When Dr. Katherine Evans took the leap and opened the Holistic Veterinary Center on West Street in 1998, she hung onto her full-time job at an emergency clinic in Manchester, just in case.
It didn't take long, though, for the new venture to turn into a full-time gig – and a full-time passion.
“It's being able to really help some patients that have really chronic illness, to improve their quality of life,” Evans said. “I can't say they're all better, but they are living a better quality of life, and that's the most rewarding and challenging thing.”
Evans traded her vaccination needles for acupuncture needles and created the area's only holistic pet treatment center, one that has grown large enough that she occasionally has to stop taking in new clients.
She couldn't stop the Insider from popping in, though, as we dug into the mindset and medicine behind a holistic veterinary approach.
It's actually quite simple: The root of holistic medicine is “wholeism, or the whole animal as opposed to more conventional medicine, which is very much a reductionistic approach,” Evans said. “We can address more of a root problem.”
Evans uses acupuncture and herbal and food therapies to treat chronic pain, arthritis and digestive issues, among other things. Acupuncture is the most common therapy utilized within her practice, she said, and is particularly good for joint pain in dogs.
Many dogs that go through a course of acupuncture treatment regain some level of strength. A dog that previously couldn't climb stairs may do so again, Evans said, or a pet that may have stopped getting on the furniture could start jumping on the couch. Those are the signs of improvement Evans looks for in continuing treatment.
Evans has a background in traditional veterinary medicine, and believes there is a balance between both approaches. While holistic care is great for certain conditions, it's not effective in fighting infections or in certain emergency situations, she said.
“The diagnostic technology available in conventional medicine is phenomenal,” she said. “Blood work, X-rays, surgery – we refer a lot of patients to local hospitals. It's complementary, how a lot of practices work with alternative medicine. It's not one or the other, it's working together.”
The holistic practice suits Evans, she said, and she walked away from the emergency clinic in Manchester once her business grew from the initial two-day-per-week venture to a full-fledged operation.
“It was just feeling I didn't have good answers for people in terms of pain control for their pets,” Evans said of the motivation for the change. “It was, what else do we do? Put them to sleep or try acupuncture.”
So she opened her doors in Concord after painstakingly searching for a property that matched the clinic's mentality. She found it on West Street, building the business inside an old New England home.
The exam room is decorated very much like a living room, complete with comfortable old chairs and a throw rug. And the creaky floors and paintings on the wall all lend themselves to the comfortable, casual atmosphere Evans was looking for.
The business certainly took off, growing large enough that Evans has occasionally stopped taking new clients.
“I tried not to have expectations, in case it didn't work out, but for awhile it was growing so big I had to do a little soul searching and I stopped taking new clients,” she said.
Similarly, not every client becomes an immediate devotee, as the treatments don't work for every dog. Evans said she typically will go through several weeks of treatment with a pet before looking for positive results, such as climbing back on furniture or up the stairs, and if improvement is present, the treatments will continue. Some dogs respond well enough that she only needs to see them every few months.
That personal connection, though, is part of what makes the practice so rewarding, Evans said. She has seen the children of some of her clients grow from toddlers to adults, and has likewise guided many people through the inevitable cycle of saying farewell to older pets and welcoming new ones.
And all of that is what makes it worth it.
“I think we have a real special clientele,” Evans said. “The concern they have for their pets puts them in a special class. We spend a lot of time together, share stories. And everybody has a good story.”
For more information on the Holistic Veterinary Center or to read more about the treatments available, go to holisticvetcenter.com.
