by Margo Roman

There is a real need for veterinarians to judiciously use antibiotics for their patients. Information from the USDA-APHIS National Veterinary Accreditation Program informs us that we must have good stewardship with the overuse of these drugs that are creating more and more resistant strains. Some data from that program estimates that, in the United States, a minimum of 23,000 human deaths and more than 2 million illnesses are caused annually by antibiotic resistant bacteria and fungi, costing millions of dollars. Worldwide, more than 700,000 people die from this resistance.

The use of antibiotics in food animals is one of the biggest contributors to this resistance. APHIS tells us we must restrict the use of antibiotics and need to find alternative ways to control infection from bacterial, fungal, mycoplasma and viruses. Antibiotics should only be used in our small animals if they are cultured out and it is the only treatment available.

Safe and cost-effective ways are needed to help our animal patients fight illness. There are several alternative treatments that work consistently and even better than most antibiotics. A new way of controlling infection is with oxidative modalities like medical ozone, hyperbaric oxygen and ultraviolet blood therapy, supported with complementary modalities like herbal medicine, homeopathy and acupuncture.  

Veterinary medical ozone has effectively treated, MRSA, strep, staph, yeast, nocardia, osteomyelitis, chronic skin and ear infections, moist dermatitis, bladder, kidney and liver infections, ruptured pyometra with peritonitis, meningitis, gut dysbiosis, parvo, and viral and bacterial pneumonia. Dengue, malaria, Lyme, Ebola and zika in humans are treated with ozone. 

It is a win-win for the body to fight infection as ozone also controls pain and gives the body oxygen to heal. Stewardship for our pets' health is ozone.      

Margo Roman, DVM, CVA, COT, CPT, FAAO, is a veterinarian at MASH Vet (Main St. Animal Services of Hopkinton). She has practiced integrative and functional veterinary medicine for almost 40 years. For more information, visit MASHVet.com or ahvma.org. See ad below and Resource Guide on page 37.