Veterinary Acupuncture Services
What Services Are Provided?
- Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Therapy, Chiropractic Manipulation, and Dietary Consults are offered.
- Steve's Real Food Raw Diets are available for dogs and cats, when appropriate.
- Western exams, blood work, urinalysis, and ultrasounds are utilized for small animal cases that require these diagnostics.
- Minimal vaccination is the philosophy of Veterinary Acupuncture Services and blood titers are suggested.
- Thimerasol-free (mercury-free) vaccines are used when vaccination is unavoidable.
- The practice does not hospitalize patients or provide critical care.
- Services are available for dogs, cats, and horses.
What is Veterinary Acupuncture?
- Acupuncture has been described as a way to "rebalance bodily disharmonies"1 by placing needles, injected substances, moxa, infrared light or laser at defined points on the body surface.
- Stimulation of normal function of the nervous system and normalization of blood flow is the objective, in order to assist in the healing process.
- The goal is to maximize function of the musculoskeletal system and internal organs, and minimize pain.
- Dr. Lounsberry uses acupuncture for: any painful condition, osteoarthritis, inter-vertebral disc disease, hip dysplasia, neuropathy/neuritis, myositis, muscle weakness, cardiac arrhythmias, and hypertension, chronic obstructive lung disease, asthma, allergic and infectious respiratory problems, gastrointestinal problems, reproductive disorders, and immune mediated diseases.
- Often, an interactive approach combining Western and Chinese approaches can result in better outcomes than Western Medicine alone.
What is Veterinary Chiropractic?
- Veterinary Chiropractic focuses on "the relationship between structure (primarily of the spine) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health"2
- In other words, having the normal range of motion in the joints between the bones (vertebra) of the spine is very important since all the major nerves of the body exit here and course to the muscles, connective tissue and internal organs.
- Without proper movement, the nerve exiting at this level won't get the optimal blood flow: pain, swelling, and decreased function of the joint and nerve will result. Eventually, organ disease is possible.
- Small animals that have chiropractic issues may show stiffness, abnormal gaits or lameness, abnormal postures when sitting or standing, muscle atrophy, weakness or paralysis, and behavior changes related to pain.
- Horses may show resistance to normal work, have altered gaits, be unable to come onto the bit and flex at the poll, and be unable to bend normally under saddle.
- Dr. Lounsberry will feel for proper motion in all the joints of the spine. Where there is a fixation she will gently free it with a low-amplitude, high-speed technique that is very safe and effective.
What are Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Chinese Herbal Therapy?
- TCM and Chinese Herbal Therapy encompass a complete medical system for diagnosing and treating disease.
- The theories and practices have been evolving but in constant use since at least 600 years before the birth of Christ.
- The basic tenets are to maximize organ function through diet and herbs, and attempt to understand the underlying immune dysfunction responsible for a set of clinical signs rather than suppressing the clinical signs with drugs.
Therefore, internal medicine cases can be treated to maximize quality and length of life.
1, 2: References upon request