Acupuncture In Veterinary Medicine

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Recommended: Acupuncture The history of the practice

Acupuncture is a realm of veterinary medicine that has been around since 900 B.C., originating from China (Robinson, 2007, p. 259). Acupuncture is a way to relieve pain by inserting very small, thin needles into acupoints to promote healing and well-being through neurological energy. The use of acupuncture is a type of treatment that many do not understand or have much information about. It can be used for animals and humans to relieve pain and help aid healing of diseases or infections. Acupuncture is beneficial to animals, especially equine. Performance horses need to perform at top condition and acupuncture is a useful way of relieving pain or stress on the body. It can possibly be the future of healing small pains or even aiding larger …show more content…

Many researchers have found that acupuncture effectively relieves pain and illness with the equine species. Hunley and Huisheng conducted research to find out the opinions and current use of acupuncture, and they discovered that many diseases are treated such as musculoskeletal problems, neoplasia, general pains, and behavioral issues (p. 57, 2011), which another researcher addresses when using acupuncture in equine reproduction. Scholfield uses acupuncture to help improve the behavioral issues of stallions to help the breeding process (Schofield, 2008). The author not only uses acupuncture to improve the behaviors of stallions, but improves many of the physiological factors of the mare. Acupuncture improves the reproductive hormones, including the gonadotrophin releasing hormone (Schofield, 2011). It also increases the fertility rates. After treatment, 81 percent of the mares had a successful foaling (Schofield, 2011). Agreeingly another researcher used acupuncture to heal sarcoids, similarly to the use of acupuncture for reproduction. Sarcoid are wart-like lesions that form in the subcutaneous and muscular tissues (Thoresen, p. 29, 2011). The use of the acupuncture reduced the size of 14 out of the 18 equine patients in the experiment that Thoresen conducted (Thoresen, p. 30, 2011). The sarcoids are extremely painful and the acupuncture is an effective way to relieve the animals of pain, …show more content…

Acupuncture can solve some illnesses, create better productions of hormones, and improve behavior of equine. This can all be done through the most common form of acupuncture which is dry needling. It is very simple yet very effective. Although acupuncture has been proven to be a useful practice in veterinary medicine. More research should be conducted to implement it into veterinary colleges for future students to use. Acupuncture is a very useful form of healing that could be very beneficial to those in the equine industry with deeper studies and

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