It depends on the condition and the experience and comfort level of the practitioner. For many conditions, such as arthritis, back pain, and neck pain, acupuncture can be a miracle worker. We can see dramatic results within a day or more. It's also nice because it's not very invasive, it's not painful, and it's something that we can maintain long-term.

That's another thing that can be variable. The more chronic a condition is, or the longer it's been going on, acupuncture can take longer in those situations to see results because it takes a while to grease the gears, if you will. Sometimes, though, we will see results the same day. Acupuncture can release endorphins in the body and make animals feel better and more relaxed. We may even start to see results from that, even if we haven't helped the primary condition yet.

Our first session takes a little longer because it's getting down to the nitty-gritty details of the condition we're trying to treat. I will often ask different sorts of questions than if we were doing a standard Western medicine workup. I want to know more about your dog's habits, personality, about how their lifestyles have changed, which is why these initial appointments can take a little bit longer.

I also do a complete physical exam to look for underlying problems that may contribute to the main issue. Those sessions can take 45 minutes to an hour. We spend most of the time talking, and then we do acupuncture at the end. Follow-up sessions are much quicker. It's a brief check-in. I still do a complete physical exam to make sure nothing's changed, and then we do our acupuncture. The length of time that the needles are in varies depending on the dog or condition, but it's generally anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes that they're hanging out with those needles in place.

Acupuncture preparation is a super simple thing. You don't need to do anything except perhaps skip half their breakfast or their morning snack so that they're just a little bit hungry, and then bring their favorite blankie, stuffy, or comfort item. Acupuncture is about chilling out and letting the needles do their work. As part of our fear-free practices, I love having snacks involved. Everybody likes a good snack. By bringing them hungry, we can motivate them to stay in one place, whether with a bowl of peanut butter or a Kong full of baby food. Then they can snuggle up with you and let those needles do their work.

Age is not a disease. If a dog's 12 or if a dog's 20, I want to treat them in a way that's going to maintain their quality of life for as long as possible. When we're dealing with an older patient that may have some other health conditions, we need to weigh what sort of quality of life the impact the dental disease is having, which in many dogs can be pretty significant if they have painful or loose teeth. It can make it hard for them to eat and just be very uncomfortable. As long as we don't have any significant health condition that could make anesthesia essentially deadly, I think it's at least worth considering looking at the procedure and looking at how this might benefit the patient.