anyone else's dog had/have acupuncture?

NeverSayNever

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just wondering really?

one of our pack of BC's will be 8 next week,he is a fit and healthy lad however his agility career ended before it began as he,despite being keen as mustard, never seemed to know what he was doing with his back legs. He had many investigations and referrals to specialists and the conclusion was some sort of neurological/nerve damage in his lower back. You'd never know as a pet, other than he can be clumsy coming down steps and a bit stiff to get up sometimes and will occasionally hold a hind leg up after rest.

He has flare ups, maybe every 6 months or so where he chews the hair at the top of the underside of his tail. It took a long time for the vet to accept this wasnt anal gland related but was referred pain from his back and so he usually ends up with metacam and antibiotics.

We keep him as supple as we can with a daily routine prescribed by a canine chiro; he gets stretches and back bounces done followed by an ice pack for 10 mins. He also has 10 mins on a custom made wobble board to strengthen his back end.

Our vet recently offered him acupuncture as well and we are now 4 sessions in. So far I cant say he is any better or not tbh. He had just had a flare up when we started and certainly he was very twitchy and reactive in the muscles in the first 2 sessions and did cry out once, whereas at the session today there was little muscle reaction and he stood dozing off. This however could just be him recovering fro the flare up as he always does. We currently go every week. I wondered how others have found it helped their dog and how long it took to see the benefits?
 
My dog hasn't had acupuncture but i have seen it performed on many dogs at the vets I help at. It does generally improve the mobility of the dogs but like any other treatment it doesn't work for all dogs. I think you could be right with regards to him still healing after having a sore back end again - any sort of muscle problem will usually take a few weeks to heal completely so I would give the acupunture a few more goes before ruling it out completely. I'm not suprised he was really chilled out while having it done. Most dogs love the attention and will fall fast asleep on the floor while the vet places/twists needles. If the acupuncture doesn't work for him don't worry about asking your vet to change tack. Also it might be a good idea to get a second opinion if the vet isn't as open minded as you might like.

Hope your dog is feeling a bit more comfortable soon!
 
My dog hasn't had acupuncture but i have seen it performed on many dogs at the vets I help at. It does generally improve the mobility of the dogs but like any other treatment it doesn't work for all dogs. I think you could be right with regards to him still healing after having a sore back end again - any sort of muscle problem will usually take a few weeks to heal completely so I would give the acupunture a few more goes before ruling it out completely. I'm not suprised he was really chilled out while having it done. Most dogs love the attention and will fall fast asleep on the floor while the vet places/twists needles. If the acupuncture doesn't work for him don't worry about asking your vet to change tack. Also it might be a good idea to get a second opinion if the vet isn't as open minded as you might like.

Hope your dog is feeling a bit more comfortable soon!

thanks, we're not anywhere near ruling it out, on the contrary Im quite happy to carry on as long as needs be if it helps him, sorry not sure if my post came across clearly as we've also seen several vets and specialists with him along the line and have no hesitation in trusting the vets we are with now, we've had 7 years of this with him so are just always looking for ways that could keep him comfy and supple. Saddly, he loathes water and swimming. To be fair to all those we have seen along the way, I think his is an unusual case and difficult to diagnose, typical:rolleyes: The vet who does his sessions has said he is pretty unusual for a working BC in tolerating it tbf, quote 'you could drop a bomb on him and he wouldn't react':D Cant say the same of any of our others:o thankfully this lad is an ideal candidate for it as non of the others would be:o
 
Basically it takes about 24 hrs after the acupuncture to work, and it either works or it doesnt!! Never seems to make a jot of difference to my terrier or my old collie, but seen very strong results on hopeless cases!
 
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