NEW SCOTLAND — A variety of animals visit a veterinary clinic in Clarksville, from agility dogs that literally jump through hoops for their owners, to asthmatic cats.

Kristin Gundersen, the owner of Alternative Veterinary Therapies, started her own practice in the spring of 2014. She had worked in the area as a veterinarian at various clinics for several years, but when she was pregnant she decided to set up a business where she could still spend time with her daughter. Alternative Veterinary Therapies was set up in a house in Clarksville, with her daughter and her dog staying in the kitchen during the day before they all return to their home in Berne. With an increase in demand for her practice, Gundersen’s business will be moving to a larger building in Clarksville this weekend.

Gundersen practices holistic, or integrated, veterinary care. This includes practices like acupuncture, spinal adjustment, herbal medicine, pain management, physical rehabilitation, and nutritional management. Instead of a metal table, a soft mat can be unfolded in one of the two rooms where Gundersen sees her patients. A dog owner can often be seen walking a patient outside.

Gundersen’s employees say, that, while many pets cower while going to the veterinarian, her patients are eager to be there.

Gundersen says she has always been interested in holistic veterinary care. But when she graduated from Washington State University with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, it wasn’t a well-known practice. She later moved to Canada with her Canadian husband, who is a horse veterinarian, and worked as a conventional veterinarian.

She moved to the Capital Region in 2006 and worked as a relief veterinarian, substituting for absent veterinarians when needed, including for Parkside Veterinary Hospital, where she eventually worked full-time with the holistic veterinarian Nina Caires, who renewed her interest in the practice. Gundersen started doing some work with holistic care alongside conventional veterinary care.

“Over time, the holistic aspect took over,” said Gundersen. “I’m really happy that it did.”

Gundersen became trained in acupuncture, and then traveled to different clinics to perform acupuncture, before eventually setting up her own practice. Gundersen now has four part-time employees, and she works as the sole veterinarian at her practice.

Gundersen estimates her patients to be 80 percent dogs, 19 percent cats, and one percent other small animals or exotics. She also says half are what are known as performance animals: they perform in television or commercials, compete in dog shows, hunt, and run agility courses.

“They’re athletes,” said Gundersen. “And they come in for injury prevention.”

One such patient, Quincy, a Boston terrier, has a portfolio of his work, including advertisements for retail stores.

The other half of her patients are older, injured, or sick. Such ailments include cancer or injuries, but most commonly arthritis or neurological issues.

Gundersen says another reason that animals are brought in is because they have “run out of treatments” in conventional medicine and are seeking a new remedy.

“That is very gratifying,” said Gundersen. She says her treatments are useful in that they often treat a range of ailments from which an animal may be suffering.

“In Western medicine, we tend to focus on one problem area,” she said, “and not remembering there is a whole animal attached.”

With animals suffering from cancer or even old age, Gundersen often witnesses patients who die, which she says can be emotionally stressful.

“I get very attached to my patients,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s also very gratifying at the same time.”

Gundersen sees about 12 to 16 patients a day between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., she says, but is often in the office from 7:30 a.m. until 8 p.m.. She says she tries to come in from Monday to Thursday but often finds herself coming in other days.

“It’s a good problem to have,” she said. The demand for this kind of care is growing, she says, and her business is now booking clients as far ahead as March. The growth has led Gundersen’s business to move to a different location this weekend. The new building will be about a mile west of the current structure, and will have more parking spaces and more rooms to accommodate a growing clientele.

Gundersen says she believes a growing demand for holistic veterinary care in general stems from more clinics offering such care, as well as people becoming more aware of it as an option.

“I think in general our Western medicine culture is becoming more aware of some of the adverse effects that can happen, especially with medications but also with surgery, too,” she said, adding that people are now “looking for alternatives to those that might be gentler or safer on the body of safer treatments.”