Who benefits from acupuncture?
Acupuncture is most commonly used in veterinary patients to help alleviate arthritic, neurologic or soft tissue pain. Many of our patients experience improvement in energy and mobility and have significantly less pain or discomfort. Some patients can even decrease or stop pain medication! Acupuncture is also an extremely effective adjunct treatment in many other ailments such as gastrointestinal problems, liver or kidney disease, seizures or cancer.
Acupuncture at Healing Paws
In our practice, approximately eighty percent of dogs and cats respond to acupuncture
Strong responders may show improvement after one or two treatments
Most pets require four to six sessions before they display measurable benefits
A typical acupuncture treatment is fifteen to twenty minutes. During an acupuncture appointment, your dog or cat lies on a comfortable bed. Six to twenty stainless steel sterile needles are placed in specific acupuncture points on the head, back or extremities. Acupuncture causes endorphins (natural relaxing hormones) to be released which helps pets to relax or even fall asleep. Cranial sacral work, moxa (heated mugwort) or electroacupuncture may be added to your pet’s treatment.
Treatments are more frequent in the beginning and are spaced less frequently as improvement is achieved. Our ultimate goal is to see your pet as infrequently as possible while still maintaining the desired acupuncture effect. Most senior pets receive acupuncture every 4-8 weeks.
The History of Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient form of healing that predates recorded history. Acupuncture is many thousands of years old with primitive Chinese cultures using stone shaped needles for medical treatments in the New Stone Age (4,000-10,000 years ago). The first written text addressing acupuncture is called The Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine). The Nei Jing was compiled around 305-204 B.C. Acupuncture is now practiced world-wide and is integrated into many different healing philosophies. In recent decades, science has been able to explain the physiology of acupuncture points and what happens in the body when they are stimulated with acupuncture needles. We can now incorporate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) philosophies with modern medical understanding.