Acupuncture.
Relieve pain, treat specific issues, or promote general well-being.
What does acupuncture do?
Acupuncture improves the body's functions and promotes the natural self-healing process by stimulating specific anatomic sites-commonly referred to as acupuncture points, or acupoints.
Traditional Chinese Medicine sees the body as having inherent self-healing properties and mechanisms. Acupuncture functions to stimulate and support these properties within the body.
Conditions that can benefit from acupuncture:
Pain due to arthritis, intervertebral disc disease, tendonitis and traumatic nerve injury
Immune-mediated problems including asthma, skin allergies and inflammatory bowel disease
Behavioral problems such as anxiety and sleep disorders
Nausea and lack of appetite due to medications or chronic diseases such as kidney failure or cancer
Urinary incontinence or inappropriate urination
Seizures
Types of acupuncture.
Dry needling: The insertion of very thin needles into specific points on the body. This is what most people think of as “acupuncture”.
Aquapuncture: The injection of small amounts of Vitamin B12 into specific acupuncture points. This technique is helpful when an animal will not tolerate an acupuncture needle in place for 15 minutes. The injection of fluid creates sustained pressure around the point and can result in a similar effect of dry needling. Vitamin B12 (also known as cobalamin) has its own potential benefits as it is a substance used for metabolism by every cell in the body, especially within the nervous system and production of blood. Vitamin B12 is very safe with no known drug interactions.
Electroacupuncture: The process of attaching a low level electrical current to needles placed at acupuncture points. This technique is employed to increase stimulation of the points to have a stronger effect for more chronic or severe conditions or for a longer lasting effect. Electroacupuncture may not be appropriate in some pets if they have a history of cardiac arrhythmias or seizures.
Laser acupuncture: For animals that do not tolerate needles, a specialized cold laser can instead be used to stimulate the acupuncture points
Common Questions:
Is acupuncture painful?
Most of the time, animals barely seem to notice the tiny needles being inserted. They often relax and appear to enjoy the treatment sessions. Once in a while, we may find a sensitive point, and if the animal seems to be in any discomfort for more than a few seconds, the needle will be removed.
Sometimes we find that dogs or cats just don’t want their paws touched, so the acupuncture points in these areas may or may not be an option to treat.
The goal is for the treatment to be a pleasant experience for your pet and for your pet to be relaxed and calm enough for the needs to have the maximum effect.
Is acupuncture safe?
When acupuncture is performed by a trained veterinarian, there are very few side effects or possible complications. Due to the practice of using sterile, single-use needles, risk of infection is very low.
There can be minor bruising or bleeding and rarely, acupuncture can make the condition worse before it becomes better. These are often the cases that eventually have the most dramatic improvement.
One exception is cancer. Since acupuncture can increase local blood flow, there is the potential that a tumor could be stimulated to grow. That being said, many animals have concurrent conditions, along with a known tumor, such as arthritis pain or gastrointestinal issues, and these can often still be treated successfully.
Additionally, many animals undergoing chemotherapy or radiation for cancer can benefit from acupuncture due to anti-nausea and pain-relieving effects. It is important to discuss any concerns and weigh the risk versus the benefit when using acupuncture in patients with cancer.
What is included in the initial consultation?
The initial consultation will take approximately one hour and will include a review of any pertinent prior medical records, a detailed discussion of your pets’ history, current concerns, and treatment goals as well as a physical assessment (from both a typical Western and TCM perspective) and the first acupuncture treatment.
What can I expect after the first treatment?
Animals, just like people, can have varying responses to acupuncture. Some will seem sleepy for the remainder of the day, while some will appear energized. Some will have an immediate improvement after just one treatment and some will require multiple treatments. There is a small percentage of animals that will show no improvement at all.
Follow-up treatments will take approximately 30 minutes. Depending on your pet’s response to the initial treatment, the same points and techniques may be used or we may try something different. It is recommended that you commit to 4 treatments in order to determine if further treatment will be beneficial.
What the studies say.
“We conclude that, when used alone or combined with analgesics, AP and related techniques reduced pain and improved quality of life in dogs with neurological and musculoskeletal diseases. Dogs with musculoskeletal disorders had a better improvement in chronic pain and locomotion than those with neurological disorders. The clinical relevance of our findings is that AP is an important conservative therapeutic tool to be included in the multimodal treatment protocols of neurological and musculoskeletal diseases in dogs.”