Miss Lola: Acupuncture and Paralysis

Lola was a shelter dog. They found her when she was only 5 wks. old. She only knew the warmth of her mother and litter mates for a very short time, if at all.

Lola is super smart, super strong, incredibly tenacious and stubborn. She figured out patterns in our life that we didn't even know we had, like realizing when my husband is complaining about misplacing his wallet, it means we are getting ready to leave the house. It didn't take us long to go back on a promise we made to each other that she would not sleep with us. Alas, she has been sharing our sleeping space since she was a puppy.

My Story of Loki

Loki is a nine year old, full breed, 15” beagle who is mildly overweight and is being treated for a low thyroid.He has also been battling degenerative disc disease since he was three.Loki’s first instance caused excruciating pain. Our veterinarian at the time practiced conventional medicine and ordered x-rays, steroids, and pain medication.The x-rays did not show much, except for a possible area that may be affected. The steroids and pain medication were able to bring Loki back to normal again.However, we did not discuss possible long term treatments.The issue was left at the statement that he had the same chance of slipping a disc again that he had originally.

Peppercorn is a seven year old rescued Doberman Pinscher.  She first started seeing our integrative veterinarian right after she was adopted. Pepper had been put in a rescue because her previous owner lost his job and stopped feeding her to save money.  She was twenty pounds underweight when she entered the rescue.  When we adopted her, we were very specific that she must be good with children as we have several nieces and nephews.  Pepper settled into our home.  Within the first week, I needed to get something out of the refrigerator while Pepper was lying in front of the fridge.  I nudged her with my foot to move and she snapped at me.  I assumed she was being territorial.  Two days later a similar incident happened, again resulting in her snapping.  The next episode occurred when I was sitting on the floor with Pepper.  She was lying on a toy and I reached under her to move the toy.  Again she snapped.  My husband and I discussed that she would need to go back to the rescue as she was not going to be a trustworthy dog.  However, by this time we had fallen in love with her.  She was obedient and worked for kisses.  My husband and I talked about what was making her snap.  It seemed that she was snapping every time I had touched her near the small of her back, at her waist.

Sammy (Samantha) with Degenerative Myelopathy

Written by Stephen Lawn

Sunday, July 10, 2011

As I sit here on the couch with my little girl Sammy, she is sound asleep. She sleeps a lot more now, showing more and more signs of getting old. She is after all going to be 12 years old in about 3 months. Looking at her could be a sad reflective moment, but all I can do is smile. I smile because I am so happy that Sammy was able to become an “old dog.” I gently rub her head and she wakes up, looks at me for a moment then goes right back to sleep. She is my little girl and I just enjoy sitting beside her!

Sammy, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, was diagnosed with a disease called Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) in December of 2007.

Pellinore's Story

Pelli is a rescue BC that we adopted at approximately 6 months of age.At roughly 17 months of age in January of 2008, he came up lame in his left rear leg after apparently slipping in the carpeted hallway of our home whilst playing with our other BCs, Dred and Gael. Our traditional medicine veterinarian diagnosed Pelli with an ever-so-slight strain of the ACL. With Rimadyl and crate rest he recovered fine. In late 2010, Pelli was occasionally coming up "tender" on his left rear leg, after running in a couple of classes each day at NADAC trials. His knee didn't seem any worse to our traditional vet, so we also sought the opinion of our alternative therapies vet. Pelli's lumbar spine was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay "out" of alignment and he also felt that same very slight movement in his left stifle. X-rays followed and EVERYTHING came back "within normal limits" EXCEPT for some arthritic/pre-arthritic calcium deposits on Pelli's right elbow.