Dr. Molly Rice

Picture of Dr. Molly Rice
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Molly Rice DVM, CVA

Dr. Molly Rice is a holistic veterinarian who believes that the combination of Eastern and Western medicine opens the door to a wide scope of treatment options.She holds a BS degree in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego and is a UC Davis veterinary school graduate.

She worked with holistic veterinarian Dr. Ihor Basko in Kauai for a year, and has also studied with the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and the Institute of Chinese Herbology.She has worked at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists since 2003 and continues to work there part-time.In her spare time, Molly enjoys surfing, snowboarding, and riding her thoroughbreds Zephyr and Felix.

Molly Rice inserts acupuncture needles into Patches' back. (Sasha Vasilyuk)
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Rice is a 32-year-old holistic veterinarian who lives in Moss Beach and runs Coastal Holistic on Palmetto Avenue.She treats dogs, cats, rabbits, and sometimes even horses using alternative methods like acupuncture, chiropractic, and herbology.Of course, Rice also practices general medicine, but her clients usually come here to try something new after they've received a San Francisco resident Andria Glassman brings Scooter and Maggie to Pacifica's Coastal Holistic for acupuncture. (Sasha Vasilyuk)
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Rice, whose stepfather is a cardiologist ("he is as Western as you get," she says with a smile), believes that the methods she practices are an important and often necessary alternative to Western medicine.

"I've had a lot of dogs that are limping and other vets can't figure out why - some of them have back pain that I can fix with one or two treatments," she says.
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For Rice, who graduated from UC Davis veterinary school and worked with San Francisco Veterinary Specialists (where she continues part-time), doing holistic medicine on animals is more rewarding than on people.
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with animals because they are more pure, they don't have the mental blocks that people have," explains Rice."If it works, it works - there is no placebo effect.That's what I like about it."

She acknowledges that there is some skepticism regarding her field, but says that most Western vets see what she does as an alternative or complementary treatment to theirs.In fact, Rice often collaborates with other vets on complicated cases.

But there can be no skepticism about a pet gone from sick to healthy.Rice remembers a patient who brought a dog with paralyzed hindquarters.Rice treated the dog for two months and then received a phone call: the owner said that while sitting at the park, the dog saw a squirrel and suddenly ran after it.

"It was really neat, I almost cried," says Rice."But then I didn't hear from them, which was a bummer.Once they get better, I don't see them anymore."

Animal acupuncture appeared in the Bay Area 50 years ago, but grew especially popular within the last decade."People lead a more health-conscious lifestyle and they want to adopt it for their pets," explains Rice.

That is why, she says, nutrition is a key part of her process.She says that a lot of problems often arise from improper diet.Yet by improper diet she doesn't mean secret snacks from the dinner table, but often just common canned food.

"People feel guilty that they feed them human food," says Rice.
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Back in the examination room, Rice leans over Patches and hooks up a box that sends a pulsating current through the dog's nerves.

While alternative medicine isn't mainstream, Vitale insists holistic practitioner Molly Rice, DVM, CVA, often is booked.

Veterinarians Molly Rice and Linda Stern

Dr. Molly Rice is a holistic veterinarian who believes that the combination of Eastern and Western medicine opens the door to a wide scope of treatment options.She holds a BS degree in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego and is a UC Davis veterinary school graduate.She worked with holistic veterinarian Dr. Ihor Basko in Kauai for a year, and has also studied with the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and the Institute of Chinese Herbology.In her spare time, Molly enjoys surfing, snowboarding and riding her thoroughbred Felix.

Molly Rice
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Molly Rice, DVM, CVA

Dr. Molly Rice is a holistic veterinarian who believes that the combination of Eastern and Western medicine opens the door to a wide scope of treatment options. She holds a BS degree in animal physiology and neuroscience from UC San Diego and is a UC Davis veterinary school graduate. She worked with holistic veterinarian Dr. Ihor Basko in Kauai for a year, and has also studied with the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and the Institute of Chinese Herbology. In her spare time, she enjoys surfing, snowboarding and riding her thoroughbred, Felix.

Dr. Molly Rice, a holistic veterinarian based in San Francisco, combines her Western medical training with ancient Eastern medicine techniques to create a procedure that has as many skeptics as believers."I have two or three vets as my clients, and I'd say the majority of Bay Area vets believe in acupuncture for pets," says Rice."But maybe 30% [of veterinarians] just think it's stupid witchery and I'm just charging people for money and the animals would just get better anyways."The acupuncture consists of sticking between six and 12 needles into the surface area of the pet's skin, if you can get them to sit still. ("Sometimes with a cat it's almost like playing darts," says Rice.) After a half-dozen 20-minute sessions ($90 each), an injured dog is usually up and walking without the need for major surgery or powerful steroids.Those are results that are converting non-believers by the dozen."Right now I have a two-month waiting list for new patients because I just can't keep up," says Rice.

Molly Rice, DVM, CVA