It’s high times for holistic medicine. Just ask Gwyneth Paltrow, whose company and its Netflix show, “The Goop Lab,” is raking in viewers and dollars.
But what about your pets? Renegade veterinarian Dr. Marty Goldstein has been arguing for decades that dogs and cats can benefit from alternative treatments like acupuncture, nutritional supplements, changes in diet and vitamin infusions. Now, with the release of the documentary “The Dog Doc,” Goldstein says the world may finally be catching up with his once-ridiculed vision.
“It’s one of the big joys in my life,” says the 73-year-old Goldstein. “I lectured at my alma mater, Cornell, in the last year, and the receptiveness of the students was incredible. And I had said, I thought I would never see the acceptance of this within my lifetime.”
The vet, who says he was No. 2 in his class, claims a lecture he gave at the university as a young graduate in the ’70s was met with widespread skepticism. Times, he says, are changing.
“The Dog Doc.”Cedar Creek MediaThe documentary follows the gregarious, tie-dye-sporting Goldstein around his practice, the Smith Ridge Veterinary Clinic in South Salem, NY. He and his staff see pets whose owners are often exhausted from trips to multiple other vets for chronic illnesses and cancers that seem insurmountable. These are the patients Goldstein has built his reputation on treating.
One of his favorites is Mulligan, a fluffy sheepdog with acute kidney disease who’d been estimated to have weeks or, at most, a couple of months to live. After Goldstein made changes to the pooch’s diet and prescribed homeopathic supplements, “Mulligan went on to live three incredible years instead of three horrible weeks,” says Goldstein, who includes conventional methods in his practice as well.
Veterinarian Dr. Marty Goldstein in the documentary “The Dog Doc.”Cedar Creek MediaOne of his favorite, and most contentious, topics is vaccination.
“I’m not anti-vaccine,” he says. “I’m pro-sanity. There is so much documentation now showing the unnecessariness of so many of them. The minimal duration of protection from distemper shots is seven to 15 years.” Yet, he says, the recommendation remains one to three years.
“And why,” he says, “is the Great Dane getting the same dose as a Chihuahua and a cat?”
“The Dog Doc.”Cedar Creek MediaAlthough Goldstein has clients who rave about his treatments, he also has critics. In the film, his wife, who also works at the clinic, reads aloud from one blog denouncing his methods as quackery. But they laugh it off.
“You know,” he says, “I think the No. 1 disease on this planet is seriousness.”



