I hope this addition finds you happy, healthy, and enjoying the summer sun! Here at Aspen Park Vet Hospital it has been a busy month. And here are the highlights:
- We welcomed 80 new patients to the practice.
- We performed 50 acupuncture treatments.
- We gave over 100 vaccinations.
- We provided grooming services to cats with ticks (!)
- We this year to date have donated over $2000 in veterinary services to local families in need.
One very special patient I wanted to share with you is a wonderful, beautiful huge female Akita dog we have been caring for, for many years now. She is a magnificent dog who was quite successful in the show ring. She is close to eleven years old and still looks like she is three, however, she has developed some minor shoulder arthritis, and has some urinary and fecal incontinence. She comes in regularly for acupuncture and veterinary neuronal adjustment (VNA, which is a type of mild chiropractic treatment, ) which helps keep her comfortable from a chronic sore shoulder. I believe that my acupuncture treatments are more effective when combined with gentle spindle manipulation.
What I wanted to share is that not only do the treatments help her with her sore shoulders, but also, it makes a marked improvement in her urinary incontinence when we stimulate the acupuncture point Spleen 6. It’s amazing! Once we were chatting so much I neglected to stimulate the Spleen 6 point, and at the next visit her urinary incontinence was a little worse Also we noticed significant improvement in her fecal incontinence when we stimulated the acupuncture point Governing Vessel 1. So how amazing is that!
Finally, in addition to the treatments, she gets twice weekly injections of Adequan, which is a product similar to an injectable glucosamine. The client has shared with me that those injections are like a miracle for her, and in fact, they can’t give them to her at night because afterwards she feels so good she wants to run and play instead of going to bed! So if you have a dog with arthritis, and have not tried Adequan, this might be a good choice for your pet.
She is a very rewarding case, and special in that she responds so well to not only acupuncture, but also the Adequan, which is all working together so well to keep this beautiful lady healthy, happy, active and mobile, without the use of drugs which might have long term effects on her liver or kidney functions. I am so blessed and grateful to have learned the art of acupuncture, so that we can help dogs like her live a full and happy life without a lot of pharmaceutical intervention. If you, or someone you know, has a pet with any of these issues, and would like to try more natural, yet effective, treatments, please give us a call, we would love to help!
We have also had a very busy summer at the ResqRanch, offering 5 classes a week, including our train-the-horse trainer program, our Patio Polite dog training, and our weekly mini summer camp/open house events. Through the help of our volunteer horse trainers, we are making amazing progress in the care and training of the animals in our care. We have taught one of the horses how to pick up a food pan and hand it to us, another has started learning how to play tetherball, and with another we are working on teaching a ring toss game. These sorts of exercises are mentally stimulating for the animals and really improves their quality of life, while building trust, all in non-riding ways. We have been going for long evening walks once the sun goes down, which is also rewarding and good for their health (and ours). It’s been an exhausting labor of love, yet the plan is to continue the classes into the fall, and hopefully offer even more classes and camps for kids and adults next year. For more about that, read our latest blog posts on the website ResqRanch.org.
We are so grateful to our patients, their families, and our staff for making this such a successful month! Thank you as always, for your support, kind words, and encouragement. Wishing you all the best DrQ and the Crew of Aspen Park Vet Hospital, and the ResqRanch.