Equine Acupuncture

Yesterday was the Holistic Club’s first wetlab, which I am very happy to say went off without a hitch. Dr. Holyaok, the same professor I had for my equine therio class, is certified in equine acupuncture, and he gave us a quick lecture and demonstration in acupuncture before turning us loose on the mares in the barn.

First he showed us the one of the major meridians, the bladder line, which runs down the neck and back just lateral to the spine, and he ran a needle cap over the points to show us how the mares would involuntarily twitch when he ran the needle cap over certain specific acupuncture points. Then we divided up between the mares and performed this same pre-examination on our own mares. Our mare was very sensitive over a acupuncture point by her hip, which happens to correspond with the ovaries. This makes sense, since it is the fall transitional period for the mares as they enter their winter anestrus.

Next Dr. Holyoak showed us how to place a 3 inch acupuncture needle in one of the main points on the bladder line. I don’t remember what it is called (Ba Hoi, maybe?), but it sits right at the highest point on the back by the hips. He showed us how to find it, and you can actually find it better with your eyes closed because you can feel the acupuncture points. As you run your finger along the midline back to the tail, your finger actually falls into a little depression, which is the acupuncture point. Technically I guess Dr. Holyoak showed us how to insert the needle as well as find the point, but since he did it in about 2 seconds it really wasn’t too helpful for the rest of us, who were now told to insert needles into that point on our own mares.

Me inserting acupuncture needles into the kidney points.

We proceeded to put about 9 needles into each mare. The first one, then 3 kidney points on each side and one ovary point on each side. The hardest part of getting the acupuncture needle in was getting it through the skin- I think a lot of us were taken aback at having to insert the needles on our own so quickly, and we tapped them in too timidly. Then we had to try and push them down through the skin before sliding the needle in the rest of the way. I had it by about the third needle. 

The horses really seemed to enjoy getting acupuncture. Which each successive needle their heads dropped lower and their eyes slid closed until it looked like they were falling asleep. As we found each acupuncture point by the same method as the first, by feeling for the slight dip in the skin, we could always tell we were in the right spot because they mare would kind of twitch when we inserted the needle, the same way she did when we ran the needle cap over her in a test for sensitivity.

After we had all of the needles in, we hooked up the 3 kidney points for electroacupuncture. Electroacupuncture is very similar to the concept of STIM in people, in that you are sending an electrical impulse into the muscle. The only difference is with electroacupuncture that pulse is being guided directly into the acupuncture point. There have been multiple studies that show that using electroacupuncture over regular acupuncture provides greater pain relief for longer period of time. I did my senior seminar on using alternative therapies such as acupuncture to treat lameness in horses, so most of the studies I read revolved around treating back or other lameness-causing injuries in horses, but the electroacupuncture always had greater efficacy than acupuncture alone.

When using electroacupuncture, you always start out at zero and slowly turn the dial up until you can start to see the acupuncture needle actually start to twitch within the muscle. Horses will all have different tolerance levels, and out of the 5 we worked on only one thoroughbred mare reacted at all, when hers got turned up a little too high, and she was completely fine once it was turned down just one notch. We left those electroacupuncture probes on for about 20 minutes, and we turned them up a little about halfway through. I believe that is a pretty standard treatment time, which is another advantage electroacupuncture has over regular acupuncture- it provides better results in a faster time.

While our electroacupuncture was running we turned to the ovary points, which we planned to treat with moxie. I’ve heard mixed results on moxie, and I don’t know as much about it. But we stabbed some aluminum foil over the needle to lay over the horse to catch any falling moxie ashes, and then stuck the little moxie cap on top of the needle. Moxie is made up of herbs, and I believe that it is used to bring heat into the acupuncture point. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, everything is about the balance between yin and yang, feminine and masculine, cold and hot, wet and dry, and so on. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, if it is determined that there is too much yin and you are out of balance, then the treatment is literally to bring yang back in and balance out your qi. I am starting my acupuncture course tonight actually, so hopefully later I will be able to explain this all better. But we stuck these moxie caps on the acupuncture needles, lit them on fire and just let them burn out. The horses didn’t mind at all.

The moxie cap on the ovary acupuncture point

The moxie burning

Electroacupuncture and moxie.

While we were waiting for these treatments to finish, we all got a hold of some smaller needles and practiced acupuncture on ourselves. I inserted 2 needles into my arm in the large intestine 11 point and large intestine 10 point. I think LI-10 is supposed to help relieve stress, so that seemed like a no-brainer. I don’t think it hurts- there is a little something, yes, but then the needle is in. With the first point I just felt a slight cooling sensation after the needle was in. I also inserted a needle into the skin between my thumb and index finger, which is supposed to be good to treat headaches. In that spot I felt some tingling, but that’s it. I don’t think I left them in long enough to actually treat myself, since it was too cold to be out in the barn with my sleeves rolled up.

LI-11 is the one right on the elbow, and then moving down my arm toward my wrist is LI-10

Overall, it was a great lab. I love that we actually got to insert the needles ourselves, that we saw 3 different techniques of acupuncture, with the regular acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and moxie, and that we got to attempt it on ourselves, because what better way is there to know what it feels like? Next week our club will be hosting a similar wetlab aimed at small animal acupuncture, which I am eagerly anticipating. Hopefully by then with a week of my Traditional Chinese Medicine classes under my belt I’ll have some more background knowledge on the different points and what they are all used for.