By Dr. Juan Gómez de la Torre, pet acupuncturist
Hello, pet lovers, I would like to thank you for your enquiries you sent me to my email address accu.pet@gmail.com. If you have any further questions, I will be very glad to respond to the best of my knowledge, like the one I received about when our pets suffer pain.
Pain may be defined as a state of continuous suffering of any living being. People, as well as animals, can be afflicted regardless of age and gender. To witness the affliction of a beloved animal companion is the heartache of any owner. Therefore, in order to relieve the pain, we must understand it.
Any pain is a signal of the nervous system indicating that something is wrong in the body. It may be due to different causes; there are sharp pains, chronic pains, throbbing pains. It could occur on any part of the body; it could be mild, moderate or severe.
Although the range of pain is extensive, it is of great importance to know the most common causes of complaints in our pets, and what can be done to relieve or cure their discomfort. As an acupuncture practitioner, the most common ailments I observe are due to arthritis, arthrosis, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, neck problems, and hernias located in the spine. Also, pain could be related to inflammation due to underlying disorders.
Unfortunately, these complaints trigger high levels of pain, but acupuncture is a very effective therapy. As I have mentioned before, the results depend on the reaction of the patient, which, in my experience, 90% of the time respond immediately and with optimal effects.
There are different possibilities to control the pain; the most common treatment is using chemical substances or drugs that will relieve the pain for a period of time. The effect of these drugs could last from eight to more hours. At that point, the medication has to be repeated. This is just a palliative solution, because the continual use of these products may generate possible undesirable side effects: we must remember that drugs are chemical substances interfering with the natural healing system of the body.
Acupuncture is a great natural tool to suppress the pain in our pets for long periods of time, because it not only alleviates the symptoms but also tackles the source of the pain. In other words, this therapy not only reduces the pain, but it solves the underlying problem, which, in turn, diminishes the use of drugs and prevent their possible harmful side effects.
As explained in previous articles, any discomfort or pain is due to the energy stagnation of one or more meridians (energy channels). The simplest explanation about pain control in acupuncture is to identify the meridians that present stagnation. Once the sick channel or meridian is pinpointed, the therapist inserts the needles to allow the Qi to flow again. One of the main advantages of this therapy is that it lets the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer, and cortisol, the anti-inflammatory hormone.
There are various procedures that acupuncturists use to perform therapies for pain control. The most common is to apply plain needles; electro-acupuncture is a stronger technique for more complex cases; aquapuncture consists in injecting vitamin B12 in the acupoints. There is also gold bead implantation, which is used to relieve pain in chronic joint diseases such as hip dysplasia or coxofemoral arthrosis.
The Chinese people have a phrase that encompasses the philosophy of acupuncture: “Li gan jian ying”which means “When you stand a pole under the sun, you immediately see its shadow.” In other words, “when we place the acupuncture needle correctly, the response of the patient has to be immediate.”
To highlight this wise proverb, I would like to share with you the case of Snoop, a very active Beagle. He came to my office with a very severe and debilitating pain. He could not walk nor was able to move his left front leg. After observing him, we detected that the problem was located in the neck: there was a cervical disc herniation. Snoop responded very well since the first day of his therapy. After five sessions of acupuncture, Snoop was able to return to his normal life. He continued receiving this alternative treatment once a month for about six months to strengthen his progress.
