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A friend recounts her experience with a poor diagnosis from a veterinarian which caused unnecessary pain for her Dalmatian, Boo. The happy ending shows that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for dogs.

I’d been getting fed up with the veterinary practice I used for a while as they seem to have a lot of newly qualified vets and a very high turnover of staff, so it was rare you ever got to see the same vet twice, even for a follow-up appointment.

On a number of occasions I took my dalmatian, Boo, to them, presenting with what looked like a trapped nerve in his back. Each time, they insisted it was just a pulled muscle, pumped him full of painkilling drugs and sent us away. After a couple of days rest he would seem to improve, but I still wasn’t convinced.

Eventually, I decided to register with a newer vet, just a few minutes further away, who I’d heard good things about. I took him down for his initial appointment – just to check him over for registration with them – and told them about the ongoing problem and said that I always felt it was a nerve thing rather than a muscle thing. He had been starting to show some symptoms again of the problem recurring and, sure enough, when the vet ran his hands down Boo’s back, he twinged when he was touched in the troublesome area, so without a second thought, the vet said he wanted to x-ray him, as he could see Boo obviously had a problem there.

Sure enough, when the x-rays came out, Boo was diagnosed with severe spondylosis – a type of arthritis where the vertebrae form bony spurs which, whilst they’re growing, can pinch nerves. The spurs were almost fused together by this time, which is why he hadn’t been having the problems he’d had previously.

If only the other vets had actually bothered to try and figure the problem out, rather than just pumping him with drugs every time, he wouldn’t have had to go through half the episodes of severe discomfort he did! The new vets referred Boo to an acupuncturist and, if he starts to look like he’s having problems, I give him a call and he does his needles which, surprisingly, Boo loves and he’s as right as rain again!

The acupuncturist now considers Boo an ambassador for the breed as he’s so laid back and mellow. Apparently he was dismayed when informed he had a new, spotty patient, and was expecting no end of trouble from a highly-strung, hyperactive loony.

After the first appointment, he was so impressed with Boo’s behaviour, he said he wanted to try electro-acupuncture on Boo next time, which he would never usually risk with a dalmatian because the last thing most of them want is any more energy putting through them! So now Boo has his needles put in, gets attached to the battery and goes to sleep, with just the tip of his tail wagging periodically. Unfortunately, since he’s standing up, I get the delightful task of supporting his heavy old head (he doesn’t mind having his head propped up even when he’s not asleep – he’s just a bit of a lazy so-and-so), so end up with a dead arm!

Want to read more about a dog’s misadventures with poor diagnosis? Read The Saga of Saffy’s Paw.

Tags: acupuncture, Animals, Arthritis, Breeds, Dalmatian, dogs, Pain, Pets, Recreation, spondylosis, Veterinarian, X-ray

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 11:33 am and is filed under Animals, Featured, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.