National Pet Month: Acupuncture Spotlight

While we believe in celebrating our fur babies every day, we also love any occasion that gives us even more reason to focus on the health of our furry friends. May is recognized as National Pet Month, and in honor of that, each week this month we will be highlighting different ways pet parents can help their fur babies live a healthier, longer life.

For this week we are focusing on one of our specialty services that we offer at both our Wed-dington/Matthews and Waxhaw locations; acupuncture. Acupuncture is performed using small, sterile needles inserted into specific points on the body to stimulate a healing response. Each acupuncture point has a specific action when stimulated. The stimulation of these points result in changes in the central nervous system.

Acupuncture can be used in a variety of ways: to stimulate the body’s own pain relieving sub-stances, relax muscles, improve tissue blood flow, oxygenation, and removal of metabolic wastes and toxins. It can also be used for pain management. Specifically, to reduce the amount of oral pain medication given. We commonly use acupuncture to decrease arthritic pain. It helps to lessen nerve sensation in arthritic fur babies which improves overall wellness.

Acupuncture is a great tool on its own and also when combined with more conventional treat-ments. In many instances, we will start with a combination of acupuncture with medications and over time be able to reduce or eliminate the need for oral medications all together due to the healing powers of acupuncture. As Dr. Brue states, “Acupuncture can give the body the best po-tential to help itself out.”

For more information on acupuncture services visit the Passionate Paws Animal Hospital web-site: passionatepawsanimalhospital.com.