Acupuncture for Horses

Acupuncture is increasingly recognised as an effective treatment for chronic pain and recent advances in the neurosciences have improved our understanding of acupuncture effects. The historical use of acupuncture in the horse (and animals generally) is debatable due to the lack of satisfactory preservation and interpretation of ancient Chinese texts, but it is clear that the practice in the West today has developed from Western veterinarians adapting Traditional Chinese Medicine for humans along with recent research based acupuncture. Western vets found the human system of acupoints locations and use more accessible - by virtue of the established human acupuncture schools already established in the West and the fact that human acupoints are assigned to a channels (meridian) system while the Chinese animal points were not.

Scientific research has established some of the effects of acupuncture including the up-regulation of the endorphinergic system, normalisation of autonomic nerve functions and a reduction of anxiety and fear related suffering. Acupuncture excites receptors or nerve fibres in the stimulated tissue and cause the release of endogenous opioids and other neuro-transmitters as well as hormones essential to the induction of functional changes in different organ systems. [...]