Who has done acupuncture?

Hooli's doing really well, all things considered with his back. I can tell his back still bothers him though, especially at the end of the day (and his tail is down). We wanted to wait until he was totally off crate rest and got it cleared with his regular vet to start acupuncture. I know a vet who comes to the house and does it so I am in the process of setting up an appointment. Yay! I know a few of you have done it. So, I was just curious on what your experiences have been with it?

I have no experience but I am curious to see what others have to say as I would consider this for Mavis

I tried three sessions of acupuncture with Kayla, but she never settled enough during the sessions to get any benefit from it, so the holistic vet recommended we stop doing it. I hope it helps Hooli - and how nice they'll come to your home to do it!

dieselsmom wrote:I tried three sessions of acupuncture with Kayla, but she never settled enough during the sessions to get any benefit from it, so the holistic vet recommended we stop doing it. I hope it helps Hooli - and how nice they'll come to your home to do it!

I was wondering if it was hard to get them to settle down for it. I'll be curious to see how Hooli reacts-I'm guessing if I can feed him treats, he'll be fine.

I did 12 sessions with Winston. It was hard getting him to settle down, I had to hold him the whole 15 minutes. We sat on the floor and even then we lost some of the needles. At first, it did do some good, we saw improvement. After 12 sessions though, there was no more improvement, so the vet and I decided to discontinue it.

I haven't tried it, but my friend had good luck with it with her very geriatric Australian shepherds, who finally went to the Bridge at 17 years old.

We've tried it!

It actually has helped Ichiro quite a bit.

We went to the vet's office for the appointments, I guess I just felt less distracted there. The first time, he squirmed a little bit when the needles were going in, but he settled right down and did just fine. In fact, most of the time, once the needles are in, he lays down.

We also did laser light therapy as part of the acupuncture, and we put him on muscle relaxers, Methocarbamol.

Overall, the acupuncture, light therapy and meds helped him to not be so restless when he was feeling pain. His tail has never come back up, and I doubt it ever will, but the pain has lessened and he can walk longer now.

I had it done on my cat Lizzy(RIP)and would do it again on all of my pets if they needed it. The acupuncture helped so much in the last 6 months of Lizzy's life. It made her comfortable and pain free.



Trish

My foster, Biscuit, goes every 3 weeks. We just got back from her 4th treatment today. I was told when she came into rescue that she could barely walk, her CHF was pretty bad and she was incontinent. She now walks fine (prances actually), her lungs and heart sound clear and she has not had any potty issues in a very long time. It's made a huge difference for her. She's fed low-fat treats broken up into very small pieces during her session to keep her calm for the 20 minutes. I only gave her a couple treats today and then she laid down for the last 10 minutes or so. She's now laying on the bed snoring away. I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I am excited to try it. I'll document it, so I can see if there are any changes.

One of my friends has this done to her pug, she says sometimes she can tell a difference in her and others not so much. I know her pug has cancer but she has it done for another reason that I can't recall.

I figure it's worth a try.

I have been taking Baby Girl for the past year and 1/2. Dr. B is a holistic vet that does chiropractic care, acupuncture, and nutrition consultations. I did talk to my regular vet prior to taking Baby Girl. Dr. B was very upfront that it helps for some animals and not for others. When we first started, Baby Girl was still recovering from her episode where we woke up and she just couldn't use her back legs. We did a round of steriods with our regular vet and got her to a point where she could at least use her legs. We don't think that she is in any pain, but she has compressed disks. Having said all of that, we are supposed to go every 4-6 weeks (depending on when I can get BG in), but I have not gone all summer (my fault) and I can tell a difference in BG's mobility. Dr. B also targerts her bladder control which I can tell a difference after. I have to sit in the floor with her otherwise she will squirm and b*tch the whole. Afterwards, she runs around like a maniac and then crashes out on the entire ride home. I do think she is tired the next day too.

I fostered a pug at one time who had accupunture. He was very gentle and kept very still. It took about four sessions before I could see any difference in his walking and back. I think we did it twice a week. In the end he was adopted by one of the rescues vets. She fell in love with him the first time she saw him and she could also do the accupunture. He led a life of luxury with her and hung out in her office while she was at work. She also had a Boston and another pug,

We tried acupuncture for Pugsy years ago & had the same problem with her not settling down so we stopped doing it with her. She would get so stressed out on the way there that it just wasn't worth it to me. We also did it for Buster after his back leg was amputated and I do think that it helped him a lot. Our foster Zoe goes once a month (for her epilepsy) & I don't know if it really helps her or not, but it's so funny to see how this hyper little spaz of a pug relaxes once the needles are in! Good luck!

It was very interesting! She's a "regular" vet too, so she was great at explaning to me exactly what was wrong with Hooli (we had the x rays) in a way where I understood it a lot better than with the specialist. After the session, his back was noticably less roached, so we are going to do it twice a week for a few weeks to get his pain under control. She also gave me some great tips, and what to look for in case he's injured his back again in order to get him into the vet ASAP-none of which I knew before!



The funny part was, he was fine during the session, and the pugcat kept intruding and wanting in on the action.

So glad to hear it's going to work for Hooli!!

So I just wanted to give an update in case anyone searches for acupuncture. It's been a huge help. I was a skeptic but figured it wouldn't hurt. We try to do it once a week now (and laser treatment too), and the few times I had to skip it, I could really tell a difference. You can just tell when he feels better-his tail is up, he plays with his toys, his back is less arched. The best part is, we've made it into a special one on one time with him. We actually figured out the best place to do it is at a park; it's away from the house, and he LOVES watching other dogs/kids. It keeps him occupied. And he gets tons of attention.