The Ingraham Academy of Zoopharmacognosy, headed by the founder of Applied Zoopharmacognosy Caroline Ingraham, promotes self-medication as a necessary component of domestic animal health and trains individuals in how to enable and recognize self-medicative behaviour in animals. We also work in conjunction with several animal charities; helping to rehabilitate a range of animals (cats, dogs, horses, tigers and elephants) with long standing behavioural and/or physiological issues.

Animals have evolved to cope with potential threats including disease and injury and as a result have developed solutions to restore health by self-administering medicinal compounds naturally found in the wild. Zoopharmacognosy refers to the process by which animals self-medicate and naturally forage plants and their essential oils, algae, clay and other natural remedies. This practice allows an animal to use its innate ability to prevent disease. The word Zoopharmacognosy was coined by Dr.Eloy Rodriguez a biochemistry biochemist at Cornell University. The word is derived from the ancient greek 'zoo' (animal), 'pharmaco' (remedy) and 'gnosy' (knowing). Applied Zoopharmacognosy is the art of enabling domestic and captive animals to self-medicate effectively in environments without therapeutic plants. Offering appropriate secondary compounds (such as essential oils) for self medication allows the animal to be in control of its health. 

Zoopharmacognosy is the evolutionary mechanism which enables animals to maintain their health in their natural environment. It is this built in ability which is the key to maintaining their health in domesticity.

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Education

There is certainly a growing interest in animal self-medication (a. k. a zoopharmacognosy). The growing spectres of antibiotic & anti-parasitic resistance is stimulating pharmaceutical companies to turn to animal self-medicative behaviour for inspiration on new drugs. Journal articles on the subject have been accumulating fast since the field's inception in the early 1980s. There is also a growing desire of pet owners to provide their animals with natural approaches to their health. The growing importance of this field has even stimulated a major exam board, OCR, to include animal self-medication on its syllabus.

Our course content, which covers the field of zoopharmacognosy in unparalleled detail,  is currently split into two parts; a scientific component and an applied component.

The scientific part covers:Background concepts (including homeostasis), self-medicative behavioural strategies, how animals acquire self-medicative behaviour (hedonic feedback, social learning, bitter propensity and sensory modulation theories), trans-generational medication, reasons for plant poisonings, biology of olfaction, geophagy and the pharmacokinetics & pharmacodynamics of various therapeutic plant compounds and minerals. This part of the course is written with those without a formal scientific background in mind.

The applied component focuses on; the rationale behind Applied Zoopharmacognosy (enabling domesticated/captive animals to perform self-medicative behaviour), reading behavioural cues associated with self-medication in equines, felines & canines, working with plant  extracts, strategies to use with hyperactive animals and includes practical demonstrations with domesticated animals.

Please see our Courses page http://www.ingraham.co.uk/courses.asp for more details.
 

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Zoopharmacognosy in action

1. Equine practical DVD trailer: A rescue horse selecting oils

The horse in this clip is being offered angelica root, yarrow (the blue one) and rose. Notice that she shows the greatest interst in yarrow and yawns almost everytime she licks or inhales it. The selection of yarrow is often associated with animals that have had negative past experiences (as this horse is a rescue who knows what happened in her past). Yawning is an emotional release in many species. 

2. Elephant calf self-medicating

http://www.ingraham.co.uk/abstracts.asp

3.An agressive ram self-medicating at a small breeds farm in Somerset

He had displayed extreme agressive behaviour for two years following the foot and mouth crisis. Before this he was very gentle and would often be led into showrings by children. The keepers feared that he would seriously injure someone and unless his aggression was resolved he would be but to sleep. Not shown in the clip is his selection of Devil's Claw, a plant generally selected by animals in pain. Also the yarrow response was not a 'no' as mentioned in the clip. Caroline had to say this as there was not enough time to explain an emotional release for Sunday afternoon TV.

This clip is derived from a documentary produced by Tigress Productions who were making a programme on T Touch with Sarah Fisher.