Acupuncture for cats as part of a pain management program is nowadays widely accepted. Initially, cat owners cannot imagine that their feline pet ever would lie down in a relaxed and calm way, when several fine acupuncture needles are inserted into her skin during a treatment session.

Pet acupuncture is a gentle, but very powerful natural pain relief treatment and may work very well for cats suffering from certain painful conditions. It can be well combined with conventional veterinary treatment and medication and helps in many cases to reduce dosage and side effects of pain relieving drugs considerably. Integration into normal Western veterinary treatment is possible and therefore becoming more and more popular amongst practising vets. 'Rosie', a young and very active domestic short hair, has had a bad accident. She broke her hind leg and needed specialist orthopaedic surgery to plate the bone so it could heal properly. When the wound was healing up it became obvious that 'Rosie' was not able to use her leg at all. She also started to chew her left hind paw constantly. It was that bad, that amputation seemed to be the only option.

Acupuncture treatment was started and during eight sessions in one-weekly intervals she made a very nice recovery. 'Rosie' is able to use her leg again and the chewing on her paw would decline and finally stop. Her owners were a bit anxious at the beginning as they knew their cat is usually very active and would not stay or sit in one place for more than a few minutes. They did not hide their relief and surprise when they realised how well 'Rosie' tolerated treatment!

Cats respond usually very well to acupuncture therapy. Being a hunter and predator, felines possess a very alert and responsive nervous system, which reacts readily to the stimulation of acupuncture points with special, fine needles. Improvement of a condition that can be treated with acupuncture may be truly amazing sometimes, depending on a cat patient's individual health condition.

Feline patients usually tolerate acupuncture treatment very well and the initial doubts of cat parents, whether their pet may "behave" during a session, will quickly disappear. A trained veterinary professional will reassess and adjust treatment to the individual case during each session.

Acupuncture for cats is gaining in popularity fairly quickly, because this ancient form of therapy can be combined well with Western medicine and integrated efficiently into conventional treatment plans.
Treatment is powerful, but gentle and safe, because known drug-induced side effects can be avoided.

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Dr. Ellen Schmidt is a veterinary practitioner focusing on alternative veterinary medicine. If you found acupuncture for cats interesting, visit her website and claim your free monthly e-zine "Pet Health Tip", available at => http://www.pet-health-pro.com