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Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine
Acupuncture is a technique which lends itself readily to rebalancing, pain relief, and long term disease control in most companion and exotic animals. It bridges a gap between medicine and surgery and serves as a complementary treatment to many well established therapies. It involves the insertion of needles through the skin at certain set points to relieve discomfort and cause an effect. The stimulation of specific points on the body has the ability to alter various biochemical and physiologic conditions in order to achieve therapeutic effects. This technique has been used successfully for nearly 4000 years in both animals and humans.
How does Acupuncture work?
Several theories about its mechanisms center on manipulation of neurotransmitter release and interneuron activation in the spinal cord and brain. Insertion of needles into specific points increases local and distant circulation, reduces muscle spasm, stimulates proper nerve function, and stimulates cells to produce healing compounds, and can cause overall increase in body system function. In small animals, acupuncture is used most commonly for musculoskeletal problems (arthritis, dysplasia, sore backs, trauma pain), skin and respiratory problems, nerve or back injuries, gastrointestinal motility problems, renal and heart disease, and epilepsy. There have been published reports of numerous other conditions in both human and animal patients responding to acupuncture as well. Geriatric patients seem to be the ideal candidates because of the multiplicity of old -age problems known to improve with acupuncture.
While it is not meant to be a cure-all or panacea, where it is indicated, acupuncture works well. Most dogs and cats respond quite favorably to the treatments (some are performed once to twice a week, most every 2-4 weeks); many will even fall asleep during the treatment. Stimulation of a pet's acupuncture points can occur through actual needle insertion (the needles are very tiny!), injection of homeopathic substances, pressure of the acupuncturist's fingers and electrostimuation. Sessions may take as little as 5 minutes or as much as 30 minutes. Once a maximum positive response is seen (usually within 2-3 treatments), treatments are tapered off and occur once to three times a year.
Overall, acupuncture is considered one of the most benign or safe treatments utilized if practiced by a competent individual, mostly because it utilizes the body's own (neuro/hormonal) chemicals to heal. It is just one of an armament of tools used to treat companion animals and a valuable pain control therapy which complements our conventional veterinary care. Other integrative therapies which can be utilized include herbal and homeopathic remedies often administered via oral, injectable and even transdermal administration.
We would be happy to discuss whether these therapies including acupuncture to determine if they would be appropriate for your pet.
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