Herbsmith uses only Chinese herbs for a number of reasons. Chinese herbal combinations have been used for thousands of years in the orient. So we benefit from thousands of years of brilliant thought and experience in healing. Herbsmith is only a vehicle to bring this ancient wisdom to your dog. Unlike western herbs such as valerian root or goldenseal Chinese herbs work to resolve an underlying disharmony or the root reason for disease. Western herbs tend to be used to resolve symptoms. Chinese herbs are almost always used in combinations where each individual herb works in synergy with each other, i.e. the whole is better than the sum of its parts. This synergy of herbs has been determined through thousands of years of experience.     Chinese herbs can be used to treat any problem, disease, or symptom that can be treated with medicine. Veterinary medical cases tend to be divided into surgical and medical cases. Chinese herbal combinations can be used to treat medical cases i.e. cases that a traditional veterinarian would treat with pharmaceuticals or drugs. Herbs are fantastic to treat any arthritis, most musculoskeletal pain, acute trauma, allergies, chronic vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, chronic low back pain, weak hind limbs, weak immune system, etc. Herbsmith canine custom formulation can develop an herbal combination for your dog. One of the strongest benefits of herbs is that they have very few side effects verses drugs or pharmaceuticals that have a tremendous amount of negative side effects associated with their use. Herbs are very different from pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are often derived from a plant or an herb but the one active ingredient is distilled out of the parent substance and concentrated into a pill form. Drugs therefore can be very exact and powerful. From a holistic viewpoint often too powerful and hence the profound negative side effects. Herbs on the other hand contain the active substance(s) and all the other components of the herb to provide a less exact but a gentler approach to healing i.e. very few side effects. And then there are herbs that a single active ingredient can not be distilled out of the herb but that the medicinal qualities of the herb is actually a synergy of multiple components within the herb such is the case with the ever popular ginseng.     If disease were a mountain there could be many paths to approach it, either from the east or from the west. Some paths may be better than others to reach the top of the mountain or to come to a resolution of the disease. Herbsmith has developed a number of formulas that work well for dogs for particular problems. We in no way advocate the use of herbs for all conditions. Although it can be done why use eastern medicine to the exclusion of western medicine (veterinary medicine as we know it) when at times the path from the west is better. For example herbs are excellent and safe to manage joint pain and antibiotics are necessary to treat infection. At Herbsmith we advocate using the best of both worlds.