VETERINARY MEDICINE

NARDIA ROBINSON, Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Veterinary Acupuncture Teacher, August 13, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: How does one keep a pet calm when approaching them with needles and then sticking them with needles?
ROBINSON: This is a common concern, but easy to address.
What we do is establish a relationship with them, forming a bond and developing trust. The biggest hurdle is to let them know that we don’t hurt them, and that we aren’t going to hold them down and do things to them that scare them and cause pain. Ideally, their mom or dad stays with them throughout the entire treatment.
By first establishing this trust, we can partner with them, foster relaxation, and create a healing environment that works to everyone’s advantage. The patient is then receptive to being worked with, and his or her nervous system isn’t “freaked out” to the point that it cancels out the subtle neurophysiologic influences that the acupuncture delivers, in order to normalize brain and nervous system functioning.
By the time it comes to doing the acupuncture, the patient is usually, then, more relaxed (many times, giving them sore treats helps). They don’t even notice the needles most of the time. It’s not like giving them “a shot”. Acupuncture needles are fine (thin) and tapered at their tips, which allows them to enter the acupuncture point with a minimal tissue disruption as possible. Soon after needle insertion, many animals become even more calm because of the endorphins that acupuncture helps to release in the nervous system. Endorphins are the body’s own morphine-like chemicals that relieve pain.
Humans can get so drowsy or “spacey” that they need to wait a while before driving home from a treatment; this means that the acupuncture has had an effect. With our non-human patients at CSU, we often find that the dogs don’t even want to leave after their treatment, and their mom or dad has to coax them to get up and go home!

MICHAEL W. FOX, “Animal Doctor” syndicated columnist, September 17, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: There was an article several months ago that University of Pennsylvania researchers had found a way to effectively treat cancers in dogs. Of course, the article cautions that they do not yet know if these methods will work on humans and that type of research may take years and may prove to not be applicable to humans. Yet I wonder: are these techniques being widely circulated among veterinarians?
FOX: Not sure if it was the vet college in PA, but one is indeed exploring autogenous vaccines made from the animals’ cancer cells. This may work for certain types of cancer like Mast cell or melanoma, and was first explored by Soviet scientists over 40 years ago. Melanomas in horses have been cleared by local application and injections of Frankincense, and I wish more research would be done on the se essential oils—gifts indeed form the animal kingdom like Vincristin from the Vinca rose that clears up transmissible venereal cancer in dogs, and helps treat lymphatic cancers in humans.