Many of the same holistic and alternative therapies that help humans stay healthy or deal with chronic conditions can also benefit your pets. Learn more about alternative therapies to pamper and care for your best friend.  


This ancient Eastern practice has been used for humans for centuries. Acupuncture is used to treat numerous problems, from nasal congestion to chronic pain due to late-stage cancer. The practice of acupuncture uses small needles inserted into the skin along specific lines, or meridians, of the body’s energy.

It can, however, also help your dog or cat with pain problems, such as degenerative joint disease, or other chronic neurological, urinary, respiratory, or intestinal problems. Acupuncture for pets has been used since the 1970s, but it has grown in popularity over the last 10 years.

While acupuncture is not a cure for chronic problems, especially those common in older pets, it can help alleviate symptoms and provide a better quality of life for your pet.

Massage Therapy

Just as you welcome a massage, your pet does too—think of all the time it spends trying to be petted. Massage therapy is a technique that can improve both physical and mental health in your pet. Performed by a trained and certified animal massage therapist, massage therapy offers many benefits, including calming an anxious animal, promoting healthy blood flow to muscles, and decreasing muscle tension. Massage therapy can also help ease painful joints and increase muscle tone in older pets.


The philosophy for chiropractic medicine is the same for pets as it is for humans: caring for the nervous system by keeping the spine and brain in the best possible shape. While not a replacement for traditional veterinary medicine, chiropractic can be an important tool in keeping your pet active and pain-free.

By tending to the nervous system, proponents of chiropractic care believe it can help prevent disease, fatigue, immune system problems, and other detrimental health effects.


Homeopathy functions on the belief that if you give a person a highly-diluted substance that gives a healthy person the symptoms of a disease it can help cure that disease. While homeopathy is sometimes viewed as nonsense in the medical community, those who use homeopathic treatments often swear by their effectiveness. Supporters of homeopathic treatments are skeptical of traditional medicine, such as vaccinations and immunizations.

Many homeopathy treatments exist for pets for a variety of ailments, including, among others, urinary problems, digestion difficulties, aggression, adrenal fatigue, eye problems.

Herbal Medicine

It seems some animals know herbal medicine: dogs will eat grass when they have an upset stomach and cats go crazy for catnip. Animals in the wild instinctively seek out certain plants to rid themselves of ailments.

Whether you use fresh herbs or prepared mixtures from your pet food store or your veterinarian, herbal medicine could be a helpful complimentary treatment to keep your pets healthy.

As some pets may have allergies, it’s best to consult your veterinarian before giving your pets herbal medicines.

Pet Psychologist

Just as pets can be used to help people struggling through difficult times, your pet may need some help if they’re going through problems of their own. This can show through aggressiveness, obedience issues, and other types of irregular behavior. If you become concerned, you may want to take your pet to an animal psychologist.

Animal psychologists work with dogs, cats, and horses by studying their behaviors to determine what kind of problems they are having, even if it is something as simple as adjusting to a new home, or becoming used to having a new baby in the house. This type of psychology can help a pet owner better understand how to care for their furry friend.

Pet Psychic

If your dog, cat, horse, or large bird is being extremely problematic, you may want to call in a pet psychic. Like Cesar “the Dog Whisperer” Millan, animal psychics—also called “animal communicators”—supposedly have a supernatural talent to communicate at a different level with pets. There’s very little proof that these abilities even exist, but testimonials from people who have used such services are typically pretty positive about finding out what’s wrong with an animal.