Holistic Vet | Alternative Therapy for Pain and Arthritis in Dogs and Cats

Hi I’m Dr. Ilana Smolkin here forhealthcareforpets. com. Now I’m going totalk about integrated care for pain andarthritis in your pet. I’m going to talk about some of thealternative therapies, things likeacupuncture and herbal that you can addinto your therapy to see betterresponses. First I’m going to go a little bit intodetail, what are signs of pain in yourpet?There’s the obvious so when the dog cansee and obviously limp, but there’s oftenreally subtle signs that if we can catchthese things earlier on in the diseaseor in the process we can do a lot betterat taking care of. So sometimes dogs arejust a little bit stiff right after theyget up and it takes a little bit of timefor them to to work out of that afterthey get up from lying down. Sometimes we see a decrease in theirenthusiasm for regular activities somaybe they don’t want to play ballanymore or go for a walk or maybethey’re just putting on the brakeshalfway through a walk that they used tobe able to do with ease. People often report that they’re havingtrouble either going up or down stairsor sometimes jumping up into the car. They used to be able to get into thathummer no problem and then what’sactually a little bit of a strain andyou need to help them up in the back end. Maybe they’re a little reluctance tostretch, so yoga people we’re used tothose terms, upward dog, downward dog. Those were named those for a reasonbecause dogs naturally do those sorts ofstretches. If they’re not doing thoseanymore,it could be that their body is tight orthat it’s uncomfortable for them to getinto those positions. Cats can be eventrickier and I love to talk about catsbecause cats to be honest, I’m nevergoing to catch an exam room. They willhide it from meall the time but you might notice thingsat home and their subtle. Maybe they’re not jumping up onto thecounter anymore or they’re still gettingup there but they need the stool to jumponto first before they can make thathigher jump or maybe it’s as simple as theyneed to almost ramp themselves up andlooks like they’re even 1, 2, 3 before theycan take that jump up or down. Catsrarely do a full limp because usuallytheir problems are on both sides. Sosometimes it’s as simple as they’relying down in the same spot every day. Yes cats sleep most of the day, butusually change between five or sixlocations in the house. If they’re onlysleeping on one cushion on one couchthat could be a sign that they’reuncomfortable. They may also change theireating habits or they’re grooming habitsthat they’re not grooming as well oreven over grooming. Some of the skinproblems that come to mearen’t skin problems, they’re grooming over a hipor a joint specifically because they’reuncomfortable. Our ultimate goal is tohelp get your pet feeling good and backto their regular level of activity andto a point of good health. There are of course lots of goodmedications out there and yourveterinarian can discuss that with you,what’s the most appropriate for your dogor cat or your other pet. What I’m going totalk about more here is some of thoseintegrated things that we can add on topof that to either help reduce the doseof medication or sometimes get them offmedication altogether although notalways. The first thing to look at isnutrition and weight. Weight is the mostimportant everyone thinks that it’s justthe weight of the body itself that’scausing more issues and that strain on thejoints but fat itself actually gives offhormones that attack the joints andcause inflammation. So it’s really reallyimportant to talk about proper nutrition. Nutraceuticals there’s lots of them outthere for arthritis and painfrom glucosamine to omega-3, green limbmuscle and again some of these can workreally well either on their own or witheach other to help improve that qualityof life of your pet and it’s importantthat you talk things over with yourveterinarian chiropractic care and othermanual therapies. I talk about these morein other videos but this is where I loveto treat these pet’s these arthritic olderanimals and I see them starting tostretch normally again and actuallykick out after their poops and do whata normal range of motion for them and socan really improve their quality of lifeand give them a little bit of extra timeoff medications. Acupuncture, it’s beenused for hundreds of thousands of yearsin China and ancient medicine and itworks great for pain control. Most dogstolerate it really well and again I gointo more detail about acupuncture inanother video. Laser therapy is another goodoption as well. Herbal therapies, there’s tons of herbalsout there either from chinese medicineor traditional medicine or westernherbals, things like turmeric, green tealot of things that you may even have athome,however before going and seeing online,you can use these things do talk themover with your regular veterinarianbecause some of these natural herbals caninterfere or interact with medications thatyour pet might be on and cause them thatcombination to be unsafe. Often I’veseen the best success when we can usetwo or three different modalities fromthe alternative world combined withmedications to try and find what worksbest for that individual patient andeach one response to each therapy alittle bit differently so it sometimestakes working out what is the besttherapy for a specific pet becausewhat’s most important to us is yourpet’s health here at healthcareforpets. com.