Acupuncture At The Zoo: The Story of Lottie The Koala

Anyone who suffers from arthritis, or is close to someone suffering from it, knows how debilitating it can be to live with. That isn’t limited just to us humans, either.

Lottie is a Koala bear that has been at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina since 2002. Any mother knows that raising young ones can be a physical burden, and since Lottie arrived at Riverbanks Zoo in 2002, she has given birth to 11 joeys. All that joey-rearing (Koalas use their back to carry their children) and climbing and the physical rigors of everyday life have taken their toll of Lottie, who the staff at Riverbanks found had began suffering from arthritis and muscle tension.

However, Lottie has been showing signs of improved motion and strength recently, and the credit can be granted to the veterinary staff at Riverbanks, who treated Lottie’s arthritis and muscle tension with acupuncture.

“The animal care team at Riverbanks currently performs acupuncture on Lottie once every two to three weeks,” said John Davis, the director of animal care and welfare at Riverbanks told the Free Times. “Each treatment session last about 15 to 20 minutes, with the staff veterinarian inserting at least 10 small needles (about the size of a human hair) into Lottie’s lower back and hip area.”

If you’re wondering how easily a wild animal takes to acupuncture, Lottie has her days.

“We realized that she’s okay with it some days and not OK with it on other days,” Davis says. “If she starts to retreat up the tree in the middle of a session, then we just end the session.”

But based on Lottie’s improvement, it looks like she’s been OK with acupuncture more than not.

Acupuncture for Man's Best Friend

Those who are dog owners know, they’re much more than just animals — they’re a part of the family. So, when your pup is suffering from any ailment, chances are you’ll go to great lengths to help them.

With a common prevalence among older breeds, many canines suffer from hip pain or tension which can affect everything from the way they walk, sleep and behave.

In Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, Dr. Cooke of Cooke Veterinary has said she founds that many dogs need, and benefit from acupuncture treatment around the hips.

She told ABC 13 News Now that the results of doing so speaks for itself saying, “Statistics on acupuncture, it can be as effective as surgery, 85 percent success.”

If you’re worried that acupuncture might cause your pooch from pain — you can also rest assured. Just like in human acupuncture, Cooke says, "The biggest owner misconception is that it’s painful, like, 'How do you get those needles into them?' It’s simple, it’s just this wimpy little needle but it’s so powerful.”

Though, it;s important to engage in a dialogue with your care provider to determine the best course of action. While acupuncture can, and does, help - there are often situation where veterinary orthopedic surgery is the best course of action. This is typically when the animal is in significant and often unbearable pain, or even is suffering from paralysis, according to Cooke.

Also, it’s important to have realistic expectations for results, as it may take time. Cooke notes, “It’s just like in human medicine, if you’re really sick it’s not going to be one thing that makes you better. We’re going to have to work over time.”

Though, she says that for minor conditions, results might be noticeable in as little as three treatment.

She adds that canine acupuncture treats more than hips, too, noting, “We see a lot for back pain, weakness issues, arthritic issues.”

If you’re noticing . your precious pup might be struggling with hip or joint pain, be sure to ask your veterinarian about acupuncture and how it might help. It (literally) can’t hurt!

All About Equine Acupuncture

We’ve previously covered the benefits of acupuncture for both humans AND animals — further proving the efficacy, importance and versatility of acupuncture treatment. And while it’s becoming more widespread within the animal kingdom, perhaps the most success so far can be seen within the horse population.

As a recent article from Ocala.com explains, acupuncture is helping horses to heal, avoid surgeries, lessen pain, and release endorphins.

After practicing acupuncture for 35 years Dr. Huisheng Xie recently opened the Equine Acupuncture Center in Reddick, Florida. It is there that horse owner Lousia Flaig sought treatment for her 14 year old horse Songline, who had previously had surgery for an injured tendon. Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful, and the horse had not been able to return to his prior activities in eventing, and a s a stallion.

Flaig explained, “We were looking for an alternative. He already had surgery once. I feel doing this, we can’t go wrong, and with surgery we can make it worse.”

So, Xie performed acupuncture treatment on Songline, inserting acuneedles along points in the horse’s back and leg, and connected them to electric stim. Perhaps surprisingly or perhaps not for true acupuncture believers, “Within minutes the horses lower lip began to droop, a sign of a relaxed horse.”

Xie explained this as the release of endorphins having a morphine-like effect.

In further support of veterinary acupuncture, recent vet school grad Emily Roth said that throughout her experience with the practice being used on animals, “I really saw very profound results. Predominantly, pain relief in a lot of lameness cases and chronic pain issues. It treats the whole body and helps the body heal itself and ultimately that should be the goal in medicine versus using more invasive techniques.”

Instead of subjecting animals to surgeries that require extensive healing time and further rehabilitation, more and more anecdotal evidence as well as research supports . the notion of trying acupuncture first, or in conjunction with more traditional therapies.

Acupuncture for Pengiuns?

By now we know many of benefits of acupuncture on the human body - increased circulation and mobility, decreased pain, improvement in sleep and digestion , relaxation – just to name a few.

And while humans continue to benefit from the ancient practice, research and experience continues to show impressive results in animals treated with acupuncture, too.

In a recent article from The Seattle Times, acupuncture was provided as a service to a geriatric penguin named Ernie, who calls the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans home.

Veterinarian Cyndi Benbow treated 36 year old Ernie, who suffers from arthritis and blindness in one eye, as he was having difficulty swimming in his old age.

While Ernie didn’t appear to enjoy being held, he had his fourth acupuncture center with acuneedles used in his back, and the article reports, “the result was essentially a brand new bird.”  In fact, Ernie apparently dove into the water and swam, “as if he was a 2-year old.”

Experts attribute his improvements  to the carefully placed acupuncture needles being inserted, “into nerve clusters, leading to increased blood flow to the joints and improved circulation,” one of the many, many benefits of traditional acupuncture in humans too.

His first treatment resulted in a bit of a sleepy penguin, with noted benefits within the initial says that followed, with Ernie navigating his environment more smoothly. By the second treatment, he was jumping in the water and swimming, showing signs of an improved appetite, too.

Similar to repetitive treatments in humans, Ernie’s experience demonstrated the benefits of multiple sessions over time.

Even though there have been many examples of the benefits of veterinary acupuncture, similar if not the same as the benefits of  human acupuncture, it’s certainly not mainstream within the world of animal medicine – yet. Though, it seems that more and more professionals are learning and embracing the. Treatments.

Zoo Uses Acupuncture on Arthritic Giraffe

By now it’s commonly accepted that acupuncture can help relieve chronic pain, yet when most of this conversation is had, it’s referring to humans.

What many people might not know about is that acupuncture has also been used with our animal counterparts for quite some time. Most recently, with an arthritic giraffe.

This NBC News video shows Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island using acupuncture on their 2,000-pound giraffe named Sukari. The tall, majestic giraffe is 22 years old, aging, and suffering from arthritis, a painful joint condition compounded by her massive height.

She began to show signs of getting older, and of limited mobility before the zookeepers and veterinarians decided to attempt acupuncture as a treatment.

In this NECN article, Dr. Jeremy Goodman, the executive director of Roger Williams Park Zoo, explained ““There were a lot of things we had to consider,” continuing,  “Will the giraffe tolerate it? Would it be effective? Would the keepers be able to administer it, and how safe would it be?”

And so, a former intern at the zoo who is a certified veterinary medical acupuncturist was brought in to begin treatment. Following a similar protocol to human acupuncture treatment, the 45-minute session used 14 needles around her hips, and received the treatment weekly.

As for results?  NECN states that the zoo believes it is, in fact, working. It quoted, “‘We think it really is keeping her arthritis at bay,’” Goodman said. “‘We know eventually her time will come, but until that point, and we hope it’s not for a while, she’s going to have a great life here.”

Using acupuncture to improve quality of life, control pain, and hopefully increase mobility in animals follows the same beliefs as the practice in humans.

We’d just have to assume the acuneedles used on Sukari are a little bit bigger than those we use at NJ Acupuncture Center.