Acupuncture

Veterinary Acupuncture is a healing science, which deals with the individual animal as a living energetic being rather than simply as a number of different signs and symptoms. Effective acupuncture practice is based upon both the natural and scientific aspects of healing. Veterinary acupuncture is the application of small-gauge needles to various points on the body for the purpose of eliciting physiological responses in the treatment of almost any disease or condition by relieving pain and improving the function of various systems of an animal’s body. In a broader sense, acupuncture is an ancient procedure used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for the treatment of whole-body conditions.

One of the earliest records of veterinary acupuncture was some 3,000 years ago in India for the treatment of elephants; however, the father of veterinary acupuncture generally is considered to be Shun Yang from China. The procedure had been used for a variety of illnesses, but it began to fall into obscurity in the 1940s, in the United States as people turned to newly emerging, potent, increasingly ailment-specific antibiotics to treat their health problems.

Although acupuncture terminology still is largely based on traditional Chinese medicinal philosophy, it has become apparent that the western medical scientific methodology and diagnostics plays an ever increasing role in acupuncture methods today. Positive results have been scientifically proven and documented many times and the Western veterinary and medical establishments are less able to discount acupuncture as therapeutic tool.

Along with acupuncture's increased use in human medicine, veterinary acupuncture has moved closer to mainstream practices. It also might be said that the mainstream has moved closer to acupuncture, given that chapters on acupuncture now are standard in many major veterinary texts. In addition, acupuncture has become a big business worldwide. Today nearly 3 million veterinary and medical practitioners, assistants and pharmacists are trained in acupuncture, including Dr. David Brunner and Dr. Cara Gardner here at the Broad Ripple Animal Clinic and Broad Ripple Animal Wellness Center.