Acupuncture for your critters

I was watching a youtube video by Justin Rhodes from Abundance plus and he was showcasing a woman who was told she had only a few years to live, after having two open-heart surgeries. She bought a farm in 2010 and is still "alive and kicking".

Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-kRi4r1rpM&list=LL&index=1

It's about 43 minutes.

This video reminded me of an old dormant desire to learn about Acupuncture. And now that I am close to some of my other goals of having land and building a homestead through Permaculture methods, and also researching my new goal of becoming a Beaver Ambassador for BC and other parts of Canada, I have been thinking that acupuncture would be wonderful to use on my livestock animals such as goats, pigs, sheep, cattle, dogs, and probably even ducks, chickens, geese. And my people would benefit too.

Does anyone have any experience with using Acupuncture with animals? I have been on the receiving end of acupuncture, a few times, and I certainly believe in the benefits of it. I've heard of people using acupuncture on their dogs and cats. I think it would be wonderful to use with livestock as well.

Unfortunately or maybe it is fortunately ---- a 3 year Acupuncture program is offered in Nelson, BC - very near where we will be buying property. The program is about 20 hours per week of instruction and probably a ton of homework and that's ok. The cost is between 10k and 14k per year for tuition, so it's a hefty fee that I really have to consider where the money is coming from. There's probably a few thousand for books, and plus travel costs to Nelson 5 days a week. The school has more clinical time than other schools who offer the same program in BC (according to their website), which sounds excellent. Maybe I could get a student loan.

IF I do this, this will limit my available hours and energy to work my land. It will completely take up time I would have spent learning a PDC and a Master Gardening course.

Just in the flow of writing this, I now see it differently: I think Acupuncture is a good goal, which can wait until I have my PDC and Master Gardening course done, wait until I have set up many many Beaver solutions in BC and other Western provinces, wait until my homestead is past the development stage and in the maintenance stage.

Whew. Thanks for reading, if you got this far.

Happy Gardening :)

I often find that writing out the problem makes it easier to see. Whether that's in an email to a friend, or just typing it all out. It sounds like a good plan, and acupuncture will always be there!

Back in the late 1970s I had a cat that was hit by a car.  I took him to a vet clinic, and they brought him back to health .....except his hind legs  did not work.  One day one of the vets from the clinic said he had just been through acupuncture training and wanted to try it.  Of course, we thought it worth the effort.  The cat was walking within a week or so.

My 2 cents is that if you plan to start a business in acupuncture or use it for income, then go for it!! It would be a great way to earn money to pay for your homestead.
If you are just doing it for a hobby, that is a steep price to pay.
If you get good livestock and keep them on either fresh grass or deep bedding, then you will have very minimal health issues and wouldn't need acupuncture, and if you did need it on occasion then it would be a lot cheaper to pay an acupuncturist to come in and provide treatment than to do it yourself.
Just a couple thoughts

Thanks for sharing your process with us! Acupuncture is definitely quite powerful and fascinating. I wonder if a good way to continue exploring the interest and get some of the benefit for your critters and people in the meantime would be self-study of acupressure? Kind of as a stepping stone to acupuncture when you have the time.
Acupressure is a great self-treatment option and could help you start learning the meridians. Even knowing just a few points can be quite helpful for addressing health issues.

Heather Sharpe wrote:Thanks for sharing your process with us! Acupuncture is definitely quite powerful and fascinating. I wonder if a good way to continue exploring the interest and get some of the benefit for your critters and people in the meantime would be self-study of acupressure? Kind of as a stepping stone to acupuncture when you have the time.
Acupressure is a great self-treatment option and could help you start learning the meridians. Even knowing just a few points can be quite helpful for addressing health issues.

This is interesting - I recently received a book my father owned (he died in 2001), and it is called "Touch for Health" which is about acupressure. I have it stored away in a box of other things my stepmother gave me and haven't given it more than a glance. I think that box, and a couple others of my dad's stuff is at my partner's house, as I didn't have room for them. Very good idea! There is probably a lot of very good information in that book. He took a Touch for Health course with his wife when he had a lot of pain from a back injury that wouldn't heal because it was related to his cancer. I know that acupressure helped ease his pains in the last few years of his life.

Tereza Okava wrote:I often find that writing out the problem makes it easier to see. Whether that's in an email to a friend, or just typing it all out. It sounds like a good plan, and acupuncture will always be there!

I think this is actually better than talking about it. The process of writing it out allows us to review it as many times as we want before we hit "send" or "submit". A conversation never allows for that. Then again, talking about it with someone can also be illuminating - another person's viewpoint can help further the process too. However more times than not, talking to someone results in a lot of "you can't do that" type of talk.  

John F Dean wrote:Back in the late 1970s I had a cat that was hit by a car.  I took him to a vet clinic, and they brought him back to health .....except his hind legs  did not work.  One day one of the vets from the clinic said he had just been through acupuncture training and wanted to try it.  Of course, we thought it worth the effort.  The cat was walking within a week or so.

That is awesome! I too, have heard of successes like that with pets. Thanks for sharing!

Jt Glickman wrote:My 2 cents is that if you plan to start a business in acupuncture or use it for income, then go for it!! It would be a great way to earn money to pay for your homestead.
If you are just doing it for a hobby, that is a steep price to pay.
If you get good livestock and keep them on either fresh grass or deep bedding, then you will have very minimal health issues and wouldn't need acupuncture, and if you did need it on occasion then it would be a lot cheaper to pay an acupuncturist to come in and provide treatment than to do it yourself.
Just a couple thoughts

It is something else to consider - using acupuncture to help pay for my homestead.

I am planning to keep the livestock on deep bedding. Good, healthy livestock to start with too.

Years ago (many years!) my Arabian stallion was having a mystery hind-end challenge.  Sometimes he'd be off, sometimes not.  The vet couldn't find anything.  We'd go on endurance races and the race vets would look at his slightly off gait that wasn't enough to pull him and wasn't always there and wonder if he should be allowed to continue the race.  He always was allowed to go on, the lameness never got worse -- but it was worrisome.  

In desperation, we contacted an equine acupuncturist with a stellar reputation and set an appointment.  Now, here's the thing.  My husband had chronic health issues and went to an acupuncturist regularly.  He swore by the treatments.  I had hip and lower back pain and tried the guy out, and I absolutely could not tolerate it.  It felt horrible, like my nerves were being zapped.  He'd put the needles in (painless!) and tell me to relax and would leave me on the table for a few minutes that felt like hours.  I couldn't stand it, I felt like I wanted to leap off the table.  I decided if I felt that way I should just give it up.  (Note that years (many years!) later I wound up having both hips replaced and that fixed me up just fine).

So when it came to my horse I had misgivings.  Yet, as I said, the acupuncturist had a great reputation and acupuncture also worked for my husband, so....

So when the day came, I put my horse in the cross ties and watched the process with eagle eye.  I was horrified when I saw how long the needle was that she was preparing to stick in him (his croup, which is the part of the back over the pelvic girdle).  I kid you not, it was a foot long.  Okay, not that long, but it seemed darned long to me!  Amazingly, when she put the needle in my stallion didn't seem to feel a thing.  After a bunch more of those things she hooked some wires up to the needles and zapped him with a mild charge and my stallion snoozed.  

My horse really seemed to like it when the acupuncturist showed up.  That didn't change how I felt about it for myself.

My stallion received several treatments, after which his mystery lameness went away, never to return.  I was super impressed.

i used to scoff at the many ways horse people aka fools (such as I!) would be separated from our $$$.  One day I walked in to see a friend & vet and a horse with little vials i’d black stuff stuck all over him.  I asked what it was. BLOOD that looked like tar!! I couldn’t believe it!  She ran her fingers along his spine and out in a few more clear vials.  Suddenly 95% of the tar turned blood red! I nearly fainted.  That horse had been lame for years and every vet had tried  different things. Acupuncture changed his life right before my eyes. OH- he has lost the ability to shake flies off of his body but that returned as well. There is a way to test this ability— kind of like testing our reflexes. You pull some of the hair from the base of his mane at the withers.  He couldn’t do it but after she fixed him. he did it so much youncouid tell he really missed it

My 12 year old cat developed feline urologic syndrom. As soon as I got him home from the emergency vet I took him to my acupuncture person: she treated him a few times, then I took over with acupressure (4 Paws 5 Directions book for food, too). The usual lifespan beyond FUS is a few to several months; my boy lived for several more years, perfectly healthy.

My late husband used to go to a fantastic acupuncturist who cleared up his migraines after years of trying every possible conventional medical  treatment without effect. This lady had been practising acupuncture for 30 plus years and told him that before she moved to our area she had an ongoing gig as acupuncturist to a dairy farm. This started when a prized cow with apparently fabulous genetics was unable to stand due to some medical issue I forget, and the farmer had been advised by multiple vets to put her down because nothing they tried was working. As a last resort he called this acupuncturist who said I know nothing about cows but was willing to try. Anyhow she had that cow right up on her feet on the first visit, did some followup to clear up the problem and the cow lived many more productive years. After that the acupuncturist treated many more cows for this farm. Through word of mouth, she said, she was also brought in to treat other critters like horses and dogs.

My father had an MD–PhD in Pathology, because he wanted to learn about the cause and progression of disease, which is something only pathology studies. (Yes, most MD's often don't know the actual cause of your malady, they only know how to treat the symptoms). My father felt that if you wanted to truly cure someone, you needed to address the cause.

He had been taught acupuncture by Buddhist monks when he was in high school, and when Western knowledge of acupuncture exploded after Nixon's trip to China, so he left his teaching position at the medical college, and opened an acupuncture practice.

In his quest for finding true cures, my father did a lot of acupuncture research and one of the doctors he met, had started treating racehorses. He told my father that he could charge a lot more for treating horses than people, and that he could make even more money but betting on the horses that he treated.

So yes, acupuncture is useful for animals, and the Chinese have detailed charts for many species.

Hi, This is a topic of great interest to me.  Thanks for all the sharing.
After 30 years in Western medicine, family medicine & geriatric practice and teaching, I left it in 2008 and was certified in medical acupuncture in 2012. Knowing what western medicine can and can't do,  I am amazed at what acupuncture can do. In my humble opinion it should be a significant part of any health care system, human or otherwise. My learning curve is still steep, yet I have had many successes after western medicine practices had failed. Great for peri-operative comfort and healing, or avoiding surgery altogether, and, and, ....  I too have heard of many occasions where acupuncture has helped pets.
Wish I could treat animals with acupuncture, but there are licensing restrictions in my state of Maine.
As mentioned acupressure is a good option to consider Lana, at least as a starting point.

My father had an MD–PhD in Pathology, because he wanted to learn about the cause and progression of disease, which is something only pathology studies. (Yes, most MD's often don't know the actual cause of your malady, they only know how to treat the symptoms). My father felt that if you wanted to truly cure someone, you needed to address the cause.

Thank you L Cho for sharing your father's amazing journey. Agree totally, treating the underlying cause is key, whatever system of practice. A big part of that is taking a good history and physical, which is becoming a lost art in the time and dollar pressured business of medicine.
Will say, not sure I would agree a pathology degree is absolutely necessary to understand the causes, rather a strong emphasis on underlying issues as one goes through training and continuing that curiosity through your career whatever field of medicine you pursue.  In any system lifestyle and the clients responsibility to care for themselves, preventive medicine, is paramount.
When I took my PDC in 2009 it was clear to me its principles were key to a healthy society, to our children's futures. THIS is essential medicine.

Appreciate the earlier reference to the Four Paws, Five Directions, and Touch of Health. Will check them out.

Thanks again.  
 TOxtli