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Have you given consideration to acupuncture for dogs treatments if you loyal pooch is suffering from illness or other medical conditions? While a somewhat little known way to treat many of the same conditions humans develop, using acupuncture techniques on your dog does work, and without any of the normal side effects associated with prescribed medications. Plus you will cut down on all those expensive visits to the vet.
Acupuncture for dogs
Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in Oriental cultures with great success. Small needles are inserted into the body at strategic locations to heal everything from arthritis to back pain. Now acupuncture for dogs is catching on with holistic vets as well as traditional veterinarians who recognize the effectiveness of this form of treating many common dog ailments. Veterinarian acupuncture is being used to treat pain, increase the function of internal organs, and increase the ability of your dog’s immune system to ward off illness. Through the use of sterilized needles inserted along what is known as the meridian pathway the needles are used in various locations to treat many different conditions. Occasionally a small electrical charge is used in conjunction with the needles to achieve the desired healing.
Acupuncture for dogs begins with a complete physical examination by your vet. If conditions warrant the need for acupuncture your vet will schedule your dog with a certified dog acupuncturist. This individual will also do a thorough examination and decide on the best procedures for healing your dog. Most of these procedures average 10 to 12 minutes, but can be as short as 1 minute or up to 30 minutes. Dogs do not feel any pain and results for simple issues are felt immediately by the dog and one visit is normally all that is called for. More complex medical conditions and illnesses often require weekly visits until the problem is healed. As your dog responds to weekly visits the acupuncture practitioner will gradually increase the time between visits as the conditions being treated show signs of responding until they are gone completely.
The ailments acupuncture for dogs can heal include skin disorders, internal organ disorders which otherwise may require complicated and possible fatal surgery, muscle and skeletal abnormalities, painful joints due to arthritis and loss of bone strength, neurological illness, female dogs reproductive issues as well as male dogs with problems siring litters of pups. Acupuncture has also been shown to increase the endurance and agility in all breeds of dogs.
Some other things that were improved by canine acupuncture, according to an article on Acupuncture.com:
Favorable acupuncture results have been reported in the treatment of many other canine conditions, including the following: cardiovascular disorders (9), chronic respiratory conditions (10), dermatological disorders (11), gastrointestinal disorders (12), gynecological disorders (13), immune-mediated disorders (14), male reproductive disorders (15), musculoskeletal disorders (16), neurological disorders (17), reproductive disorders (18), thoracolumbar and cervical disc disease (19, 20).
How do you feel about this subject? Please leave comments below.
Stevie Swendsen
Sep 5, 2013 at 6:57 pm
We had our lil rat terrier go through some serious back pain before trying acupuncture. It does work, depending on the situation (at least from our experience). Thanks for sharing the info on it!
Chicago Acupuncture
Jan 15, 2013 at 3:51 am
Actually I haven’t heard of Acupuncture for dogs but I’ve read that it does not only works for human but also for animals.
Ellen Hatcher
Jan 5, 2013 at 10:19 am
A foster dachshund who is about 11 years old and 13# that I eventually adopted who had bi-lateral scarring between his rib cage and his hip joint (probably from a large dog attack when he was young) was having some pain issues. He is on some ongoing meds and chondroitin and glucasomine supplements also. But we determined that the scar tissue had adhered to his abdominal wall on one side. Rather than risk a surgical intervention that might not work, we tried acupuncture (my own vet is a certified acupuncturist). We did 3 treatments spaced her about a week apart. Continuing with the oral meds, he is now moving much more easily and even jauntily about.
Karl Schuck
Jan 5, 2013 at 3:10 am
My aging yellow lab has a rather arthritic knee (hip is fine). He gets accupuncture about every two weeks. Significant improvement.
Maria v Baerle
Jan 4, 2013 at 10:51 am
My GSD got acupuncture for about 3 years, every 5 weeks. It worked, she had painful hips, less musclepower. She loved it,it was relaxing and the walking improved amazingly! I was insured, so the costs didn’t matter.
Jill Smith
Jan 4, 2013 at 10:19 am
We tried acupuncture with gold beads on our epileptic black lab mix, about 11 years ago. She was seizure- free for 6 weeks! Unfortunately, the cost was too prohibitive to continue with the procedure as an on- going treatment.