About KR Holistic Vet
Kirsty Russell is a Small Animal Veterinary Surgeon with a passion for holistic care and chronic pain management. Her journey into integrative veterinary medicine began during her time at the University of Glasgow Veterinary School, where she owned Ben, her childhood dog who suffered from osteoarthritis. Through Ben, Kirsty experienced firsthand the transformative effects of complementary therapies such as physiotherapy and acupuncture. In fact, that’s how she first met Jayne — Ben’s physiotherapist at the time — and witnessed the “super dog” days that followed his treatments. Those moments shaped Kirsty’s commitment to providing the same level of comfort and improved quality of life for her future patients.
Kirsty graduated in 2018 and began her career as a small animal vet in Doune, where she continues to work in general practice. In 2022, she pursued advanced training in Chronic Pain Management and Western Veterinary Acupuncture, earning her CertWVA&CPM in 2024. Her interest in integrative medicine continued to grow, and in late 2025 she was introduced to the world of herbal medicine, quickly becoming inspired by the meaningful improvements she saw in patients receiving personalised herbal blends.
For the past three years, Kirsty has been running dedicated Chronic Pain Management clinics within her general practice, supporting pets with long‑term pain conditions through multimodal, compassionate care. She is now excited to expand her services further and welcome new patients at the JF Vet Physio premises.
Pain Management Services
PAIN MANAGEMENT
During a pain management assessment, we take the time to explore the full picture of your pet’s life so we can create a bespoke pain management plan, free from the usual time pressures of general practice. Together, we’ll look closely at all the therapeutic options available, talk through any questions or concerns you may have, and decide on the best way forward for you and your pet.
Please note we do not physically stock or dispense any of your pet’s medications at the clinic, but will work with your own vet to facilitate this.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine approach that uses fine needles placed at specific points on the body to encourage a range of beneficial responses. It works by stimulating the body’s natural pain‑relief pathways, essentially “tricking” the system into responding as though an injury has occurred—without causing any actual harm. We utilise acupuncture’s natural pain relieving properties to support a variety of chronic pain conditions such as:
- Osteoarthritis,
- Spondylosis,
- Back pain
- and many others!
Sometimes there simply isn’t a conventional medication that meets your pet’s individual needs — or your pet may be unable to tolerate the one that does exist. Herbal Medicine offers a natural, complementary therapy to help fill these gaps. We look closely at your pet’s medical history and symptoms to create a personalised blend of high quality plant extracts (usually as a tincture) that aims to gently support their conditions and wellbeing.
Conditions that may benefit include:
- Chronic gastrointestinal disease
- Chronic skin conditions
- Chronic Pain
- Anxiety
- Kidney or Liver Disease
- Chronic respiratory conditions
- Cancer
Bespoke Herbal Medicines are dispensed by a trusted external supplier and can take up to one week to arrive.
FAQs
During our initial hour-long appointment, we discuss in-depth the individual needs of your pet, and their condition(s), and what changes can we make to optimise their pain management plan. We will send you a pre-visit questionnaire to go through to allow us to fully prepare for the consult. Your pet will have a full top to toe clinical examination where we will identify targets for our therapies. We will then go through various medication based and alternative therapeutic options encourage you to ask any questions/raise any concerns you have. We will also discuss the whole picture from a more holistic standpoint looking at your pet’s home environment, their diet, their activity levels and see if there are any easy wins to be found. We may opt to incorporate acupuncture into the session following our discussion, and the first session of this can be done in this initial appointment.
Following on from your appointment you will receive a report explaining our plan and everything we discussed. This report will also be forwarded onto your primary vet and we will advise them of any requested changes to your pet’s medications.
No – we do not wish to compete in any way with your primary vet and so you will continue to get your medication directly, or via a written prescription, from your primary vet. We will ensure any updates to doses are communicated on the day of your appointment, so everyone is kept in the loop.
Following a clinical exam to look for painful points and tight muscular knots, your pet will be encouraged to sit on a padded matt and we will very slowly start introducing the concept of acupuncture. We go at your pet’s pace and will remove any persistently uncomfortable needles. Sometimes there is a small reaction when the needle first enters the skin, but provided it is not sustained we will leave it in place. Once the needles are in we tend to leave them for around 10-15 minutes and many patients will relax into this and some even fall asleep! For those that don’t, or tend to be more “busy” characters, we utilise bribery via likkimatts!
Following an acupuncture session you will likely find your pet is relaxed and often very snoozy for the rest of the day. Hopefully then the following day they are moving better and happier in themselves.
We welcome all dogs and cats to the clinic. Cats are even better responders than dogs and we have seen some lovely responses for those suffering from osteoarthritis. There are no real contraindications for acupuncture (besides pregnancy), making it a safe addition for older patients with co-morbidities such as chronic kidney or liver disease where medication options are often limited. Also for those in which getting them to take medication is a challenge!
This is very patient dependant. For pain management and herbal medicine consultations a follow up review appointment will be made around two weeks from starting the new medication to allow them to take effect and see if further adjustments are required. Advice by email will be available in the interim should any issues arise before the recheck.
For acupuncture we recommend starting with once weekly sessions for 4-6 weeks to allow the effects to build. We then taper back gradually to find the sweet spot for your pet. Most patients end up visiting monthly, and as their conditions progress move to more frequent visits (often fortnightly) or as required.
Please complete our online referral form and we will be in touch to schedule an appointment as soon as we have received permission and your pet’s full clinical history from your primary vet. You can also email info@krholisticvet.co.uk if you have further questions prior to referral.
Most insurers now have a complimentary therapies budget which is applicable for therapies like acupuncture, physiotherapy and herbal medicine. Pain Management in general should be covered under your regular policy.
We are unable to process claims in house, but you should be able to submit your invoices to your regular vet to process the claims. We are not able to offer direct claims at this time.
We request upfront payment to secure your first appointment with us via BACS. Follow up payments can be taken by BACS or contactless payment at the time of appointment.
We ask that you contact us as soon as possible if you find yourself in need of changing or cancelling an appointment. Cancellations made with less than 48 hours notice will be charged for the appointment in full. The only exception to this will be at the discretion of KR Holistic Vet.