| The EDGE Interview with Dr. Jim
Sinning on acupuncture, holistic modalities by Tim Miejan The following is an interview The EDGE conducted with Jim Sinning, DVM, CVA, who is a certified practitioner of veterinary acupuncture at Minnetonka Animal Hospital. When did your interest in holistic care for animals begin? Dr. Jim Sinning: Mine began in vet school, at Iowa State, where I graduated in 1998. For me, I recognized in vet school that there were an awful lot of diseases we could diagnose, but we really couldn't treat. We can get to a point of, "OK, this is what your dog has, but sorry, we cannot do anything." I recognized that there was a professor at the school who did acupuncture, and I started tagging along with her and seeing firsthand some of the things acupuncture had to offer. So even at school, I was very interested in what alternative or integrative medicine had to offer. As soon as I could after school, I took the acupuncture certification exam and was able to do acupuncture more formally. Once you get interested in acupuncture, it's only naturally that you start branching out into Chinese herbs, homemade diets, different supplements that are used. It's been a great experience. For what conditions in pets is acupuncture effective? Sinning: Most of the time, we're seeing pets with arthritis, degenerative joint disease, or they're slowing down due to musclo-skeletal problems. That's the most recognized use for acupuncture among the general public, and that's what we've had the most success for in a general sense. There are also conditions such as constipation, kidney disease, liver disease, and in some cases, skin allergies. But skin allergies are tough anyway you slice it, with conventional or alternative therapies. And we see people in our clinic with a lot of behavioral problems, as well, such as cats that are urinating somewhere outside of the litter box. That is a real challenge from a conventional standpoint. Acupuncture also is helpful where there has been an injury and nerve damage with a loss of sensation in a leg or part of a leg, or some kind of injury where they've lost sensation. Certainly, acupuncture offers a very good alternative that may lead to success. Are you surprised at how well it works? Sinning: Yes, I definitely am. The hard part is, you never know how well it will work for a particular pet. I was so surprised after my very first case of acupuncture. The client called back the next day and said, "My dog is doing so much better." I responded, "Are you sure?" Most of the time, acupuncture works cumulatively. We need to see them two or three or four times before the owners notice an objective difference. So we are surprised after one or two treatments when people report that their pets are so much better. That's fantastic. How do the animals respond themselves to the treatment of acupuncture? Is it difficult to give acupuncture to dogs or cats? Sinning: That's a good question, because people always ask that when they call on the phone. I'm surprised at how well most animals do. Dogs and cats respond very well to the actual putting in of the needles. We have a handful of dogs who are in a lot of pain or are a hyper-excitable personality in which we have to have a technician help hug the dog to put a few needles in. With cats, there is probably a bigger group who are not as interested in being needled, but I still think most cats do very well with it. Aside from acupuncture, what other type of holistic therapies are you offering? Sinning: At our clinic, we do all of the conventional work that any clinic would offer, and then my clinic partner, Leilani Hotaling, DVM, CVA, and I do chiropractic work, work with Chinese herbs, have a pretty good knowledge and product line of nutritional supplements, and we work a little more in-depth than the typical clinic with the home-made-like diets out there, like the BARF (bones and raw food) diets and the Billinghurst diet. How well does chiropractic care work with pets? Sinning: Dr. Hotaling does a majority of the chiropractic care in the clinic, and we talk about cases an awful lot, so I can say that we use chiropractic as an adjunct to the acupuncture. She has found it to be, from my perspective, surprisingly helpful. I can remember, as an example, a dog who had been receiving acupuncture and doing well, but the acupuncture would wear off. She did a chiropractic adjustment on his neck and that very day the owners called me to ask what we did because the dog was so much better. I was surprised. In general, chiropractic adjustments help make acupuncture work better. By aligning all the vertebrae and the joints, then the acupuncture's work holds a little better. And with chiropractic, I would say the most common things we use that for are musculo-skeletal problems like arthritis, disc disease in the neck and back, and weakness problems. Mostly it's adjusting over the area from the neck to the sacrum. Dogs and cats fare equally well? Sinning: Yes, but I would say the majority of the patients are dogs. Frankly, I think that's more of a function of dog owners. They seem to be more likely to seek that type of integrative approach. Really? More than cats? Sinning: I think so. That's kind of been our general feeling. I don't know exactly why that is. It may just be an awareness issue. Dog owners are more likely to talk with other dog owners, that their dog has had acupuncture or chiropractic or something. And dog's are more active physically and may need more care of the joints. Sinning: Exactly What is your sense of the public's awareness of holistic care at this time? Sinning: I think there is a very small minority of pet owners who are aware of integrative medicine. I think the way it usually spreads is by word of mouth. Most of our clients who seek that type of care have heard about it from a friend or neighbor they know who has a dog. Someone who has had success treating a pet in a holistic way. Sinning: Or, for people who have had acupuncture themselves and wonder if they can use it for their dog. Or maybe these nutritional supplements I use for Crohn's Disease can help my dog with skin allergies, or something like that? So I think the awareness is pretty low, and it's only a very select, focused group who know about the care and are interested enough in it to follow through with seeing someone about it. These tend to be the owners who have the best and the strongest bonds with their animals. What types of things do you do in your clinic to promote holistic therapies for pets? Sinning: We've done some health fairs and talks with particular breed clubs and organizations. We have brochures printed up and we sent letters to all the veterinary clinics in the metro area, and as far north as Bemidji and south as Rochester. We wanted to let them know about the work we are doing and perhaps get some referrals. And within our own clinic, we let all of our clients know that we do integrative medicine. We also have a quarterly newsletter in which we talk about a particular animal who has been helped with acupuncture. We're certainly trying to increase awareness. Anything you'd like to add? Sinning: For people who are using integrative medicine, speaking for myself and others I know who use it, it's nice because of the satisfaction of helping animals who may not have had any other modality offered to them for help. There's also a job satisfaction with it. It's just so rewarding to do this kind of work. It makes the job so much more interesting. It involves a lot more mental gymnastics, so to the speak, because you really have to keep up to date. It's not like you learn something in school and then go out and do it. There's a constant learning experience involved. That makes it much more satisfying for me. Jim Sinning, DVM, CVA, can be reached at the Minnetonka Animal Hospital, 3318 Groveland School Road, Wayzata, MN 55391 by calling (612) 473-1239. Tim Miejan is editor of The EDGE. Contact him at (651) 578-8969 or e-mail editor@edgenews.com Copyright (c) 2002 Tim Miejan |
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