ACUPUNCTURE IN CATTLE AND PIGS


Philip A.M. Rogers MRCVS
e-mail : progers@grange.teagasc.ie
(1985, rewritten 1996)

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

AP has little value as a SOLE THERAPY in acute surgical cases (such as rumen overload, severe acidosis, life-threatening bloat, abomasal or intestinal torsion, intussusception, displacement; rupture of internal organs etc.; fractures or severe trauma etc), acute toxaemia (coliform or clostridial mastitis), ulcers, severe organic pathology (such as fibrosis of liver (Senecio, ragwort poisoning) or kidneys (severe chronic urinary infections)). There is little evidence of useful effect of AP in cancer. However, trials in laboratory animals indicate some positive results and definite effects on immunostimulation. Similarly, in nutritional deficiencies (minerals, vitamins etc), environmental errors (calf house too airtight, ammonia smell etc), AP therapy will have little success on its own. Errors of nutrition and environment must be corrected.

 

AP can only work as a SOLE THERAPY when there is sufficient reserve capacity in the body's defence systems to repair the damage. However, because AP can influence all organs and functions to some extent (if the input, integration and output pathways are intact), it can be used as a COMPLEMENTARY therapy to almost any other form of therapy (surgical, chemotherapeutic, physical etc).

 

In life-threatening conditions or in severe cases (such as acute, virulent infections), AP is usually combined with western therapy, such as intra- venous Ca salts in hypocalcaemia, antibacterials in bacterial infection, surgery in foreign-body reticulitis and pericarditis etc.

 

AP in cattle and pigs can use the TCVM system, the transposition system, or (more commonly in western practice) combinations of both systems. This is because some important TCVM points have poorly documented equivalents in the human system. Western vets usually find the transposition system easier to learn than the TCVM system, whereas Eastern vets, who can understand the Chinese written characters may find the TCVM system easy to learn.

 

At its present state of development and in spite of its shortcomings and minor discrepancies with the TCVM system, the transposition system is very valuable in large-animal AP.

 

In the choice of points for therapy, one must IDENTIFY the organs, parts or functions which are affected. A careful search for Reactive POINTS associated with the affected parts helps the diagnosis and indicates the basic AP points for treatment. Also, the best combination of points to help the patient will usually include some Local Points, Shu and Mu points, points according to the NERVE SUPPLY and (occasionally) Distant Points for the affected area, or on a Channel linked to the area, or points for the SYMPTOMS.

 

Beginners should concentrate on learning the position and uses of points in the paravertebral area (HuaToJiaJi, BL and GV Channel points) and the CV points. Study of points on other Channels can follow later. Beginners who lack experience and those who lack confidence in their own selection of points for therapy may use Cookbook AP, such as outlined in APPENDIX 2 and 3 of the paper on the CHOICE OF POINTS FOR PARTICULAR CONDITIONS. Cookbook AP, though frowned upon by those fully trained in traditional methods, gives good results especially in the less complex cases.

 

The best method of stimulating the AP points is mainly a matter of personal experience and preference. Point injection is one of the quickest and most practical methods and is useful in many cases.

 

Large-animal AP is still a developing field. Despite centuries of use, many problems remain to be solved and more rigorous diagnosis and documentation of therapy and results is necessary.

 

Provocation experiments, such as those by Kothbauer (cows) and Schupbach (pigs) and the clinical association of reactive AP points with pathological disorder of specific organs (Piper, Greiff, Cain, Turnbull, Kothbauer, Westermayer) will refine further the transposition system into a highly effective diagnostic and therapeutic method.

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dozens of veterinary colleagues in USA, Europe and Australasia have helped me to study AP since 1973. In particular, colleagues from the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS) have shared their experiences of large animal AP with me. There are too many names to list them all but some must be mentioned:

 

Dr. Ichiro Asakura, Kyoto, stimulated me to write the original paper for a training course for large-animal vets in Tokyo (1985).

 

The large-animal parts of this seminar are based mainly on the works of Drs. Walter Greiff, Yann-Ching Hwang, Alan Klide, Oswald Kothbauer, Jen Hsou Lin, Sheila White and the late Erwin Westermayer. Without them, this paper would not exist !

 

The human aspects of AP are based mainly on the works of Drs. Chien Chung, Willem Khoe, Ronald Melzack, Louis Moss, Janet Travell and on many anonymous Chinese authors of standard human texts. Drs. Felix Mann and Pekka Pontinen sent me copies of their works on human AP. Their ideas were used.

 

Drs. Shelly Altman, Marvin Cain, David Gilchrist, David Jaggar, Luc Janssens, Jukka Kuussaari, Jacques Milin, Dane Piper, Allen Schoen, John Turnbull and the late Drs. Satoru Ishizaki and Grady Young gave me great help and material over the years.

 

Heartfelt thanks to all of those people and to many more unnamed and especially to my wife Mena and our children (Oisin, Conor, Killian, Fionnuala and Ailin) for their patience when "Daddy is busy !".

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