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Ancient treatment eases pet ailment |
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HONG KONG: Wong Fei-hung squirms nervously as the doctor starts to insert stainless steel needles into his back and lifeless legs.
He has not been able to walk since sustaining a spine injury, but the acupuncture treatments are helping. Before, he could not even stand.
Once the last of the 17 special acupuncture pins is delicately twisted into his skin, Fei-hung, who shares a name with the cool kung fu master of Hong Kong movie fame, looks more at ease.
"Fei-hung likes it," said his doctor, Betty Chan. "It makes him feel better."
Too bad dogs cannot talk, because by the time the needles are plucked out after 10 minutes, Fei-hung's tongue lolls from his mouth and the three-year-old Pekinese appears downright pleased. And that is not just because 2006 is the Year of the Dog.
The ancient Chinese art of inserting fine needles into the skin at specific points to cure ailments or ease pain by stimulating "qi" or vital energy, has been used on humans for 2,000 years.
Now vets are catching on and using acupuncture to handle an array of ailments, from paralysis to skin disease, tumours to arthritis call it a new trick to treat old dogs.
And it does not stop with acupuncture, either.
At the Tin Hau Pet Hospital, veterinarian Grace Li treats her 14-year-old cocker spaniel, Lui Lui, with acupuncture for a skin disease described in traditional Chinese medicine parlance as an excess of "damp heat."
She also administers homeopathic remedies to sick animals. Cats take particularly well to herbs with calming properties, she said. Her clinic also offers animal aromatherapy consultations and advice on organic pet diets.
"As we domesticate our pets into an urban landscape, we deny them the plants and herbs that animals in the wild seek out in nature when ill," says the brochure.
Allowing your pet to sniff out the essential oil that is right for him or her is key, it says.
"A holistic lifestyle should not be limited to humans."
In China, old charts showing acupuncture points on horses and camels are considered proof that the art was used on animals in ancient times, but not dogs or cats.
Ironically, Li said, acupuncture for house pets is a spin-off from the holistic health and Eastern medicine fad that sprouted in the West in the 1970s. She and Chan were both trained in Australia.
A small handful of veterinarian acupuncturists are introducing it to Hong Kong, where people widely use Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, and there are literally thousands of clinics.
"They take herbs and they are having acupuncture all along, but they can never connect the two things together, acupuncture and pets," Li said.
Acupuncture for pets, like acupuncture for people, has its detractors who, at the extreme, consider it quackery despite studies that show it can be effective.
Practitioners and pet owners who have tried it know better.
Chan recalls her best success story to date, an 11-year-old Pekinese called Luen Mo, or "Curly Hair."
In March, Luen Mo's owner brought him in for acupuncture as a last resort when Western vet medicine could not help after he became completely paralyzed after falling off a couch.
For weeks, Chan stuck needles into the small pooch, and Luen Mo made gradual progress. First, he could move a bit. Then, he could scratch his ears. Finally, on June 25, the dog walked into the clinic for the first time.
"It's amazing what needles can do," she said. "Seeing is believing."
Source: China Daily
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