accupuncture

Before we left NY, Mal was getting once a week laser treatments for his back and pelvis. We saw improvement. When we arrived in Gville, we decided to give accupuncture a shot thinking if it didn't work, we could always fall back on to the laser.

Mal had his first appointment with Dr. Xie (pronounced shay) at the UF vet school a week after we arrived. We were still living in a motel. I didn't feel comfortable leaving Cosmo alone there so he went along for the ride.

The appointment consisted of a lot of history given to a 2nd year vet student. Then Dr. Xie comes in with two other vet/Phd's - one from Spain and one from Korea. Lots of talking, looking at Mal's tongue, feeling his ears, his femoral pulses etc. They pronounce him suffering from a stagnated qi (pronounced chee). And the accupuncture starts.....

Cosmo spent the first part of the appointment hiding behind me, staring at the wall. Kind of a 'if I don't see them, they can't see me' thing. Once he realized that no one was going to do anything to him, he relaxed, let himself be fussed over a little bit, got some pets and laid down.

Mal was very relaxed during the whole procedure:

Midway through the appointment (which took about 1.5 hours total!) we were joined by two other vets. All total, at one point, we had 5 vets and one vet student in the examining room!


Accupuncture results? Not really sure yet. Mal is doing better, his mobility has improved greatly. The shaky backend is pretty much gone. He is still way too thin and doesn't seem to put on any weight no matter what I feed him or the quantities.