What You Need to Know Before Your Pet’s Upcoming Treatment
1. Is acupuncture painful? How will my pet react? There is occasionally a brief moment of sensitivity as the hair thin needle penetrates the skin in certain sensitive areas. Once the needles are in place most pets relax, often falling asleep during the treatment. Fearful and wiggly pets can be a challenge but not because of pain.
2. How much time does the treatment take? Treatments may last from 10 seconds to 30 minutes depending upon the condition being treated and the method of treatment employed. There are several different ways of stimulating the acupuncture points: Insertion of Japanesse or Chinese stainless steel needles; injection of the points with a liquid such as Vit. B12, homeopathic remedies or sterile water; applying pressure to the points; stimulating the points with laser, infrared, moxi or electrical stimulation.
3. How many treatments are required? Patients are generally treated weekly for 3 to 6 weeks. A positive treatment can be noticed the first few visits. Improvement in the condition being treated is normally noticed within the first 6 treatments. Some chronic conditions can take dozens of treatments. Once improvement is noticed no additional treatments may be required. Some conditions will require lifelong treatment at 4 to 6 week intervals.
4. What condition respond to acupuncture? Acupuncture stimulates the body’s own healing responses so most conditions that would improve with pain medications, sterioids and other hormones will respond to acupuncture. Other conditions also respond although we may not understand why. Acupuncture is not a panacea or cure-all but where it is indicated it can work very well without the use of drugs and medications.