Chinese Herbal Alternative Medicines - Treatments For Your Dog

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Chinese Herbal Alternative Medicines - Treatments For Your Dog

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Did you know that treating sick animals with Chinese herbal alternative medicines is nothing new in the Eastern culture. Traditional herbal remedies and acupuncture meridian charts have long been used in the treatment of dogs as well as humans. In China dogs are treated as livestock and not as pets. In their culture all forms of livestock have traditionally been considered as being incredibly valuable. The thought behind developing traditional Chinese herbal alternative medicine for farm animals, including dogs, was a way of protecting the health of valuable property.

Finding a Traditional Chinese Medicine Vet

There are some sicknesses that will always be better treated by a traditional vet, such as healing traumatic injuries, but some animals show improved signs of recovery using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM includes acupuncture, acupressure and herbal alternative medicines and remedies. For example cases of canine arthritis improve more dramatically after TCM treatments even though all conventional westernized treatments have failed. Unlike humans, dogs can actually fall into a deep sleep while they are undergoing acupuncture treatments.

Modern veterinarians are becoming more receptive to working with herbal alternative remedies than doctors are for their human patients. You should not seek to replace traditional medicine completely with Traditional Chinese Medicine, however, for your dog’s best health, you need to find a balance of both conventional and herbal alternative medicines.

If your vet does not know of any TCM or holistic specialists to recommend in your area then you should go online and do some research. It may involve a number of hours pouring over phone books and animal care magazines to find someone capable of treating your pet with herbal alternative medicines. A good place to start your online research is to visit the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association’s website.

Veterinary Tui Na

You might have difficulty finding a “TCM vet”, but you may have better luck looking for a “Tui Na vet”. It means the same thing, but Tui Na is the usual name for this specialized branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Tui Na vet does not necessarily have to be Chinese but most people skilled in TCM have learned by studying in china or Hong Kong. “Tui Na” means “push pull lift” (roughly translated) and the therapist uses their hands on your dog as an integral part of the treatment.

As well as prescribed herbal alternative medicines, your dog will most likely undergo a lot of therapeutic massage. The massage or manipulation helps diagnose the animal’s ailments and is also used to determine if a series of acupuncture treatments are necessary. A top Tui Na vet will show you a number of massage or acupressure points on your dog so you can administer pain relief at home. Your dog may need regular periodic treatments, depending on the ailment. So if you want to learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine for your dog just go online and start your research.