Has your dog received acupuncture treatments?

[janie]

My Staffie Bull Terrier/Pit Bull Justice was hit by a car, incurred brachial nerve damage & is going to the acupuncturist this Friday. I hope this course of action helps, but wonder if any of you have been through this with your pet.

[Cindidoxiemom]

My dog Oscar recieved acupuncture for IVDD.

[kristenv]

Hi Janie,
I am so sorry to hear about your dog!
My doxie had accupuncture after both his back surgeries (March 07 and Nov 07) to help with pain etc. It seemed to be very helpful both times, although there were spots that were too tender at that time to work in. It also depends on how your dog does overall in temperment, as if they are wiggly and anxious it presents obvious difficulties. Samy had 3 treatment in March and 2 in November.
Another helpful treatment was E-stim (for the nerve issue).
Good luck!!!
Kristen

[maryteresa76]

My dog received acupuncture a few times within the week after IVDD surgery. (I also get acupuncture myself for various things. I am very lucky to have a good friend who is an acupuncturist or I would never be able to afford it.) It was really wonderful for pain relief for my dog. She was extermely uncomfortable after her surgery, and was crying and refusing to eat for a couple days. As soon as they put a couple needles in her, she fell right asleep. It was amazing.) It's also good for things like reducing swelling, inflammation, things along those lines. It won't repair nerves, so to speak, but if treating pain, swelling, inflammation, etc. improve your dog's condition, then for sure you will find it helpful! Good luck!

[Tiffany]

Hello, I am so sorry to here about your dog, My GSD Eros also injured his Brachiel Plexus, His was a partial injury it took about 6 months for the feeling to come back but when it happened they told me there was no telling, it could take months or years and possibly never heal. I would like to hear a little more about your dogs injuries Eros was really banged up when he was hit maybe I could help a little.=-) I wish you the best of luck.
Tiffany Eros (RIP) and Sadie (my newest edition)

[janie]

Hi Janie,
It also depends on how your dog does overall in temperment, as if they are wiggly and anxious it presents obvious difficulties. Kristen

The ol' wigglebutt. Since Justice is a high-energy dog I'm concerned about him being bale to hold still for even a minute to receive the treatment!

[janie]

I would like to hear a little more about your dogs injuries Eros was really banged up when he was hit maybe I could help a little.=-)

Thanks, Tiffany. Justice is keeping a blog on myspace http://www.myspace.com/porkish_finkelton

Justice took the brunt of the impact to his left shoulder and was dragged beneath the vehicle for about 60 feet. He had road rash wherever his fleece coat didn't cover, but no broken bones or internal injuries other than damage to the brachial nerves. He has no or little feeling in his left leg and cannot carry his weight on it. The leg is not stiff or turned inwards - he does have movement in that shoulder. Much to my concern he has been nibbled the nail on his duclaw off. We've tried and are still trying various ways to protect his paw from being nibbled. He's a chewer and will chew through boots.

[Cindidoxiemom]

. Much to my concern he has been nibbled the nail on his duclaw off. We've tried and are still trying various ways to protect his paw from being nibbled. He's a chewer and will chew through boots.

Ask your vet or neuro about Neurontin. It has been successful in other cases of dog self mutilation due to neuro damage. It may just stop your pup from chewing on himself.
Cindi

[Caroline]

Hi and welcome!

Sorry to hear about you boy, this is a good place to be.
How old is your dog?
My dog has nerve damage in his neck from a accident.
We are going on three months now and he has shown great improvement. But he is by no means the dog he was before.
I heard that it takes a month for ever 5th of a cetimeter of nerve to heal or reroute its self.

Does your dog have tremors or the shakes in his limbs?

I will keep an eye out for your posts, because, if you do take him for acupuncture, I would like to hear if it helps.

Keep the faith

[cabbysmom]

My 10 yr old lab is undergoing acupuncture. She's had 3 sessions with no positive results. She had spinal surgery for disc protusion 6 weeks ago. We are scheduled for 1 more treatment and the vet says that there is little hope of recovery after that if she shows no response. In general, I think acupunction is helpful but the vet says overall condition of the pet pre-injury, pet's attitude and time between injury and surgery are important issues w/respect to recovery. For whatever reason, it does not appear that our dog will recover use of her back legs. I hope you have a better outcome.

[critters]

My 10 yr old lab is undergoing acupuncture. She's had 3 sessions with no positive results. She had spinal surgery for disc protusion 6 weeks ago. We are scheduled for 1 more treatment and the vet says that there is little hope of recovery after that if she shows no response. .

Gotta disagree with the "little hope of recovery" bit only 6 weeks out. Critters can improve for up to a couple of years after a spinal cord injury, and there's no way to predict what's going to happen.

[puremutt]

Hi Janie did you get a treatment in the meantime?
I had accupunture done on my dog in the beginning, it did help.
But he didn't like going there so we put a muzzle on.
All other dogs there were very relaxed while getting the needles in.
You can buy muzzles in every petstore.

[WhippetLover]

Hi Janie
My dog, Slim, was hit by a car and has the exact same damage as your Justice--even on the same leg! I watched the video on your website and Justice gets around exactly the way Slim does.

Immediately after Slim's car accident, I did electro-acupuncture and felt it helped tremenduously. The vets wanted to amputate but I wanted to give him a year of healing before making such a permanent decision. I'm glad I waited. It took about 3 months for all of the feeling to return to the leg and I think the acupuncture helped speed it up. He then started to walk slowly, putting weight on the leg about 6 months after the accident. However, the carpus remains limp so he 'cheats' his walk a bit by using the strenghth from his shoulder and foreleg to flip out the carpus and put the weight down. If that makes any sense...

I then signed up for hydrotherapy which really helped with the muscle tone. He puts weight on the bad foot when he's walking slowly and it helps with his balance. But when he walks quickly or runs, he hikes the shoulder up a bit and lifts the leg. It dangles along beside him when he runs. So far, I see no reason to amputate and am impressed by the recovery I have seen so far. I have a feeling his recovery is as good as it's going to get but I don't know for sure. Nerve damage is unpredictable that way.

Give Justice as much time as you can. Slim gets around just as well as he did before--it just looks a little more awkward. He's a whippet and is still the fastest dog in park --even on 3 legs!

How are you protecting Justice's paw when it drags?

And finally, keep pinching, stretching and playing with his foot. His entire leg, in fact. You've likely noticed the atrophying at this point and there's not much you can do to keep that from happening. But you must be rigourous about keeping his foot flexible so that it doesn't stiffen from the lack of use. Use range of motion exercises that incorporate his entire foot. There's a link on this site to some of the exercises. The natural inclination is for the leg to freeze at a 90 degree angle. To stop that, you must keep strecthing the leg. When he's just standing around, keep the bad foot flipped out so that he doesn't get used to having it curled under. Good luck--Justice will continue to amaze you!

[janie]

Justice has received two acupuncture treatments so far and we've met with a physical therapist to learn various stretching and massage techniques to perform on Justice. The PT was very encouraged that Justice has use of his shoulder muscles - he uses those muscles to flip his lower leg out and to hold up his leg (he can give you his paw). The leg has experienced a lot of atrophy - it's quite alarming compared to the very robost and meaty right leg, but I understand the left leg won't atrophy past this point. Next visit the PT will perform electrostimulus to the muscle groups to see if there is still any nerve function left. If not...ugh.

Justice will be fitted with a supportive splint boot to encourage him to properly position his leg to bear some weight. Currently he is wearing a baby splint wrap to position his leg, but just wears a boot over his paw outside to protect the top of his paw that he drags.

Amazingly,Justice received the acupuncture treatment well. It took several minutes for him to relax for the treatment, but afterwards he's re-aaaaalllly mellow. At some point he'll do water therapy.

All in all, he is a happy boy who still wants to rough-house with our other dog. He has so much energy that I wish I could take him for walks to burn it off, but we have to restrict his walks to short slow (hahaha, as if that's possible) ones for now.

Thanks fo rsharing your advice and stories - "Whippetlover" - our stories are amazingly similar - we need to keep in touch!

[cathartt]

My standard poodle has gone to the accupuncturist once a week for the last 10 months for neurological aging disorder that causes her to lose control of her back legs. It really helps tremendously! Also, she was having motor seizures once a week for a few months and I had my chiropractor do cranial sacral work on her and she hasn't had a seizure since she started 3 months ago. Good luck!