Acupuncture
Acupuncture (or “dry needling”, based on modern western medicine) can be helpful for many ailments, from muscle soreness to gut and respiratory problems, from kissing spine surgery rehabilitation to reproductive issues. Acupuncture is also particularly helpful with releasing tight areas of muscle fascia throughout the neck, back and rest of the body. We can also perform electro-acupuncture, where electric currents are passed along the needles to cause muscle twitching - this is great to encourage muscle build-up. It can also be used to successfully treat headshakers by placing needles near the trigeminal nerve.
It can be beneficial to all sorts of horses and ponies; for routine sports horse or racehorse maintenance, recovery from injury, recovery from surgery, rehabilitation from lameness following treatment, reproductive difficulties or geriatric horses who need a bit of general maintenance from aches and pain of the older horse. It is a great way of pick up an early problem before it becomes a bigger issue.
Most horses tolerate acupuncture, even electro-acupuncture surprisingly well but some, particularly though who are more sensitive or tend to worry, need some sedation to relax them for the procedure. We recommend an initial cost of 5 treatments, initially 1 week apart then progressing to 2-3 weeks apart depending on the response. Ongoing maintenance can be provided by one or two sessions every 3-6 months. Please contact our office to discuss prices, to book in or to discuss further with our vet, Hayley Parker, who is trained in equine acupuncture.
