Pain. We all know it. We all have it to some degree. Pain can be our friend, as in remov­ing your hand from a hot stove to prevent injury, but often times it lives with us as an unwelcome guest. Our pet friends may also have to live with chronic pain. Older pets have chronic pain and many do not vocalize it. People may make excuses for not address­ing this issue, by saying, “he’s just getting old” or “she can’t jump up on the couch anymore” and “he has trouble getting up”. These can all be signs of chronic pain. Sometimes our pets become weak or collapse on their hind legs when you scratch or press on their backs. Cats may not let you brush or pet them over their low back. Dogs and even cats may lick an area con­stantly causing discoloration and sores.

Alternative PAINTHERAPY

Today, many people are turning away from drugs - due to either side effects or the desire to return to more natural treatments - and more of those people are searching for these types of therapies for their pets. Alternative medicine for pets is alive and well in South Jersey, at Newkirk Family Veterinarians. We offer chiropractic, homeopathy, herbal therapies, acu­puncture, laser and physical therapy.

Physical therapy. This category involves massage, heat and cold ther­apy, water therapy, chiropractic, and others. We all know the benefits of physical therapy in humans following injury or surgery. It is the same for our pets. The trouble is finding a doctor familiar with these types of therapies, and one who has the equipment to do it all. The Animal Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy Center in Egg Harbor Twp, is such a place.

Laser Pain Therapy. The new class 4 laser has many unique prop­erties that not all other lasers do. Its frequency is regulated specifically to deal with pain, swelling, injury repair and heal­ing. Areas of treatment include arthritis, muscle pulls and chronic spasms, ligament/ten­don injuries, sprains and strains, ulcerations and open wounds, lick granulomas, and post-surgi­cal and soft tissue trauma.

How does laser work? Because its frequency of light is so powerful, it will penetrate to deep tissues and thus can penetrate into joints. (vs. cold lasers which ONLY treat the surface). Its specific photon energy mobilizes blood flow, stimulates the immune system, releases muscle spasm and releases endorphins (the body’s natural pain remedy). Since it is a Class IV laser, it will also kill bacteria and microorganisms.

Acupuncture and Aquapuncture

Aqua-puncture is a blend of two common therapies. Acupuncture is the science of stimulating specific neu­rological points in the body in order to create therapeutic effects such as pain relief, relaxation of muscles and local anesthesia, as well as the treatment of many internal diseases Aquapuncture is the injection of various liquid rem­edies into the acupuncture points.

There are two main advantages to using Aqua-puncture over acupunc­ture. First, because the pressure of the liquid on the acupuncture point simulates the pressure the acupuncture needle puts on the acupuncture point, we can do our injection and we are finished. An animal undergoing acu­puncture must tolerate the acupunc­ture needle(s) for 10 or 15 minutes which can be a challenge! Second, we can vary what we are injecting to cre­ate different therapeutic effects. For example, if we are dealing with muscle spasm, we can use homeopathic rem­edies such as Spascopreel. If we are dealing with a spinal injury, we use a homeopathic remedy such as Medulla Spinalis. In the case of acute trauma, swelling and pain, we can use a homeopathic remedy such as Traumeel. Each of these homeopathic remedies is specific for the condition that we are treating. We can better help the animal by using a combination of rem­edies and aqua-puncture, rather than just acupuncture alone.

We can also mix the different homeopathic remedies. For example in an acute intervertebral disc rupture, we know we have swelling, pain, and muscle spasm. The same injection can contain the combined drugs Traumeel or Spascopreel and Discus Compositum in order to get multiple effects around the site of injury.

Aqua puncture also gives us the advantage of monitoring and altering homeopathic remedies from week to week as the animal gets better. This =is another advantage over plain acupunc­ture. The main areas that we use aqua puncture are to treat spinal diseases, lameness, and hip dysplasia.

Meso - Therapy

Meso-therapy is the painless injection of homeopathic medica­tions under the surface of the skin. Mesotherapy treatments can benefit those patients suffering from muscle spasms, fibromyalgia and osteoarthri­tis, among other conditions. The injec­tions are given intra-dermally, usually surrounding the joint affected. (They are NOT put into the joint itself)

Mesotherapy safely delivers effective treatment only into the area of pain, thus avoiding the side effects of tak­ing higher doses of oral medications. Additionally, medication doses used in mesotherapy are a fraction of that taken orally which lowers the possibil­ity of side effects.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy (proliferative therapy) also known as ligament reconstruc­tive therapy, is a recognized human orthopedic procedure that stimulates the body’s natural healing processes to strengthen tendons and ligaments weakened by trauma or arthritis.

Joints weaken when ligaments and tendons are stretched, torn or fragmented. Thus the joint becomes hyper-mobile and painful. Traditional approaches with anti-inflammatory drugs and surgery often fail to stabilize the joint and relieve pain permanently. Prolotherapy has the unique ability to directly address the cause of instability and repair the weakened sites, result­ing in permanent stabilization of the joints. When precisely injected into the site of pain or injury, prolotherapy cre­ates a mild, controlled inflammation, which stimulates the body to lay down new tendon or ligament fibers, result­ing in a strengthening of the weakened structure. When the joint becomes strong, the pain will be relieved!!

Some pets may experience complete relief from pain along with restoration of full function after only one or two treatments. However, most problems require from four to eight treatments depending on severity. We need to have the pet avoid any heavy-duty exercises, but normal walking is fine.

ComplementaryTherapy

The best way to treat any pain condition is to blend the best of tradi­tional and alternative therapy. These treatments then “complement” each other in the relief of pain and soreness. So the use of pain drugs, chiropractic, homeopathy and aqua-picture would be employed when faced with a pet with spinal disc problems for example. You can easily see that the blending of the therapies should create a faster, better result.

For more information on alternative therapies, visit www.alternativevet.com