Aquapuncture

By Patty Wilber

On April 25th, LT ran her right shoulder into something and ended up with a puncture wound about the width of my index finger and two inches deep.  She was also lame.

LT, who is really starting to come on with the cows.  LT, who beat some local big guns last month.  LT, who is starting to feel sorta trained and seems to really be enjoying her jobs.  LT, who is supposed to be going to Texas again in early June.  (or not).

Puncture wounds are often not good and lameness…always bad.

The wound itself is about dead center in the picture and healed really well in 10 days. The gunk on her leg is leftover from various wound treatment ointments.

Decided acupuncture with electrical stimulation sounded like it might be something to help speed the healing. So, I called Dr. Charles McDaniels.

It turned out that LT did not get any acupunture.  She got  AQUApuncture (and various other treatment modalities)!

Aquapuncture, according to web sources, is useful for high energy beasties that cannot hold still for 20 minutes while acupuncture needles do their work. In aquapuncture, saline or vitamin B12, or proprietary homeopathic pink stuff, is injected into acupuncture points.

Proprietary pink stuff.

Apparently, there is an appetite stimulation point on the nose of swine and if you inject that with vitamin B12, sows will eat a lot more and be more successful in nursing large litters.  Who knew!  (LT is not a big eater–maybe I should have had him inject her nose while he was at it!)

I was sort of bummed at first because I wanted to see electrodes hooked to the little acupuncture needles.  LT, Frankenhorse!

But the Doc felt e-stim was more appropriate for horses with muscle wasting and fortunately, LT does not have muscle wasting!

Here are some of the other things Dr. McDaniels did:

An exam with a little white thing that he ran down LT’s neck.  No idea what he learned from that or the purpose.  I was holding the horse, (who per normal, was having a fidget fest), asking many questions and trying to take pictures, all at the same time.

He also did a chiropractic exam and found  out her left “knee” (which is really analogous to our wrist!) was way out. BIG pop.

She was out at the poll (where the head joins the neck) too. (Not kidding JM!)

Then he used a laser.

Lasered!

Then an electric thumper (activator).  I have liked those when I have gone to the chiropractor, and despite the noise and concussion, LT did not mind.  Most horses are fine with it, interestingly!

“tolerating the thumper”, says LT.

He finished off with infrared and other penetrating light colors that may stimulate cells.

Lights, (camera, action!)

By Wednesday, she was markedly better.

On Thursday, better still.

Haven’t checked Friday morning yet, but I am sure keeping my fingers crossed that she will ready to get back at it in another week or two!