Acupunture/chiro For Osteo

[NeylasMom]

I'm trying to set up an appointment to get Neyla evaluated for acupuncture and I am near tears with peoples difficulty answering my questions and the charges at each of the places I have called (and being totally freaked out that her limping is the start of the downhill slide). Having a hard time making a decision and hoping some GT input can help me as always.

 

Mostly curious if you've ever done acupuncture (or chiro) for a dog with bone cancer, how often you repeated treatments? Also, just out of curiosity, what are people paying?

 

We have 2 holistic vets within "reasonable" driving distance, one is out of the question based on prices. The one who I am more interested in charges $160 for the consult and $65 for each follow-up plus $45 each for chiro and acupuncture (so $110 per follow-up visit if we only do one, $155 if we do both). There are other options, similarly priced at my orthopedist's office and I believe at my vet's. I'm leaning toward the holistic vet but I'm pretty outraged by the cost and I'm afraid I won't actually be able to afford it. Hoping to hear that follow-ups are only needed once a month or less, although I know it must vary quite a bit depending on the dog/issue...

[robinw]

I think I would be uncomfortable doing chiro on a dog with bone cancer. Loca had chiro until the end, which I've always regretted because it seemed to increase her pain directly afterwards. She didn't have bone cancer, but she did have problems with her neck and back. I would be afraid of doing more harm than good. I paid $19 per treatment every other week, which was done by a vet.

 

I haven't had acupuncture done on a dog with cancer, but I've had it done on a dog that had a stroke. It seemed to have helped, but it was hard to tell if the results would have been the same without it. I've had acupuncture for a bad shoulder injury and it definitely helped.

[NeylasMom]

I think I would be uncomfortable doing chiro on a dog with bone cancer. Loca had chiro until the end, which I've always regretted because it seemed to increase her pain directly afterwards. She didn't have bone cancer, but she did have problems with her neck and back. I would be afraid of doing more harm than good. I paid $19 per treatment every other week, which was done by a vet.

 

I haven't had acupuncture done on a dog with cancer, but I've had it done on a dog that had a stroke. It seemed to have helped, but it was hard to tell if the results would have been the same without it. I've had acupuncture for a bad shoulder injury and it definitely helped.

Thanks for the input. How often did your stroke pup have to get hte acupuncture?

 

Regarding the chiro, Neyla's actually already had an adjustment and it seemed to help her. That's not for her cancer pain, but rather for the issues with her back end. She has a bad toe in her back right leg - over time with her not fully weight-bearing her muscle has wasted a bit in that leg. With her cancer meds, she's weight bearing almost completely again, but it's not easy to build the muscle back so I think her spine gets a little out of whack. The ortho is also suspicious that she has the beginning stages of LS. So chiro would be to help with all of that, acupuncture would be help with her cancer pain as well as her back leg/hind end pain.

 

I'm also gathering that chiro also some muscle work/massage, which I think would benefit her back leg.

[robinw]

Beansy (that was her name ) had acupuncture every day for a week following her stroke, then a couple of times afterwards. She completely returned to her pre-stroke self.

 

I think the vet who did chiro on Loca may have been a bit rough. She also misdiagnosed Loca, so the chiro may have been contraindicated.

[Remolacha]

I don't have first hand experience with the evil monster (yet), but the acupuncture vet I took Sugar to was primarily an oncologist who learned acupuncture to help her cancer patients, so I would assume it would help. Can't say about the chiro, it wouldn't have helped Sugar. I am sorry to say, the prices sound about like what I paid (it's been a few years)

[Guest Bamn]

A friend of mine had a 4 year amputation/osteo survivor and she went to acupuncture at least 1x a week. She definitely thought it helped. We have used him for acupuncture and I believe he charged around $75 for the consult and first session. After that it was $50 a pop and then we upped the ante to electro-acupuncture which was $68.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Bamn

[Burpdog]

Chiropractic, by a AVCA certified vet, followed by acupuncture is good. Regarding chiropractic, I think it would depend on where the cancer is. If the cancer is not in the shoulder, hip or spine, I would do chiropractic followed by acupuncture.

 

I saw a grey with a huge tumor on the leg who was receiving acupuncture and was a happy, running pup, up to the end.

 

There are some very good chinese herbs that help for pain, too.

[Guest Smiley]

We tried chiro adjustments with Peanut before we got the osteo diagnosis. She had three adjustments and I can't say that I saw a difference . Had we known the diagnosis, I think I may have pushed for accupuncture. That said, your Neyla has done so well and has been mobile for so long that she may benefit more from a chiro adjustment.

 

As for fees, we paid about $150 for the initial consult and then $70 for each adjustment (which took literally 3 minutes). You are in a good position knowing your diagnosis b/c your holistic vet may be able to guide you to specific palliative care treatments versus with us, we had to try this and that b/c we didn't know what was wrong for so long. The vet I use has a nice website with some good info. on his treatments which may be helpful to you: Link.

 

Good luck and please keep us posted. Hugs to Neyla!

[krissn333]

Sutra went to the chiro often, and as you know his tumor was in his shoulder. Chiro helped him greatly. Back in January he dislocated that shoulder, then once he was diagnosed, he would get muscle cramping and would have issues. When he started limping he was moving about differently, so his tailbone started to get out of whack. Chiro fixed both problems.

 

I also keep methocarbamol on hand - muscle relaxant. If he was having some cramping it would help

[Guest greytfulhounds]

I have no experience with chiro but my Rhonda goes for electro-acupuncture. A year & a half ago she went out to potty & fell on the ground because her back end gave out on her. She could not stand up at all & when she was finally able to get up she had to be assisted because she swayed & kept falling. I took her to the vet.....my regular vet was not on & the one we saw put her on Pred & something that escapes me now. X-rays showed that a nerve was pinched between 2 vertebrae in her cervical spine which controls her back end. Within days my vet started acupuncture.....we started at once a week, then every 2 weeks, 3 weeks, monthly & now she is on maintenance every 6 months. We had her off the Pred in approx a week & she has had nothing but acupuncture & her joint supplements since. You would not even know now she ever had a problem.

 

My vet practices holistic medicine so she does the acupuncture. As for fees, she charged a regular office visit fee of $45.00 for the consultation. The electro-acupuncture visits are $67.00.....no more, just $67.00 & they last a half hour. I can honestly say that the acupuncture has made a huge difference for Rhonda.

 

Continuing to keep you & Neyla in my thoughts & prayers.

[NeylasMom]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I was so busy this wkd I am only now getting back to read everyone's responses. I scheduled an appt for the consult with my orthopedist's office for the only time she had this week, tomorrow afternoon.

 

Chiropractic, by a AVCA certified vet, followed by acupuncture is good. Regarding chiropractic, I think it would depend on where the cancer is. If the cancer is not in the shoulder, hip or spine, I would do chiropractic followed by acupuncture.

 

I saw a grey with a huge tumor on the leg who was receiving acupuncture and was a happy, running pup, up to the end.

 

There are some very good chinese herbs that help for pain, too.

Neyla's lesion is in her front right shoulder, but I think the holistic vet who did her adjustment a few months ago was careful to avoid that area.

 

Do you know of specific herbs? Neyla is on a chinese herb formula (my regular vet uses them) for cancer and I'd be curious to see if there's any overlap. We also have one specifically for bone cancer, but I never got her on it b/c she started to have stool issues. With her limping this past week it may be time to consider trying it. Unfortunately I don't know if her limping means the tumor is progressing or if this is still jsut a result of overdoing it at Dewey. We just x-rayed in Sept and there was no progression at all. I don't really want to spend the money to re-xray just yet. I think we'll see if the acunpuncture gives her any relief first and then go from there.

[Guest greytloves]

Knowing that bone cancer is one of the most painful things you could ever imagine in humans and animals, I would say do whatever it takes to help ease that pain. But with that said I would not do that in lieu of pain meds, maybe with but not in replacement. You did not mention pain meds so I don't really know if you were wanting to do accu only.

[NeylasMom]

Knowing that bone cancer is one of the most painful things you could ever imagine in humans and animals, I would say do whatever it takes to help ease that pain. But with that said I would not do that in lieu of pain meds, maybe with but not in replacement. You did not mention pain meds so I don't really know if you were wanting to do accu only.

She's been on pain meds since her diagnosis - 25 mg Deramaxx daily and 50 mg Tramadol 3x/day.

[Guest greytloves]

Has she had a treatment yet? Wondering if you think it helped any.

 

I know you knew that on the pain meds and I wanted to lend support on trying anything, but I did not want my support out here to be misconstrued to mean NOT giving the pain meds! So, forgive me if I came across as "hey now, you still need to do this"!

 

Good luck and I am really interested in knowing if it had any affect.

[jenn8]

Neylasmom, you should be able to increase the Tramadol if your pup is having pain. If I remember right, Onyx was getting 150 mg, every 8 hours.

 

Jenn

[NeylasMom]

Has she had a treatment yet? Wondering if you think it helped any.

 

I know you knew that on the pain meds and I wanted to lend support on trying anything, but I did not want my support out here to be misconstrued to mean NOT giving the pain meds! So, forgive me if I came across as "hey now, you still need to do this"!

 

Good luck and I am really interested in knowing if it had any affect.

No problem, I appreciate the input. No, no treatment yet. I decided on the acupuncturist at my ortho's office. She's his wife, they own the practice together, and she oversees all of the holistic and PT treatments. So I get there and she tells me she doesn't do acupuncture on dogs with cancer! There was a major miscommunication, she was very apologetic and did not charge me the consult fee (thank god) so it worked out okay (aside from Neyla being totally stressed out by the visit ) but no, no acupuncture. I let Neyla resume normal activity (crazed running around our condo, playing with toys, and slightly longer walks) this week and she seems to be holding steady despite that - doesn't always fully weight bear when standing and gait appears the teeniest bit off to my ever watchful eye, but no one else would notice a thing and she is clearly not bothered by it so we'll just see how things go for a bit longer.

 

The dr did give me a rec for someone who is more experienced with acupuncture in dogs with cancer and may work with me, but to be honest, based on my conversation with her about why she won't do it, I'm a bit reticent. Her concern is that you are changing energy flows and you could, in doing that, cause the cancer to grow. Right now, I think the limp was from overdoing it in Dewey so I'm hesitant to mess with a "good thing". If at some point she appears to be in pain because the tumor is progressing (possibly confirmed by x-ray) then I'll be more inclined to pursue it I think.

 

We'll see, nothing is ever simple though, that's for sure. Anyway, that's the LONG answer to your question. Thanks for checking in, I appreciate it.