Surgery, How Acupuncture Can Help Dogs & Cats

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Many families are afraid that their dogs and cats experience negative effects from anesthesia & surgery. While anesthetics and surgical procedures can be hard on pets, there is a lot we can do to help pets breeze through procedure, including acupuncture.

Recently, researchers from the Dept of Surgery UFC in Ceara, Brazil, showed that electroacupuncture of two points, ST 36 and CV 12, reduced oxidative stress in the liver & kidney of anesthetized rats. Dogs & cats are likely to have the same benefit as the rats showed.

How Acupuncture Helped Reduce Harm of Anesthesia
During surgery, the liver and kidney work very hard to change the anesthetic drugs. First, the liver metabolizes the drugs into less harmful products, then the kidneys excrete the drug metabolites in the urine. As the liver and kidney work, they build up free radicals, and the free radicals can harm the liver and kidneys. In addition to being harmed by free radicals, low blood flow through the organs of hypotensive anesthetized dogs & cats pets also increases free radicals.

What Are Free Radicals?
Free radicals are tiny electron swords that tear holes in DNA and molecules within the cell. With enough damage, the cell can no longer work, and cell by cell, the organ dies.

Controlling Free Radical Damage
The body has several mechanisms for controlling free radicals including glutathione (GSH). In this study, researchers were able to measure the activity of GSH, and of other enzymes (G6PDH). They found that the liver and kidneys of rats receiving acupuncture had reduced oxidative stress and free radical formation than rats not receiving acupuncture.

How Can You Help Your Pet?
If your pet is scheduled for anesthesia or surgery, request electroacupuncture of CV 12 & ST 36 at 10 Hz and 10 mA for 30 minutes during the surgery. Acupuncture is safe and won’t interfere with any drugs your pet is taking. The use of other acupuncture points can also help your pet experience less pain.

Research Publication
This research was published in Acta Cir Bras. 2011;26 Suppl 1:47-52. Electro-AP stimulation using different frequencies (10 and 100 Hz) changes the energy metabolism in induced hyperglycemic rats. Figueiredo LM, Silva AH, Prado Neto AX, Hissa MN, Vasconcelos PR, Guimarães SB. Dept of Surgery, UFC, Ceara, Brazil.

Acupuncture Can Help Diabetic Cats & Dogs by Clearing Lactate

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According to research published by scientists from the Dept of Surgery UFC, in Brazil acupuncture at ST 36 and CV 12 improved clearing of lactate in hyperglycemic rats.

Like rats, humans, dogs, and cats also have increased lactate when they have diabetes and high blood sugar. In addition, lactate levels are increased post exercise. Elevated lactate levels can be reduced using needles inserted in CV12, which is on the tummy, and ST 36, which is below the knee. Stimulation of these points was shown to clear lactate from both the kidney and liver.

The researchers hypothetized that acupuncture stimulated liver & kidney cells to convert lactate to pyruvate more quickly than normal. Rats that did not receive acupuncture had high blood lactate levels, but treated rats showed marked decrease with 30 minutes of treatment.

In clinical practice with dogs and cats, it appears that cells often function more efficiently following acupuncture because pets have more pep. For the first day following treatment, pets often sleep very deeply, then they are full of piss & vinegar.

How can this help your pet?
If you have a diabetic cat or dog, just using two acupuncture points, we can improve the way kidney & liver cells clear waste lactate.

If you have a working dog or a pet who exercises hard, acupuncture can help clear the waste lactate that accumumulates and leads to delayed recovery. These two points, ST 36 and CV 12 have additional benefits, too, especially for the stomach and digestion. Let me or your local holistic veterinarian show you how to massage these points for your pet. You'll be able to get some of the benefit achieved with needles and you can treat your pet easily at home.

More details about the study are in Pub Med: PMID 21971657.
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Acupuncture Increases Glutathione

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We all die one cell at a time.
Usually we think whole organs die, like the kidney, liver or brain, but what actually happens is that enough cells within an organ die that the organ cannot function so the entire organ dies. Unless there is a transplant, we mortals, and our pets, experience cell death, organ death, then whole organism death.

The fact that single cells can live or die is good
Every little thing we do to benefit a cell benefits the whole organ. The best way to benefit a cell is to prevent its DNA from being damaged by oxidation. Oxidation inexorably leads to complete cell destruction, cell malfunction or cancer. This is why eating deeply pigmented fruits & veggies that are full of anti-oxidants is important. The antioxidants naturally present in food support glutathione, which is one cellular system that prevents oxidative damage.

Acupuncture increases glutathione levels
Recent research from doctors in Brazil has shown that acupuncture also increases glutathione activity. Thirty minutes of electroacupuncture to ST 36 and CV 12 significantly increases glutathione levels within the liver & kidney. So, if your dog won’t eat its broccoli, bring it in for acupuncture support of its organs.

Would your pet benefit from increased glutathione
You bet! Glutathione is the primary intracellular antioxidant. Any pet with chronic disease is working its antioxidant system overtime to prevent free radical damage that leads to cell death. This includes pets with kidney and liver disease, as well as those with osteoarthritis. Glutatione is not available as a supplement, but some supplements such as SAMe increase glutathione levels. The difficulty with giving SAMe is that it must be done on an empty stomach. I have so much respect for folks that can get up and give their pet a pill an hour before breakfast or remember to give one late at night several hours after supper. If, like me, you can`t, then use acupuncture periodically to support your dog & cat`s glutathione levels. They will live longer for it.

More details on the research are in Pub Med: PMID: 21971660.

Urinary Retention Treated with Acupuncture, Help for Cauda Equina Syndrome

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What's Cauda Equina Syndrome?
The last few nerves from the spine spread like a horses tail, and are called Cauda Equina. When the caudal equina is damaged, the bladder can be lose the ability to contract so that it’s not possible to urinate voluntarily. To prevent the bladder from exploding, a catheter is inserted or the bladder is manually expressed several times a day.

Pets that can't pass urine are often euthanized
In pets, cauda equina damage that leads to inability to void often drives the pet’s family to request euthanasia. Fortunately there’s hope with acupuncture. Research published in Acupunct Medicine this September. The article is: Electro-AP improves voiding function in patients with neurogenic urinary retention secondary to cauda equina injury.

The Chinese scientists showed that acupuncture helped humans with difficulty voiding due to cauda equine. For these patients, who had not responded to medication, acupuncture was given 5 times a week for the first month then 3 times a week for 2 weeks. Researchers used electroacupuncture at BL32, BL33 and BL35. When the patients were rechecked in 6 months, and 8 of the 15 in the study had regained the ability to void and maintained it.

Would your pet benefit?
If your pet develops urinary retention due to damaged cauda equina, request acupuncture. Be willing to go for multiple treatments and perhaps you will offer your pet a 50-50 chance for improvement. When euthanasia is the alternative, try acupuncture first.

This research is available on Pub Med: PMID: 21984981.

Chicken Strips Killing Dogs

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Many dogs fed chicken strips have become ill and some have died. After eating dried chicken strips, dogs have developed lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea (melana), and increased water consumption with increased urination (polyuria/polydipsiaor PUPD). Your dog can develop symptoms within hours of eating the chicken strips, or your pet may develop symptoms gradually.

Fanconi Syndrome
Dogs that died appeared to have kidney failure or Fanconi-like syndrome. In some dogs, the symptoms developed quickly and in other dogs, symptoms developed over weeks or months. Fanconi syndrome is a type of kidney failure with glucose in the urine. In humans, Fanconi syndrome has been linked to exposure to toxins, including cadmium, lead and mercury, and to certain medications.

Nestle Purina Fails To Act
Nestle Purina makes two brands of chicken strips that have been implicated in pet poisoning and dog illness: Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch. Nestle Purina has refused to withdraw Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch even though the FDA has had over a thousand complaints of poisoning.

Nestle Purina and other suppliers of chicken strips claim the FDA hasn’t found what’s wrong with their products. Nestle Purina plans to continue to market dried chicken strips until the exact toxin or cause of illness is has been identified.

Toxin Tests
Among the tests that have been done on chicken jerkey treats were assays for melamine, the ingredient that killed so many in China and throughout the world. The FDA also tested for drugs, poisons, toxins, mycotoxins, heavy metals, formaldehyde, antibiotics, and maleic acid. Despite their efforts, the FDA has not identified a toxic cause of poisonings. Some are now considering whether it is not what is contained in the dried chicken jerkey,but how it is processed. For example, has irradiation caused molecular change in the dried meat that is poisoning dogs? Irradiated pet foods have poisoned cats and vets no longer recommend feeding irradiated pet food.

VeggieDents Also Implicated in Pet Poisoning
In Europe and Australia, concerns over chicken strips have been joined by concerns over non-chicken product, VeggieDents. Concerns about pet health were so high that Virbac, the maker of VeggieDents, pulled them from the Australian market. Australian VeggieDents were made in Vietnam. VeggieDents are still being sold in some countries.

What’s Safe?
Veterinarians are recommending families don’t feed dogs & cats any treats, chicken strips, dried sweet potatoes, etc, from China or any treats that are irradiated. It’s easy to recognize irradiated food because it’s marked with a symbol called a radura.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to recognize treats made in China . Large batches of Chinese treats may be shipped to a another country and packaged in the recipient country. Then, labelled as from the country that did the packaging. For example, dried chicken strips made in China can be bulk shipped to Canada, packaged in Canada, and labelled made in Canada. Until this practice of labelling the packaging country as thugh it’s the source country is changed, it’s safer not to feed chicken strips.

Safe Treats For Pets
I recommend feeding dried liver from Canada or the US or feeding real food such as peas, blueberries, and carrot shavings as treats.