My first Scottie, the product of two champions and bred by Scottish terrier breeders with 30+ years of experience, came to me at 9 weeks with a demonstrably hereditary movement disorder so common in the breed it goes by the moniker “Scottie cramp.” Before his first birthday, this boy began manifesting other, more profound (and possibly also inherited) health problems. Chief among them was chronic, episodic, and epic vomiting. For well over a year, we pursued conventional treatment for him—through three states and with twice that many veterinarians. Every conventional treatment seemed to worsen his condition. In the end what righted him was a combination of raw food and homeopathy, the latter prescribed by a VMD trained by Dr. Pitcairn.

Now ten years old, my boy is in a state I think of as old complaints revisited. He can no longer tolerate raw food, and I have been obliged to treat him, from time to time, with such things as antibiotics and ursodiol. My interest is in maintaining wellness for as long as possible, and I have found (with him, with my other dogs, and with my own health), that combinations of all manner of treatments—modified as needed—best accomplish this aim. Again, the point is that each of us is an individual who changes over time.

Lisa in Cape May County, N J

Lisa in Cape May County, NJ

Both the private practice surgeon and the orthopod ant UCD suggested acupuncture. I went in the first time with my husband and the vet who did the acupuncture, upon learning that Jay was a physician, asked what he thought of the practice. Jay just shrugged and said that if it worked, his opinion was not as important as the dog feeling better.

The acupuncturist was the first person to elicit a specific pain response from Manuel in his elbow. By the end of the first session, he sighed and dropped his weight onto the leg. After six sessions he was sound. He had a half dozen more treatments and was sound until his death at 11.

Anecdotal. yep. Enough to convince me to try again? Yep. I’ve had some dogs respond very well, though not so dramatically as Manuel, but they were also older dogs with chronic issues. I have one old boy who gets maintenance treatments who we’ve been able to drastically reduce the use of rimadyl on with the treatments.

It was enough to finally convince me to take the plunge for my back. It worked great with my L5-S1 pinch. It was the acupuncturist who based on my lack of improvement for my back last year with treatment urged me to see a surgeon for what turned out to be a serious rupture at L4-L5.

With both dogs and myself, I’ve found acupuncturists to be quite good at knowing if they can help, or if I need to seek other care.

Of course he or she didn’t. Because one of the techniques of a troll is to do a massive data dump when asked for citations or proof, and just assume we’ll all be so overwhelmed at the sheer volume that we won’t actually notice that THE EMPEROR IS NEKKID.

“You didn’t answer any of the questions I posed to you.”

That’s because I’m not going to waste my time in the endless game that gets played with this sort of dialogue that goes nowhere. I have little patience for people driven by belief systems, and as Lis astutely indicated, this discussion would just provide a pulpit for a sermon quackery rather than any meaningful dialogue.

I also wanted to point to the Reiki article in Veterinary Practice News (VPN) to illustrate what I more often encounter, which are tirades from the holistic community on why this or that belief-system based therapy works, despite what scientific studies say. I prefer to let the evidence speak for itself, either way, with as little attachment to the outcome as possible.

I have an article due on Monday for my next Veterinary Practice News column. This one will be on the value of acupuncture for spinal cord injury. I have a stack of recently published, rigorous, peer-reviewed papers that support acupuncture for neurological improvement and pain reduction that I am going to read tonight. I’d much rather spend my time on my complementary medicine column in VPN that will actually benefit animals by disseminating to the veterinary community scientific, evidence-based information regarding acupuncture’s value for dogs with disk disease. If you’re interested in more information regarding acupuncture for animals, read my articles on the subject at http://csuvets.colostate.edu/pain/articles.htm .

But I had a similar experience with acupuncture and an elderly dog. I came home to CA from FL with my 14-year-old Sheltie, whose arthritis pain was so severe I was considering euthanasia because of his reduced quality of life. When I was living in a beach house on stilts, I had to carry him up and down the stairs three times a day, and he couldn’t make it over the dune in front of the house to enjoy the beach.

My vet back in CA had no more Western options for Andy. “You could try acupuncture,” he shrugged, and gave me a name. I almost didn’t bother, wasn’t sure it would help, but I wanted to give Andy a chance before I put him down. Dr. Signe Beebe — formerly a critical and emergency care vet who studied integrative care after a health crisis of her own — gave Andy six months of high-quality life. In fact, she gave him his life back. After he got into a treatment routine, he worked up happily to a slow four-block walk every day, slept and ate well and enjoyed himself immensely. When he died, it was sudden: His old heart finally gave out.

Yeah, it’s anecdotal. But that sort of experience will open your eyes to the possibilities. Nothing changed with this old dog except acupuncture. And I’m convinced it changed him, for the better.

Dr. Paul Pion, the world-renowned veterinary cardiologist, co-founder of VIN and my “Cats For Dummies” co-author, is fond of saying that what’s interesting about medicine is not what we know, but what we don’t know. And he has the open mind to finding out. It’s one my favorite things about the man.

“Some encouraging data do exist that warrant further investigation in independent rigorous trials.” is from the abstract for “Effectiveness of acupuncture in veterinary medicine: systematic review.” It hardly supports your characterization that studies “debunk” accupuncture

You can fairly say that the evidence is not conclusive. You cannot fairly say that acupuncture is disproven in animals. And no, the fact that there are peer-reviewed studies on both sides of the question does not constitute proof that acupuncture doesn’t work. It constitutes proof that we don’t have a conclusive answer either way, and that we have evidence on both sides.

Lack of evidence that acupuncture works, after a few decades, would constitute a strong argument that it doesn’t. That’s not what we have. What we do have, is peer-reviewed studies on both sides of the question, plus extensive clinical experience.

You may believe you are being skeptical, but you’re not. You’re displaying a passionate belief on one side of the question, inflamed with rage and even hatred of anyone who doesn’t share your belief.

This does not help you persuade anyone to your point of view.

Comment by puppers — April 24, 2009

Quackery? Oh geez, not much bias in your response, huh?

As Dr. Robinson wrote, it’s pretty easy to fling the feces of invective while citing psuedo-scientific sources. Honestly, though, you bring a tad more credibility when you write with your real name, as the bloggers here do. She also explained to you her approach to these treatment options, in the original post and in her follow-up comment. I guess you missed the part — twice — where she wrote that research into finding out if these treatments work is what she does.

You said you didn’t believe me when I said I hadn’t deleted your first comment, that it was caught in the spam filter. You can believe this now: You’ll post in your own name with a link to your own credentials for continuation of this discussion, or I’ll consider you just another gutless troll.

Your call, “puppers.” Pony up your creds or take it elsewhere.

As for your article, it is quite easy to spot the quackery, not to mention the bias of the medical journals. I’m sorry, but no amount of either false practicing or wishful thinking even, by a practitioner placing hands over an ill patient is ever going to amount to anything more than a conceived perception on the part of the practitioner and the patient. Again, animals don’t have the luxury to tell you it isn’t working. Of course, in any clinical environment with hands-on application, animals are going to show you they are relaxed, or calmer, simply because you are giving them added attention, petting, soothing voice, all the norms of their everyday environment.

How can you conscientiously support further research in methods clearly suggestive of quackery? Wouldn’t it be more feasible and cost-effective to focus on the few things that show an ounce of worthiness to persue? And why is it that proponents can’t seem to gather up the necessary collective minds and funding to fund such research? If it were so promising, the medical establishment as we know it today would be on the bandwagon to find the ultimate alternative cures. It truly is disheartening to see people revert to the dark ages in medicine, not because “big pharma” or conventional medicine can’t produce the cures, but because of sheer desperation and gullibility on the part of a horribly misinformed society. Even worse, when you abandon all reason and apply the nonsense to pets who don’t have a choice in the matter.

You didn’t answer any of the questions I posed to you.

Do you or do you not have clinical evidence that acupuncture and reiki were effective, or as you implied, the resolution, in the rabbit’s treatment? If so, please provide an analysis. If not, please explain why you believe it did, in a logical viewpoint that does not harbor on wishful thinking or mere perception on the practitioner or pet owner’s part.