Acupuncture uses very fine, sterile needles placed at specific points to stimulate a neurologic response, circulation, and harness the body’s own healing response to achieve balance. In other words, acupuncture uses your horse’s own physiology as the treatment.

Yes.

Modern veterinary acupuncture is well supported by a vast and growing body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence. Benefits have been shown for pain relief, stimulating nerve function, gastrointestinal health, stress reduction, and more.

Acupuncture can be used supportive care in a wide range of conditions, including:

• Lameness: osteoarthritis and/or soft tissue injuries

• Poor performance

• Back and neck pain

• General wellness for the geriatric patient

• Some respiratory conditions, including select left laryngeal hemiplagia cases (roarers), chronic asthma

• Skin conditions such as anhidrosis (non-sweating), acute hives, gnat saliva skin hypersensitivity (sweet itch)

• Chronic gastrointestinal conditions such as poor GI motility, and inflammatory bowel disease

• Fertility support in geriatric mares, non-cycling mares, or mares with an abnormal cycle

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and acupuncture works best alongside Western medical veterinary practices (not in place of.) If you are curious if acupuncture may help your horse, we encourage you to reach out to us at 612-309-5602 or ironwooddvm@gmail.com

While acupuncture is often well tolerated in horses, there are some horses who should not receive acupuncture.

If your horse is geriatric (over the age of 15) and has had rapid weight loss over several weeks-months, we request that your horse be evaluated by your primary/full service veterinarian and a Complete Blood Count (CBC)/Blood Chemistry (Chem) be performed prior to any potential acupuncture appointment. Additionally, if your horse has had a biopsy confirming a cancerous mass or any history or concern of cancer, it is very important that this be communicated to us. We are happy to discuss with your primary veterinarian with any of your concerns to see if acupuncture is right for your horse.

Also, just like people, there are some horses that simply don’t enjoy acupuncture. In our experience this is very uncommon, even in horses that are needle shy most horses come to look forward to their acupuncture sessions. Needles used for acupuncture are thinner/more fine than needles that are used for injection, and they are solid rather than hollow.

A typical session lasts 45-60 minutes, depending on the horse’s condition and comfort level.

It depends. For most cases, a series of 3-6 treatments, scheduled 2-4 weeks apart is recommended. While there are rare cases that resolve with one treatment, in the vast majority of situations acupuncture is not a one and done style of treatment.

• First, give us a call! The more we know about your horse’s condition before we arrive, the better. Our number is 612-309-5602.

• Please have your horse haltered and ready when we arrive.

• Your horse needs to be dry in order to proceed with acupuncture treatment. If you are unable to dry your horse by your appointment, please call us and we will happily reschedule you.

• It is ideal if your horse is not ridden prior to acupuncture, however as long as your horse is dry we may proceed with treatment.

• In most cases, horses may be ridden after acupuncture treatment. There may be select cases where rest is recommended after riding.

It depends.

Every individual responds to acupuncture differently. Typically, the effects of acupuncture peak around 5 days after treatment.

Please note: Acupuncture is not a one-and-done type of treatment in the vast majority of cases. Even though many cases will see improvement 5 days after their first treatment, most cases require 3-6 treatments.