunately just isn't accurate or actually helpful and well meaning people end up confused and doing things that aren't actually good for their pets. Not everyone is lucky enough to live near a good holistic vet they can get trustworthy information from. That's why I want to share my point of view as a holistic vet in this blog so hopefully more people can have a trusted resource for this information in order to make informed decisions about what's best for their pet.
Now of course I can't legally give any specific and individual medical advice for your pets without seeing them in person for an exam so nothing I write in this blog is intended as or should be considered specific or individual medical advice. But there are lots of things I can provide my professional opinion on which may be helpful for people and their pets.
I'll be starting with my answers and opinions on some of the common questions I get. Do you have a topic you'd like me to cover? Leave a comment!