Thursday, January 7, 2010

Acupuncture & Chiro

Last night Bug had his first acupuncture appointment and boy was he odd! We walked into the room, I sat down in a chair and Anne seated herself on the dog bed close to Bug’s level. Bug hid under the chair I was sitting on! He has never done anything like that before.

Anne was very calm and gentle. She gave him plenty of time to acclimate, never rushing him. Finally he relaxed on the dog bed and she was able to put six needles in his upper-to-mid back. She continued to massage him once those needles were in. Bug was REALLY tight and too tense to allow her to do any local points, but he did start to get heavy eyed and relax. Finally he relaxed so much one of the needles fell out.

Next we gave him a breather and then did some points on his hips and more massage.

That was all for session #1.

Anne noted that she thought his pelvis looked twisted (observant!) and I said I suspected he had knocked himself out of alignment slipping on the stairs, which could explain why he was so tense. She also said from the Eastern perspective she thought he might have stagnant liver chi, which means he is tense physically anyway and then things (both physical and emotional) build on top of it (I think). I will have to google it and ask her for more info.

Anne said initially she likes to see a dog on a weekly basis (usually for 4 - 5 weeks, but it can be less depending on the dog) and then move to every other week, and then further apart depending on how the dog is doing. We scheduled an appointment for next week.

Then we went to see Cheryl and both of us had knocked our pelvises and heads out and were totally twisted. As I said last post – we are a pair! Bug hasn’t lost his pelvis in a while and didn’t even really want to let Cheryl touch him last night. That is unusual because he LOVES Cheryl and considers her one of his girlfriends!

Cheryl adjusted his head first and once she did that he looked straighter than he did when we walked in. Once she adjusted his pelvis almost all of the tightness in his iliopsoas dissipated.

When we got home Bug obviously felt good. He tore around like a maniac playing by himself. He hasn’t done too much of that lately so I think the acupuncture and chiro really made him feel better. I did give him some Traumeel because losing your pelvis is quite painful!

I think we are on the right track and I am feeling optimistic.

6 comments:

Lindsay said...

Heffner currently has an iliopsoas strain and I like hearing about how your dealing with tenseness in that region. I'm starting to think that regular accupuncture for Heff might be a good idea. I'm also interested in trying out the chiropracter.

Jules said...

Hi Lindsay, Oh Heffner has my sympathy. It is a tough injury. I really don't think Bug would have recovered as well as he did without chiropractic adjustments. I wish we had started acupcunture earlier to be honest. Good luck and here is hoping for a speedy recovery.

Katrin said...

Glad to hear the visits went so well!

Red Dog Mom said...

Sam goes for acupuncture periodically too and enjoys it. Although I think part of the enjoyment is mooching treats from the vet office. Our Eastern medicine trained vet has noted that Sam is a 'liver' dog as well - so is his son, Bogey - so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to hear Bug has some liver stuff going on too.

Jules said...

Thanks, Katrin.

Dina, that's really interesting. I don't know much about TCM - I need to read more about it. I think Bug will enjoy his treatments - he seemed to get pretty heavy eyed!

Blue said...

It sounds like Bug's appointments (and yours!) went well. At least you both had good timing for your falls and already had you appointments scheduled!