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Julia Gets The Needle -
Acupuncture
When I first went away 2 years ago, to study acupuncture in animals I was a sceptic. I spent 4 days
learning theory and being practised on myself as a guinea pig – having an ex army doctor drive a 75 mm long needle into my bottom was not an experience I had in mind for my 4 day jolly in the country! During the course I met some dog and their owners who had benefited from acupuncture and changed form sceptic to cautiously enthusiastic. I returned, ready to try out my newly acquired skills. One of my very first patients, responded very well, and over time I have used acupuncture in a variety of patients for various conditions with I have treated dogs, cat rabbits and even a chicken! I also have treated myself, my Mum and a close friend and we all have noticed an improvement in our symptoms. I do not intend to recruit too many human patients – I will leave those to my medical colleagues, but I am happy to treat many of my patients now with acupuncture as well as more conventional medicines. It is believed that acupuncture in various forms has been used all over the world for many centuries. It has been used in Chinese traditional medicine over many dynasties, whilst across the other side of the World an Ice Age man was dug out of a glacier in Europe and had evidence of acupuncture being used. In the 1970s President Nixon visited China and saw patients having major abdominal surgery alledgedly just under the pain relieving effects of acupuncture. This is perhaps stretching the point and is not something that I am proposing, but its pain relieveing effects can be really useful for treating our pets. Is there any science in it? Well it appears that there might be. Acupuncture provides pain relief. Pain sensation is recognised by the brain in 2 ways: 1. There are pain receptors all over the body and when these are stimulated they send electrical messages to the brain that there is pain – so when you burn yourself you draw your hand away from 2. When these pain recptors are stimulated they release nuerotransmitters which are chemicals that stimulate recptors in the pain centres of the brain and this causes the brain to register pain consciously. There are 2 types of painkillers that we use in medicine; 1. Anti-inflammatory pain killers that act on the pain receptors in the body; examples of these are aspirin and paracetomol in humans, carprophen and meloxicam dogs, cats and rabbits. 2. Central analgesics which interfere with the effects of the neurotransmitters getting to the pain centres in the brain; examples of these are buprenorphine, morphine etc We all know about these drugs and they are used frequently to treat pain in humans and animals. The mechanism by which the central analgesics work is called 'The Gate Mechanism' where the drugs close the gate to the pain pathways to the brain. A similar thing happens when we knock our funny bone! We rub it and this interferes with the pathway We believe that acupuncture works in the same way, so in its simplest form if you stick a needle in the The needles are not just placed in the bits that hurt. The Chinese many centuries ago discovered that if specific points on the body are stimulated, pain in other parts can be stopped. They mapped these out and they are known as meridians. Some of them bear quite close resemblance to the anatomical arrangement of the body, some less so. The placement of needles in these points has profound effects on pain sensed from the relevant target areas of the body. The meridia and acupuncture points are also used in massage and we frequently stimulate them with pressure ourselves without realising what we are doing – have you ever had a headache and applied pressure either side of your head just outside your eyebrows to help relieve the head pain? Those are the acupuncture points! So, because acupuncture stimulates the Gate mechanism, it has similar effects to drugs. If you have ever had morphine you will know it makes you sleepy – exactly the same happens with acupuncture. Not all people and animals respond to acupuncture. We reckon as many as 90% of dogs do – those that respond well are often very sleepy after the treatment – as if they had had some drugs. The percentage of cats that repsond is slightly lower. The husband of one of my nurses had a course of acupuncture and he had to sleep in the car for half an hour after every tretament before he could drive himself home again.! So we think if the patient wants to rest after a treatment it is likely to be a good I use acupuncture primarily to treat pain. That can be acute or chronic; the most common condition I treat is the pain associated with osteoarthritis. I have also used it to treat pain associated with cystitis, and once or twice to treat chronic lick lesions in dogs. Acupuncture initially has an effect for a few days. So I recommend a second treatment is done after 4 or 5 days and then weekly upto 4 or 5 treatments. During this time the effects seem to be cumulativve and after this topping up a treatment every 2 to 4 weeks appears sufficient for most patients. If your pet or you really do have a needle phobia it is also possible to administer acupuncture via a laser. I find this is often better tolerated by cats. The laser is directed to the same acupuncture points as the needles would have been. Although the needles are so fine and they are painless, some cats seem to twitch a lot and disturb the position of the needles. Interestingly, they also twitch with the laser but it is of course much easier to redirect the laser. Acupuncture can only be performed on animals by a veterinary surgeon. I am the only vet in the practice trained to do it and I will be happy to see your pet either at the veterinary hospital or the cat Our staff are often at events and courses all over the UK and sometimes even in foreign parts. This month Jennifer will be doing a course on Rabbit Medecine and in October many of our Nurses will be attending a variety of lectures at the annual Nursing conference. Julia recently visited Vienna to do an advanced course on Physiotherapy, she had to present some of her cases to the rest of the course and these were very popular. Here she is in action. Hot of the press - Julia is the new resident Vet on the current series of the Paul O'Grady show (5pm Lisa Edwards, VN, has recently passed her anaesthesia exams. Corale Glass qualified as a Veterinary Nurse. Laura Olney has recently passed the fnal written Nurse exams. Laura Reynolds and Karen Williams have joined us as new trainee Nurses. Dental Update
Did you miss it? If so you missed a great opportunity to have your pets' teeth checked free of charge and also a goodie bag to take home to help you look after your pet's teeth. Just for you, as a special offer this month, just from Julia M Boness Veterinary Hospital and Boness Cat Clinic we are extending the offer into October - as long as we still have goodie bags to give away. But if you can't come in for some personal advice, here are some helpful hints of what you can do at 1) Brushing your pet's teeth regularly can extend his life by up to three years. According to the American Veterinary Dental Society, more than 80 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats develop periodontal disease by the age of three. "Periodontal disease is a serious condition that causes gingivitis, loss of teeth, pain in the mouth and possibly even serious infections in the internal organs," says Dr. David Steele, a veterinarian with Advanced Animal Care in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. 2) Brushing really does help eliminate "doggie breath"! Does your dog's breath knock you over when you walk in the door? You're not alone! Most often, bad breath is caused by dental or periodontal disease, and brushing regularly can help prevent and correct 3) Brushing at home reduces the chance your pet will have to be anesthetised to have his teeth cleaned. All too often we have to recommend descaling and polishing to simply prevent periodontal disease and tooth loss. Dogs and cats will not just lay back in the dental chair to allow us to do this; they need to be anaesthetised for it. Whilst we operate the most modern and safest anaesthetic protocols, with the best gaseous agents and detailed monitoring, no anaesthetic procedure is without some risk to your pet. Brushing can help to delay, if not prevent, the need for this type of procedure. 4) Keeping your pet's teeth clean means matching white smiles for you AND your pet. You know what they say about owners looking like their pets! Though at first your pet may seem uncomfortable and you may feel awkward with brushing, you will both grow to enjoy the additional time spent together. There's nothing your pet likes more than time It may be difficult at first, but don't give up at the first hurdle. Brushing can become a real treat for you dog and even your cat. Please just talk to our nurses about it - they can give you some handy hints. The toothpaste for pets is not mint flavoured but rather yummy chicken or fish flavoured to improve your pet's acceptance. Brushes come in different shapes and sizes so you should be able to find something 7) Your pet's smile will outshine all the other pets in the neighbuorhood. Maybe your neighbour has a better car, but what does that matter when their pet has yellow teeth? We have lots of other products that can help get rid of that 'dog breath' and reduce plaque and tartar, so NB: Please take the opportunity to forward our E-Newsletter to all your friends.

Pet Smiles
We are continuing our offer of free dental checks and goodie bags (whilst stocks last) until the end of October. Please just ask our receptionists, either on the phone or in the Hospital. Monthly Offer
For October, in advance of Firework Night, we are continuing our offer of 10% off our DAP products - Forthcoming Events
A Blood Drive (collecting blood from dogs over 25kg for the Pet Blood Bank) will be running
all day on November 7th. Please call us on 01582 612604 to book your slot.
Don't forget our regular Puppy Parties - if you know of someone who has just acquired a
new puppy, please let them know our Puppy Parties are FREE - be quick as they are usually
busy and Puppy's must start the Parties before they are 12 weeks old.
Fantastic Felines - we also run Cat focused evenings for our kitty friends. If you would like to come
along and spend an hour or so with Linda Horn to learn more about your cat, please just give us a call If you received this email from a friend,
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Source: http://www.bonessvets.co.uk/documents/october2009.pdf