end-of-life care at home
How a sweet beagle boy found love and a forever home and learned to walk again after a major accident.
Here’s a heartwarming video that shows how dramatically helpful acupuncture and simple rehab exercises can be in recovery from a spinal injury. I can help your pet with both of these modalities!
Dr Erika Bruner, DVM, CVA
Heart of Vermont Vet
Acupuncture and At-Home End-of-Life Care
www.heartofvermontvet.com
A few weeks ago, Dr. Erika Bruner made an appearance on local Vermont radio station WDEV. Here’s the best part of the conversation, have a listen!
Over the Fourth of July weekend I moved to a wonderful new space just next door to my original location. I now have two treatment rooms, more natural light, and a ground floor entrance with no stairs, right next to parking!
My new office is at 652 Granger Road, just up the hill from my old office on the same driveway, in the big yellow Green Mountain Community Fitness building (formerly First in Fitness). As you’re driving up to it, you’ll see a big pine tree on the corner of the building closest to you. The little green door just to the left of the tree is the door to my office. Montpelier Martial Arts shares this entrance with me, and you’ll see their sign over our door; my sign should be up in the next few weeks.
I’m still following the curbside pickup procedure for acupuncture appointments, so when you arrive, please send me a text at 552-8224 and I’ll come out and meet you. You can park anywhere that’s convenient for you, including right by my door.
See you soon!
Dr. Bruner talks about recognizing early signs of Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome, aka “doggy Alzheimer’s” (though cats can be affected too). She discusses behaviors specific to dogs and to cats and recommends early intervention for your pet.
People food isn’t junk food, as long as it’s healthy. Fresh food is best for your pet. Dr. Bruner talks about one way to make sure a home prepared diet isn’t deficient in important nutrients, and how to add fresh homecooked food to a mostly-commercial-pet-food diet.
Wondering how often acupuncture treatment is recommended for your pet, or how soon it might start helping? Dr. Bruner discusses this question here, with some insights into how the benefits of acupuncture can add up over time.
Dr. Bruner discusses how a no-nonsense Western-medicine-focused veterinarian discovered that acupuncture isn’t just fairy dust, as she had always secretly thought.
One of the most common challenges that older dogs and their humans face is the progressive hind-end issues many dogs develop as they age, especially large breed dogs. Arthritis (often from hip dysplasia), neurologic degeneration (progressive weakness and unsteadiness of the back end), and loss of muscle mass combine to make getting around very difficult for most senior dogs.
It becomes harder and harder to get up stairs and into vehicles; and this in turn can lead to isolation and boredom, when your dog can’t come along with you. Most dog owners assist by lifting the dog, which can be awkward or risky for both pet and owner. The larger the dog, the greater the challenge.
But there are other options. I’m a fan of support harnesses, like the ones from GingerLead. They’re a simple concept– you have a wide strap with a handle on each end. The strap wraps around the dog’s abdomen, just in front of the hind legs. With the strap attached back to itself, you’re free to gently hold the handles as you walk your dog.
When there’s need for stair climbing, or your pup needs assistance for any reason, you simply give a lift on the handles. It’s far more ergonomic and safer than picking up the dog.
Harnesses like these are useful tools for dogs suffering from arthritis, hip dysplasia, degenerative myelopathy, vestibular disease, recovering from amputation, and more. They come in a variety of sizes to fit dogs from the smallest to largest. They can also be used temporarily for recovery from surgery or joint replacements, and as an aid for physical therapy and rehabilitation.
In addition to the GingerLead option is a product from Blue Dog Designs. The Help ‘Em Up harness is a bit more extensive than the other product, as it has two sets of handles. This makes it a better choice for weaker dogs or owners who need to use both hands to lift, and it has the added benefit of being wearable all day. It’s a bit more flexible in the way it fits, and can be configured with several options for the hind-end portion, allowing it to be customized for the varying anatomy of male dogs.
I don’t have any special relationship with the companies– they’re not paying for this write-up, and I don’t have a discount code for you. These harnesses simply are a product I like, and one I think you should know about.
You can find the GingerLeads, and their Dog Support and Rehabilitation Harness, at http://gingerlead.com/ They’re also available at a number of pet stores, including locally at One Stop Country Pet Supply in Barre, Vermont.
The Help ‘Em Up from Blue Dog Designs is available at https://helpemup.com/ but does not have any official sales outlets in Vermont. The website is easy to use and there are actual human customer service reps available to help you choose the right harness options for your dog.
I’m right in the midst of an advanced acupuncture class at the Chi Institute of TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) and it’s super exciting! The class focuses on a style of acupuncture inspired by the balance method of Dr. Richard Tan, a celebrated human acupuncturist. This style uses minimal needles placed far away from the painful area in a location that mirrors it on another part of the body. The balance method is used to treat pain, mobility restrictions, and other conditions with almost instantaneous results.
Watching both people and animals in our class sessions has been truly amazing. Our head teacher, Bruce Ferguson, is also a certified human acupuncturist, allowing contrast. Most people and pets experience decreases in pain and mobility improvements of greater than 50%, and usually more like 80% (by their own assessment, or in the case of pets, by a demonstrated range of motion) within a few breaths of the placement of the needle.
As we are learning, it has taken us a few tries to find the right spot to place the needle; or we find we can improve results by adding a needle or two. Most of these points are in the foot or leg below the elbow or knee, and they can be a bit “zingy” at first. However, the chance of rapid and significant pain relief is worth that short-term discomfort. All the dogs (and horses) in our labs tolerated their needles well.
According to Dr. Ferguson, repeated visits are important to maintain the benefits of treatment for the long term, with the length of treatment typically depending on the length of time the problem has been going on, as with the original style of acupuncture we learned in our initial certification program. We recommend retreatment before the problem fully recurs.
The first section of the class involved some lectures online. In May we had two days onsite in Florida. This format gave us valuable tools to immediately bring the benefits of this new style to our patients. I’m very much looking forward to the final section in November!
I truly enjoy these classes. Not only because I enjoy learning, but because I can share my knowledge with my acupuncture patients.