HI, I'M KAREN.
I can't wait to meet you and your pet.
I help dedicated pet people (Like YOU!) manage complex diseases and chronic conditions in their beloved companions with optimal diet, easy lifestyle changes and holistic veterinary care, while avoiding harmful drugs
(Read an interview with Dr. Gellman about integrity and how it informs her approach to caring for her patients and clients!)
Together We Can Help Your Beloved Pet!
When a loved one gets sick, whether human or pet, we often feel helpless and terrified.
We want to trust that our regular doctor or vet knows best, but sometimes Western medicine does not have a lot to offer.
Drugs and surgery are fantastic for infections and broken bones. But less helpful for many chronic diseases and conditions. Too often, conventional docs spend their time chasing symptoms, and can miss the forest for the trees!
What if there were another approach? What if a doctor really listened to how YOU see your dog or cat every day?
As a holistic vet of almost 30 years, I can look with fresh eyes, and recognize whole-body patterns in what seem to be completely unrelated symptoms. Like understanding the connection between heat intolerance and idiopathic vestibular syndrome. (Shao Yang Disharmony!)
I believe that YOU HEAL UNTIL YOU DIE!
I Understand What You Are Going Through
I see this in my practice all the time. So many pet owners feel that all the choices they have been offered to help control their pet's illness-- whether endless ear infections, sensitive stomach or cancer-- are unacceptable! I have been a holistic vet for over 25 years and am close colleagues with the best holistic vets in the country. If I can't fix it, I know who to call for help!
There ARE other options! You don't have to choose between the problem that makes your dog miserable or the medicine that makes her miserable.
I am committed to education so that you and your family can really understand the disease process and its root causes. Chronic illness does not drop from heaven-- there is always an underlying reason! I will teach you how to be an active partner in your beloved pet's health.
What My Clients Are Saying About How Their Pets Feel
Thank you so much for all your help with Gertie last week. I was so impressed with the improvement I saw in her.
Oh yes, he LOVES the food!
I just wanted to let you know that Wanda is already doing better after switching to a new diet. She is less frantic in her begging for food, and she seems to have more energy.
After your treatment, we had best night ever. She's happy today. I am too. 😊
My old guy is already feeling much better getting around and is also doing so much better when I have to take him to work! He can stay settled instead of pacing and panting the whole time he is there, he is resting better and is getting up easier in the morning. So great!
G is like a puppy! He is jumping on the bed & couch. Leaping up the steps. He’s playful!!
A Few Things About Me
I live in the most beautiful place on earth! There are countless waterfalls within a 10 mile radius, not to speak of the gorgeous lake!! I first came to Ithaca, NY for college, and except for 10 years in NYC (see below!) I have been here ever since.
Before I was a vet, I was a lingerie designer. Seriously. I had a small company making fancy silk lingerie, then sold it and went to work for Christian Dior Lingerie. I quit to go to vet school, then stayed on at Cornell to do a graduate degree in animal locomotion biomechanics. (Wanna see my CV?) I get my design kicks now by helping my choir's student singers with their recital gowns.
I am the world's expert on horse posture! For the past 20 years, I have been teaching and doing research on how horses and dogs stand. Our research group (with genius equine vet Judith M. Shoemaker, DVM and master Alexander Teacher Elizabeth Reese, CTAT) received a major grant to study equine posture, and our latest research was featured on the cover of Biology Open.
I see the world by teaching in amazing places. Because so many veterinarians want to learn about animal posture, I am invited to speak all over. I have taught veterinary professional education in Spain, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Norway and all over the US, including Hawaii 😻 !!
My "other" job is running a cannabis company for pets. I got into the CBD business by accident, when helping a friend in the business create pet products. But veterinarians have a real need for high quality, high potency, reliable pain medications for pets, and I have the research training and business experience to make it happen. Plena Curae Botanical Solutions makes CBD and CBG tinctures, curcumin and boswellia extract and renal support chews, only sold through veterinarians.
I sing in a gospel choir. I love to engage with my local community and work for social justice by singing with the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers. We have performed at the Kennedy Center, in Carnegie Hall with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and at Reverend William Barber's church. Our secret weapon? Talented music students from the famous Ithaca College music conservatory where our director teaches!!
“This is wonderful. Thank you deeply! It is wonderful because I feel F and I have been heard.”
Education is one of my most important missions!
I teach and I write because I want YOU to have the tools you need to make good decisions about your pet's health.
Tradition does not always equal truth or best practice. Working in the horse world, where we are often mired in traditional practices, I really learned the damage that can come from blindly following "the way we've always done it"-- because those old ways of management can lead to stress and injury to both horses and riders.
For pets, the past 75 years have transformed the ways we care for our pets-- in both wonderful and frightening ways. We have highly humane forms of euthanasia, but for some people, it becomes a license to kill for convenience. We have vaccines to protect them from deadly diseases, but in many vet practices, the sheer numbers and frequency of vaccines can cause their own health problems. We need to balance cost and convenience with the consequences of our choices. You can't make an intelligent choice without the facts. Like the facts about commercial dry processed pet food-- it's convenient, but does not promote robust good health for carnivores.
We share our pets' lives with love, compassion, and respect for their personhood. I write so that you can learn a little more about their structure, function and physiology, in order to make the best choices.
This is a series of articles on canine posture that I wrote for the AKC Canine Health Foundation newsletter. The article “Feet on the Ground” won the top award in the health category by the Dog Writers Association of America in 2013.
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Content on this website is not considered veterinary advice. Please see your veterinarian before making any medical or lifestyle changes for your pet.