Experience of equine acupuncture??

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Ivebeentangoed

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A friend suggested to me to get an equine acupuncturist out for Tango, apparently her horse had KS and it helped her immensely.

Its quite expensive though, around £200 for the first session and was just interested to see if anyone has had any experience of this type of treatment?

Thanks xx
 
My vet is also a physio and uses acupuncture as part of the treatment, it seems to have helped my horse's sore back, he was very sensitive to normal pressure, but relaxed visibly with the needles in (they came out bent!)

I don't know if its worked in the long term as the problem is ongoing, but it did help at the time. Didn't cost that much, about £40 for a 40 min session (excluding the other 'vet' bits like flexion tests etc) I took the horse to the surgery so no travel either.

Good luck with it, and i'd be interested to know if anyone else found it helpful.
 
Again it shouldn't be that expensive. It should be about the cost of vet call out and a bit extra, as it is only vets in the UK that are allowed to practice accupuncture. The challenge with that not all vets know the whole theory being accupuncture and all the points available. Quite often they will know of some points that are beneficial in certain areas - eg around the hock or other problem areas.

Have you considered shiatsu? Shaitsu works on exactly the same principles as accupuncture. The key differences are that it
- uses finger pressure instead of needles - this means it is not as deep as accupuncture, but would give you a taste of what it can do
- looks at the whole body not just a problem area - the practitioner may therefore know of more point that could help, and sometimes while there is a specific problem area, there is a cause which might be elsewhere or the effects of the injury or issue area may impact on the rest of the horse. Eg if it has a soreness in its back, then it may stand in a particular way to try and ease that. This will impact muscles elsewhere, circulation of blood and lymph etc.
- shiatsu also incorporates (also some accupuncturists do this too) massage like techniques and gentle joint rotations and stretches, which can help ease muscles and reduce any stress, which obviously helps healing.

If you want to find a practitioner try The Equine Shiatsu Association website, or let me know where you are and I can ask around my fellow practitioners to see if we can recommend someone in your area.

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