Acupuncture...It's For the Birds !

These days it seems many people know something about Acupuncture. Perhaps you have received the treatment, know someone who has, or have read an article about this Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) modality. But have you heard of veterinary acupuncture?

To keep this article short and sweet, I have included many clickable links if you are interested in more information.

Acupuncture has been practiced on humans in China for almost 5,000 years. Fast Forward to modern day: According to a National Geographic article, U.S. veterinarians have practiced Acupuncture on animals since the 1970s. The desire for complementary medicine treatments for our pets has been on the rise. Most often Acupuncture is provided to dogs, cats, and horses. However, more and more birds are being treated with this ancient healing modality with incredible success. The American Veterinary Medical Association issued a interesting press release, July 14, 2007 entitled "Complimentary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine - Such as Acupuncture, Herbs and Chiropractic - Becoming More Mainstream" (the title explains it all).

Some additional interesting and informative sites are: International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, Association of British Veterinary Acupuncturists, American Veterinary Medical Association, holisticbirds.com.

Do you know a non-human who has received acupuncture. Post your story by clicking "comments" below.

Empty Nest - Medical Leave of Absence for Sr. Consultant

Mr. Spock, our 25-year old cherry-head conure, just spent his second night at the vet's office for a nagging pseudemonas infection and a clogged nasal passage. Poor guy. After undergoing a 2-week course of daily injections, nose drops and mouth drops, one of his tiny little "nostrils" remains as corked up as a bottle of wine. Giving him the injections and meds was as hard on us as it was on him. That frightened look on his face when we approached the petrified parrot to bring him to the "treatment room" (AKA kitchen counter covered with towel)....what a heart breaker. Then there was the running around and away from us to the deepest depths of his cage and play habitats. He never seems to learn that he can run, but he can't hide from us. So Dr. Sam Backos (Uncle Sam to our ailing bird), decided to keep him at his avian hospital in Deerfield Beach, South Florida and work on manually unclogging that hole. I imagine this is something like sinus surgery for a human....eeeeshk. Otherwise, he seems pretty healthy right now.

As you may know, I rely heavily on Mr. Spock's bird editorial perspective when posting on www.talkingwithbirds.blogspot.com . I talk ideas over with him, generally in the evening, while drafting posts. So, while our Senior Consultant for www.talkingwithbirds.com is on medical leave, I am flying solo in writing. Therefore, there may be an extreme human presence detected in the posts until Mr. Spock returns from his leave.

Good Bird Medicine (Yum)

As a child and I was frightened of needles. Injections of any sort brought out my wild side...kicking and screaming all the way. Well, as a bird owner, I have that same thing to contend with when medicating Mr. Spock, our cherry head conure/parrot.

Today is day 18 of giving Mr. Spock his 21-days of medication. The stress poor Spock goes through while getting his medication using the vet's method should probably warrant a sedative for him (and for us). What a commotion! Spock is a very independent minded bird and doesn't do what Spock doesn't want to do. He tries to bite and claw his way out of getting dosed. He's also a biter when he feels threatened (the vet techs approach the little guy like he's a vulture).

If it wasn't so serious a matter, I would call it comical. Two human adults chasing a small green and red bird around the house with a hand towel. Slapstick. Spock sees the towel and dives to the floor, then starts a wild run and hop all around (his wings are clipped). Are you a bird owner who knows what I am describing? When we finally get hold of him, it breaks our hearts to see him in that stiff mummy pose. Then...it takes two of us to keep his beak open enough to slide in the tip of a syringe filled with medicine (a needle-free syringe). The first few times, Spock actually tricked us. He concealed the liquid meds somewhere in his beak, then"spit" it all out. Can you imagine? So we learned how to overcome Spock's trickery and get the meds down twice per day...and...make it a pleasure to do.

After about 10 days of the 'stalk/capture/medicate method', we really thought that he would become more accustomed to it and trained to accept the medicine routine. A delusion, I guess. So we switched over to the the 'sneak in to the beak' method. It all came to me while eating a yummy treat from Mercier's Apple Orchard in Georgia. We mix the two medications with about 6 cc's (very little) of sweet, smooth, delicious old fashioned apple butter. I hand feed it to him and whisper sweet nothings at him the whole time. He loves it! Tastes good, he's happy, and he doesn't hate us. We love it too. (Of course, we called the vet's office and got the method approved...which leads me to wonder why in the world they don't give you a little hint like at the start.)

What have we learned? A negative becomes a positive for bird and mankind. By sweetening things up a little when giving our bird medicine, we turned it in to a treat and bonding process with Mr. Spock, instead of one that seemed more of a discipline exercise which controlled him with fear and force.