National Dog Day: Holistic treatments increasingly used by pet owners to elongate dogs' lives

Massages, acupuncture and herbal supplements -- self-care measures often considered a luxury for even humans -- are being increasingly given to dogs to help them live longer, according to pet experts.

Dog owners are now using holistic treatments to treat their pups, holistic veterinarians and canine researchers told ABC News. Whether used as preventative care, in tandem with Western medicine or as a replacement for major surgery, these treatments have the potential to increase the lifespan of dogs by years, the experts said.

There has been a shift in recent decades in the dogs' role in a family, evident in the way cartoon dogs are portrayed. In the 1960s, Snoopy, the most popular animated canine, slept in a dog house outside. But by the 2000s, Brian, the talking dog on "Family Guy," sits on the couch and drinks out of a glass, Daniel Promislow, a senior scientist at Tufts University and co-founder of the Dog Aging Project, told ABC News.

"One of the things that that is very, very apparent to anybody in the veterinary profession is the degree of the human-animal bond with people regarding their pets and family," Gary Richter, an Oakland-based holistic veterinarian, told ABC News.

As a result, people are becoming more and more invested in trying to keep their furry best friends alive longer, Richter said.

With recent advances in the science of longevity for humans, veterinarians are able to apply some of that research into canine health care, experts said

Conventional Western medicine typically involves treating a symptom or disease with pharmaceuticals, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, Richter said. But holistic medicine involves treating the patient as a whole, using remedies such as herbal therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, or more technologically advanced treatments like ozone therapy and regenerative medicine, like stem cell therapies, he added.

"All of these therapies are really about, how do I make my patient more healthy so that their own body can manage whatever their particular disease process or whatever their particular illness may be?" he said. "What we're looking to do is encourage the body to heal and manage itself."

Homeopathy, an energy medicine similar to acupuncture, is often used for alternative pet health care, Marcie Fallek, a homeopathic veterinarian with offices in Fairfield, Connecticut, and New York City, told ABC News.

"You put needles in the body, and you're moving energy around to heal, heal the body," she said."Basically, the body, whether it's human or animal, is a self-healing system."

Fallek got into homeopathy in the 1990s after her own dog, an 85-pound Rottweiler mix named Annie, ruptured her cruciate, a knee ligament, and required eight surgeries, she said. She later discovered that 80% of cruciate tears can be treated by homeopathy only.

"Using holistic modalities is always better than drugs," she said. "Drugs always have side effects."

About 15% of the nearly 50,000 participants enrolled in the Dog Aging Project, a nationwide study of healthy aging in companion dogs and pet dogs, have participated in some sort of alternative health care practice in their dogs' lifespan, the most common being massages, Promislow said. Most of those participants who engaged in alternative treatments had previously been treated in the hospital for something else, Promislow said.

High-end med spas are also becoming more popular in large cities, Richter said

Some of the treatments that Richter include red light laser therapy, sessions in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and therapy on a water treadmill. Richter was named "Holistic Practitioner of the Year” by the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association in 2019.

In one case, Richter was able to help a dog with a neurological condition walk again without surgery, he said. With a combination of acupuncture, herbal therapy, and hyperbaric oxygen to try and force oxygen into the area where the spinal cord sits to facilitate healing, the 10-year-old beagle mix named Joey was up and walking within a few months, Richter said.

Cases that wouldn't be a good candidate for holistic treatment would involve instances when life-saving surgery is needed or for acute problems, such as an injury, trauma, infection or some sort of disease, Richter said.

"Western medicine is fantastic for that sort of stuff," he said. "If you get hit by a bus, you do not need an acupuncturist. However, if you're alive a month later, you probably do," Richter said.

The aspects of getting a dog to live the healthiest, longest life possible include keeping them at a healthy weight -- or healthy body condition score, similar to body mass index in humans -- as well as ensuring parasite prevention and good dental care, Promislow said.

Pet owners are also increasingly feeding their dogs fresh, whole and raw food, which is probably the best way to offer preventative care from the get-go to help them live longer, compared to the highly processed kibble that is highly available, said Fallek, a member of the British Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy.

Getting a dog to live to 25 is a lofty goal, but it's not impossible, Fallek said, adding that she's known dogs that have lived up to 30 years old.

"I can give them quality and quantity of life," she said.