The benefits of veterinary acupuncture

How exactly does veterinary acupuncture work? Earlier this month, Christopher Shapley, DVM, CVA, CVCH, CVFT, sat down with dvm360 to discuss his lecture on acupuncture presented at the Fetch dvm360 conference in Long Beach, California. In the interview, Shapley talked about what acupuncture is, as well as what its benefits are; pattern diagnosis; and how long the practice has been around for.

Below is a partial transcript. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Christopher Shapley, DVM, CVA, CVCH, CVFT: So these are mapped out points that have been used for 1000s of years on people, a few 100 years on companion animals, and a couple 1000 years, actually on horses and oxen. There are a lot of studies showing that what it does is it targets the body or tells the body where to heal itself. So, it reduces inflammation, it reduces pain, it releases endogenous steroids in the body to reduce inflammation. It also releases like feel good hormones, like endorphins; and it obviously increases blood flow to the area and to the region.

So basically, what I always tell my clients and other veterinarians that aren't familiar with acupuncture and using it to treat pain is, ‘I'm just telling the body where to focus its attention on healing,’ and I feel like that's the easiest way to describe it.