Natural Therapies Help Pets with Bone, Joint, and Back Problems
October 27, 2011 on 5:03 am | In General Posts | No Comments
Veterinarians commonly see pets suffering from a variety of skeletal problems including back (disk) disease, arthritis, cruciate ligament injury, and hip and elbow dysplasia. While conventional therapies such as NSAID medications (Rimadyl, Metacam, etc.) and steroids have their place in helping these pets, there are many better choices for long term pain and inflammation relief. Here are some of the many therapies we use in our practice to help pets suffering from these common disorders.
1.Cold Laser Therapy-Cold laser therapy involves the application of a painless laser to your pet’s arthritic joints or sore back. Similar to acupuncture without the needles, regular cold laser therapy treatments have helped many of my patients live normal lives and avoid surgery (especially those with disk disease of the back and cruciate ligament injuries involving the knees.)
2.Homeopathics-Various homeopathic remedies have shown benefit in relieving pain and inflammation in pets. Specifically, recent studies showed a homeopathic treatment equally effective to the nonsteroidal medication Rimadyl in helping dogs with arthritis.
3.Hyaluronic Acid-While many people are familiar with glucosamine and chondroitin as joint supplements, hyaluronic acid (HA) and tart cherry are quickly becoming a favorite joint supplement, especially for those pets suffering from severe arthritis that do not respond to glucosamine and chondroitin.
4. Herbs-Pets as well as people can benefit from anti-inflammatory herbs including boswellia and white willow bark among others.
5. Fish oil-While fish oil is recommended for a number of inflammatory conditions, don’t forget its value for helping pets with musculoskeletal problems either. Combining fish oil with other therapies will not only help inflamed joints will make the pet healthier as well!
Finally, keep the following points in mind when it comes to dealing with arthritis in pets. The MOST important treatment for arthritis in pets is to make sure they maintain a normal weight. Extra weight carried on damaged joints not only further damages the joints but causes more inflammation in them as well. And even though we’ve been discussing musculoskeletal problems in dogs, don’t forget that even cats get these same problems including arthritis, often as frequently as dogs! Older cats that seem a bit stiff, have urinary or fecal accidents in the household, become cranky if you pet them, and which seem to “act old†often are often found to suffer from arthritis.
While many of the nonsteroidal medications we use in arthritic dogs are not safe to use in cats, fortunately our natural therapies are as helpful in our feline patients as they are in dogs. For more information on helping pets with his musculoskeletal problems, check out the latest information on natural therapies in my new book The Natural Vet’s Guide to Preventing and Treating Arthritis in Dogs & Cats (New World Library, 2011.)
Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^
没有评论:
发表评论