Loved ones get relief from healing needles
THIS WON’T HURT A BIT: Chocolate, a miniature dachshund, receives acupuncture therapy to help with a herniated lumbar disc, at a veterinary hospital in Tokyo, Japan PETS in pain, from dogs and cats to horses and dolphins, are having needles stuck into them as part of an increasingly popular treatment.
It’s acupuncture for animals, and according to vets practising the ancient Chinese treatment, it’s being embraced as an alternative to conventional medicine.
Consultation fees vary depending on the extent of the treatment, but an initial visit to the vet could set a pet lover back about R900.
Acupuncture involves placing thin needles into specific points on the animal’s body to treat musculoskeletal problems including muscle pain, spasms and lameness due to a type of arthritis.
“The demand for animal acupuncture is growing in South Africa. We are generally a few years behind countries like the UK and US when it comes to adoption of complementary therapies,” said Dr Jimmy Symmonds of the Happy Animal Clinic in Cape Town.
“However, it is catching on and veterinarians in South Africa are beginning to get trained and offer acupuncture in their clinics.”
Symmonds said many traditional therapies were being validated by modern science and “acupuncture is one of the treatments that can easily be integrated into the modern animal healthcare system”.
Businesswoman and socialite Sorisha Naidoo is hopeful that acupuncture will give her 15-year-old pug, Mase, who is in a wheelchair, a new lease of life. Mase gained weight after she was spayed, which placed pressure on her hind legs and left her immobile for a year, despite undergoing costly surgery.
“I have been pressured to put her down. But I can’t, she’s my child,” Naidoo said. “I have to make every effort to save her. I don’t want to put her down as she is very much alive and has lots of attitude.”
Naidoo decided to try acupuncture after learning that a relative’s pug had become mobile again with the treatment. “I’m hopeful that my Mase will be OK again.”
Johannesburg vet Dr Jan Still said acupuncture had become increasingly appreciated as a “drug-free alternative veterinary treatment”.
“In general, animals tolerate needling and injections well, which is often exemplified by their relaxed attitude during the acupuncture treatment. This is so especially in horses, who often lower their heads, start to chew and become quiet and relaxed.”
Still said that, depending on the nature of the condition, two to four treatments were “usually necessary to achieve positive results characterised by pain relief, muscle relaxation or improvement of movement”.
Symmonds said the treatment was used mainly on cats, dogs and horses. “But it is also used successfully on other domesticated animals like dairy cows, pigs, pet birds and even wildlife like dolphins.”
Acupuncture could be used both as an alternative and as a complementary treatment. “For example, a dog with a very severe slipped disc may experience significant back pain and paralysis of their back legs. In these cases, surgery to reduce the pressure on the spinal cord may give us the best results and acupuncture can be used post-operatively to help speed up the recovery.”