Veterinary acupuncture

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

This sounds really good 

[Jiji]

So pleased it seems to be going well and great news that the metacam may be reduced soon.

[fluffybunny]

Third session today - in the past week Milly has been overgrooming her left hip, vet thinks that it's because the middle is more 'freed up' now so either her posture has changed which has been causing her discomfort further down, and/or she's just more aware of her hip pain now that the pain higher up her back has been relieved.  So today we concentrated on hips. She reacted quite strongly to a few of the needles going in in the areas where she is extremely sore, but those areas which were done last week are still lovely and soft and supple, so it definitely does seem to be helping. 

We are keeping the metacam up for now because there are still areas which haven't been needled yet, but the vet is hopeful that we can reduce the metacam, and maybe even get her off it during the summer months.  One of her anal glands was also full, which may also have been causing irritation/overgrooming - vet says that in animals with arthritic hips/back legs, they don't squat to poo in the right position so the poo doesn't clear out the anal glands on its way out. I'd say it looks very much like that is what has happened here as most of Milly's pain is on one side and only one gland had anything in it.

I'm very happy with how it's going; a couple more sessions and hopefully we may be able to start reducing the metacam

[fluffybunny]

Second session today, Milly was a bit grouchy to start off with - the vet used slightly larger needles this time because she didn't have an overreaction from the first light session, and she wasn't all that keen initially.  Vet says that they each have their own 'limit' as to how many needles they will tolerate at a time, and for Milly it seems that 3 is too many at the moment, she settled down once it was reduced to two at a time.  I took a little video so she could see where Milly is stiff and where she walks funny, so she concentrated on the left hand side of her spine and her right shoulder where most of the issues seem to be.  That was the first 'full' session so I'm looking forward to seeing when I can start seeing a difference.  Got sessions booked for the next 3 weeks now, so I'm hopeful that I will be able to report back with something positive soon 

[weesilvie]

Really happy to read that this is going well for you and Milly so far. I will look forward to reading more about how you both get on longer term. Silvie and I are still at the stage of trying the more conventional steroids jags, which I have to say I'm not yet wholly convinced by. But I know I have to give it time. Acupuncture will be next on my list to try.

[fluffybunny]

This is really interesting, especially to hear the principles behind it - fingers crossed it does the trick for her I'm gobsmacked at the relatively low cost, compare that to a 5 minute consult which is roughly the same price and it looks ridiculously cheap!

I know! I was expecting to pay £70-80 for the first session as it's a referral (one of my bunnies is off for an ophthalmic referral this afternoon and that's £112 just to walk in the door) and as it was a longer session, but no, I just got charged their standard acupuncture fee.  One of my friends pays £43 a session at her vets, so I was very pleased, especially as this practice is known locally for not being the cheapest!

The principles were really interesting, she was explaining to me the difference between western 'trigger point' acupuncture and eastern 'acupuncture point' version, saying that the Eastern version works on the belief that energy flows get blocked and using needles in specific meridians can unblock the flow and release the chi or something, whereas western is based on finding those muscle spasms and releasing them and using various points on certain nerve pathways to stimulate the nerves. She says they're mostly in exactly the same places as Chinese acupuncture points, but the needles are not put there for that reason. 

Milly seems pretty normal today so I'm happy that she's not one of the hyper responders.  I don't think I'll notice too much difference after this session because it was just a light one, but I'm really hopefully that we will see some good improvement over the next month or so.  I'll keep you posted 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Very interesting, especially the good price 

[Jiji]

I agree with TM, it is very interesting and look forward to hearing about Milly's progress.

[LouiseJ]

Really interesting. Keep us posted.

[Tiggy's Mum]

This is really interesting, especially to hear the principles behind it - fingers crossed it does the trick for her I'm gobsmacked at the relatively low cost, compare that to a 5 minute consult which is roughly the same price and it looks ridiculously cheap!

[fluffybunny]

Hello!  Milly had her first acupuncture session for her arthritis today, thought it warranted a new thread so it didn't get lost in discussions about metacam and stuff!

I'm really delighted with how it went.  I thought Milly would tolerate it well as she is a very tactile cat, and she was the perfect patient.  She had about 10 needles today over about half an hour, the vet said it's best to start gently in case she is one of the 10%-ish who hyper-react, so next time she will have the full works.  She didn't even notice when most of the needles went in, there was one particularly sore point that she reacted to a little when it was first inserted, but was fine after that.

I was very impressed with the vet, she explained everything to me as she was doing it, including potential risks, the sort of response I am likely to see etc. She feels down the sides of her spine to find the stiff points and then searches out the 'knots' in the muscle, and that's where the needles go - none of the eastern medicine 'energy lines' or anything, it's based on what she feels.  And the needle pulls the knot out of spasm and releases endorphins and other things I don't remember. She gave her a really thorough feel over, you could see that she was far more rigid on one side of her spine than the other, and also said that elbow arthritis like Milly's often causes referred shoulder pain, which she also had. No needles in shoulders today, though.

Back home this evening Milly seems pretty normal, she does feel a slightly different shape when I'm stroking her; don't know if I am imagining it or if it is a subtle change in her posture from the session.  No session next week as its Christmas, but we will then have weekly sessions for a month and then see how it goes.  She said with cats it is quite individual after that, some go every 3-4 weeks, some might not go for 3 months then suddenly need another burst, it's about watching for the signs and responding to those.

I had a 45 min appointment today as it was the first time she has ever seen Milly, from now on it will be 30 mins.  It cost £30.64 which I thought was really reasonable too.

Will keep you all posted on how it goes.