26

Veterinary Medicine

Ozone and hydrogen peroxide have been used in veterinary medicine for over thirty years and have enjoyed a wide variety of applications. While most of us envision our local vet using ozone therapy on our cat or dog, perhaps the widest area of application is in agribusiness: ozone and hydrogen peroxide are already widely employed as disinfectants for washing equipment used in breeding facilities, wastewater treatment, and milk collection. In Russia, ozone has been used for decades to treat farm animals for a wide variety of diseases and to promote wound healing.

While carefully regulated by state and provincial licensing boards, veterinary medicine is not as tightly controlled as human medicine. As a result, holistic practitioners have somewhat more freedom to use nontraditional therapies like ozone or hydrogen peroxide in their practices, although much depends on laws of each state.

At least several dozen veterinarians (many of them members of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association) currently use ozone in the United States and Canada to treat both domestic animals, like cats and dogs, and farm animals for a wide range of health problems. In the United States at least, I’ve found that veterinarians who use oxidative therapies tend to be strong advocates of both natural and holistic approaches to health. Some, like Martin Goldstein, D.V.M., of New York (author of the acclaimed book The Nature of Animal Healing); Judith Shoemaker, D.V.M., of Pennsylvania; Margo Roman, D.V.M., of Massachusetts; and Robert Smatt, D.V.M., of California, are respected leaders in their profession.

CLINICAL APPLICATIONS

In an article published in IVC Journal, an online publication devoted to integrative veterinary medicine, Dr. Margo Roman highlighted the major clinical applications of ozone therapy in veterinary medicine:

She also mentioned that antibiotics are more effective when ozone is used as an adjunct, thus potentially reducing the amount of antibiotics used in treatment. She adds that ozone therapy also increases the effectiveness of other natural modalities, like acupuncture, homeopathy, herbs, and chiropractic.1

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Figure 26.1. Ozone therapy applications in veterinary medicine. (Courtesy of Dr. Margo Roman.)

In a response to her article, Kathy Backus, D.V.M., reported that ozone therapy also makes an excellent adjunct to biophotonic therapy, which utilizes the bactericidal properties of ultraviolet rays in healing. First developed in the 1920s by Dr. Emmitt K. Knott, biophotonic therapy is easily combined with ozone: A small amount of blood is withdrawn from the patient, mixed with saline, and treated with ozone gas. It is then reinfused past UV light and injected back into the patient. She found that this combination therapy, like ozone alone, improves immune response, helps fight bacteria and viruses, and promotes pain relief.2

A later article in the same journal by Dr. G. M. Buchoff focused on the use of injecting ozone and oxygen into joints to reduce joint pain and infection, primarily in dogs and cats. He wrote that ozone injected into joints can stop the pain/inflammation cycle in orthopedic surgery and joint trauma. As with humans, areas of trauma can also be covered with a plastic bag and an ozone gas and oxygen mixture pumped into it with a tube or large syringe (ozone bagging) to control pain and promote healing.3

DR. SMATT’S EXPERIENCE

In his monograph The Use of Ozone and Oxygen Therapies in Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Robert Smatt highlights a variety of methods used to treat his patients at the Genesee Bird and Pet Clinic in San Diego, California. Many of his methods are used by other veterinarians around the world to treat a wide range of health problems.

Major Autohemotherapy

Dr. Smatt, who treats a number of health problems with major autohemotherapy, spoke to me about his successful treatment of a dog suffering from cirrhosis. In his article about ozone applications, he writes:

In dogs and cats, I often infuse the ozonated blood back into the patient by injecting it intraperitoneally instead of intravenously. This route of administration seems to be equally effective. This procedure is repeated every one to seven days depending upon the condition. This procedure should greatly enhance surgical healing and anesthesia recovery when done before and after surgery. In general, an obvious and immediate increase in vitality, appetite, and competitiveness is noted in people, dogs, cats, horses.4

Minor Autohemotherapy

Dr. Smatt has also found that his canine and feline patients respond well to minor autohemotherapy. He sometimes injects the blood and ozone mixture via the intraperitoneal route, because the amount of blood injected can be much larger than through a muscle. In addition, he finds that the blood and gas can mix longer without danger of causing clotting problems.

Rectal Insufflation

Rectal insufflation is also widely used in veterinary practice. According to Dr. Smatt:

Ozone should be retained for 40 minutes to be effective. We use rectal infusions for 80% of our small animal and equine patients, and could easily justify its use in 100% of all medical and surgical problems. It is very well tolerated (accepted by both animals and their human companions). Invariably there is an immediate increase in vitality and appetite after the first administration.

Urinary bladder insufflation is used for bladder problems.5

Limb Bagging

As with humans, ozone bagging is used in veterinary medicine to treat infections and wounds. Dr. Smatt recommends using either a specially designed bag manufactured by Ozonosan or a normal plastic garbage bag. He wraps the bag with an elasticized bandage to expel air and to seal the top; the bandage is then removed and the bag is filled with oxygen and ozone. The gas is retained for 30 to 40 minutes, and treatments are scheduled one or two times per day.

Ozonated Water

Dr. Smatt recommends the use of ozonated water for drinking.

Ozonated Saline

Dr. Smatt believes that ozonated saline solution offers several advantages in veterinary practice. He finds that it can be used in the bladder, vagina, ears, rectum, and eyes and is able to irrigate large surface wounds with it, which increases healing rates. It can also be given intravenously. He reports that using ozonated saline solutions is an effective way to flush chronically infected nasal passages and sinuses in cats.

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Figures 26.2 and 26.3. Ozone bagging and ear insufflation (Courtesy of Dr. Margo Roman.)

Oxygen-Ozone Injections

Like humans, domestic animals often suffer from painful joints. Dr. Smatt uses a method to treat his veterinary patients that is similar to the one Dr. Shallenberger uses to treat his human patients: a small amount of oxygen-ozone mixture is injected into the joint.

Dr. Smatt also administers oxygen-ozone injections to pressure points and to acupuncture points to relieve pain and promote healing. For example, he injects ozone gas in the “K 3, UB 60, Du 1, Ren 1, Ren 3, UB 40, UB 36, and the ba liao points,” which he says works much better to control urinary incontinence than does the same treatment using vitamin B12. Oxygen-ozone injections are also used to treat a variety of specific problems like spinal disc problems and even tumors, for which such treatment appears to be only partially successful.6

Inhalation of Ozone

In an interview in late 2005, Dr. Smatt told me about an ozone chamber he uses that allows his patients to breath oxygen and ozone that is bubbled through olive oil (we mentioned this method for humans in chapter 5). He finds that this method of treatment is very effective with small animals like birds, cats, and small dogs, and it is especially beneficial when treating infections. A normal treatment takes 20 minutes and is given once every day or once every other day for up to two weeks as needed.7 This method could be of tremendous potential in treating birds suffering from avian influenza.

DR. GOLDSTEIN’S EXPERIENCE

Dr. Martin Goldstein, one of the country’s best-known veterinarians, has treated animals at his Smith Ridge Veterinary Clinic in upstate New York for over twenty-five years. In The Nature of Animal Healing, Dr. Goldstein wrote extensively about his clinical experience with holistic therapies, commenting that ozone “often produces amazing turnarounds when conventional therapy fails.” He followed this comment with a case history of Lucky, a shih tzu who was totally paralyzed by an inoperable spinal tumor in his neck. He was brought to Smith Ridge as a last resort (before euthanasia) after conventional therapy failed. After a careful examination, Dr. Goldstein administered intravenous vitamin C and ozone, put Lucky up for the night at the clinic, and the next morning found him walking. Two years later, Lucky was playing with his toys for the first time in eight years, and blood tests showed that the dog’s immune system was actively handling his condition and that the cancer had ceased to be a factor in his health.8

Like Dr. Smatt, Goldstein and his colleagues have treated a wide variety of health problems with ozone therapy, including spinal problems and paralysis. Intravenous ozone is used, along with intravenous vitamin C, to treat canine distemper.9 Ozonated oil is used topically to treat wounds and infections, as well as to relieve chronic ear problems.10 In cases of severe or unresponsive liver problems (such as jaundice, hepatitis, and cirrhosis), Dr. Goldstein has used ozone as part of a holistic approach using intravenous and injectable vitamins and homeopathics.11 Ozone therapy has also been utilized as part of a broad-scope treatment of spinal infarction or blood clot.12

However, Dr. Goldstein believes that ozone therapy (through direct injection into a tumor, intravenous ozone, or rectal insufflation, depending on the case) works especially well with different types of cancer. Commenting on bone cancer, Dr. Goldstein wrote: “With primary bone cancer, medically known as osteosarcoma, the only stories I could tell until about two years ago [1997] were unremittingly negative. The success I’ve had since then is due, I’m convinced, to the introduction of ozone therapy in treatment.”13

SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

Aside from reports of clinical experience with oxygen therapies by veterinary practitioners, there is little published research on the subject, especially in the United States. Like studies in human medicine, pharmaceutical companies often finance veterinary research by providing grants to researchers or by supporting programs in veterinary schools.

However, in addition to published human studies that involve the vivisection of laboratory animals, there are occasional reports in scientific journals about animals used in agribusiness, such as how ozone inhibits harmful spores in birds, published in the Journal of Parasitology,14 or how autohemotherapy with ozone improves the immunological response in calves, published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Sciences.15 An article in Poultry Science by researchers at Texas A&M University explored how ozone, when applied to contaminated grain, can prevent aflatoxicosis in turkey poults,16 while a Japanese study showed that ozone can be an effective way to treat acute clinical mastitis in dairy cows.17

In his book Oxygen-Ozone Therapy: A Critical Evaluation, Dr. Bocci surveyed a number of European veterinarians and reported that ozonated oil can be useful in getting rid of dog ticks, can be applied to the ear in cases of ear infection, and can be used to treat eye infections in low concentrations. He also mentioned that ozone applications can be useful for large animals before major surgery to strengthen them before the operation and to reduce the risk of postoperative infection.

Bocci also addressed rumors involving the illegal ozone doping of racehorses and dogs (either via autohemotherapy or rectal insufflation) in order to enhance their competitive performance.18 In contrast to drugs used for doping, ozone cannot be detected after it is administered, so it is virtually impossible to prove that illegal doping ever took place.

OZONE, ANTIBIOTICS, AND E. COLI

A group of researchers at United Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine at Yamaguchi University in Japan noted that antibiotic therapy administered for treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections (such as mastitis)—especially among dairy cows—can exert a negative effect in the form of endotoxin shock. For this reason, they wanted to discover a sterilization method that releases less endotoxin than traditional antibiotics.

They undertook an in vitro study aimed to compare the amounts of endotoxin released from Escherichia coli exposed to antibiotics (aminobenzylpenicillin, kanamycin, oxytetracycline, sulfadimethoxine, and enrofloxacin) or ozone. The bacterial growth and amount of endotoxin released were measured at specific time points.

Compared with antibiotic treatment, they found that ozone sterilization induced a release of smaller amounts of endotoxin from the bacteria. In addition, they observed no major differences when ozone was used against the purified endotoxin. They concluded that compared with antibiotic treatment, ozone sterilization may release smaller amounts of endotoxin.

Noting the effectiveness of ozone therapy in treating mastitis among dairy cows (mastitis involves inflammation of the udder tissue and is the most common disease in dairy cattle), the researchers observed:

The high cure rate of acute mastitis in dairy cows is attributable to ozone’s characteristic feature of inducing less release of endotoxin. The effects of ozone on immunity have been reported; ozone may downregulate the cytotoxic activity of immunocytes. Although we actually observed the effect of non-antibiotic (ozone) treatment, we cannot explain, based on the present study, whether the high cure rate is the result of less endotoxin release or whether there exists another reason. Considering that ozone induces release of smaller amounts of endotoxin and has no effect on endotoxin, ozone should be used as the first line of treatment for coliform mastitis to thereby, possibly, reduce mortality.19

SARS AND BIRD FLU?

Perhaps the most important contribution of oxidative therapies can be in treating animal-borne diseases that can be transferred to humans, such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), bird flu (avian influenza), and others that threaten to develop into human pandemics. Effective vaccines have not yet been developed for these diseases, which can potentially become resistant to antiviral or antibacterial drugs. As with other diseases among humans, contagious or not, mainstream medical and scientific researchers have been resistant to even consider the possibility that simple and inexpensive modalities such as oxidative therapies can be a viable solution to these serious global health threats.

Research urgently needs to be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of ozone and hydrogen peroxide in helping prevent animal-borne diseases from spreading among animals, treating animals that may have been exposed to these pathogens, and treating people who may become infected.