I'm going to use this thread to chronicle Artemis's experience with Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, herbs, etc.) in combatting her separation anxiety. This is my first experience with TCM and I have to say I'm a skeptic, but for some reason our vet doesn't want to prescribe cholmicalm, xanax or any other medication. I'm going to give this a whirl and if I don't see any results in a few weeks, I'm going to have to find a new vet I guess.

Just a little background... Artie has severe separation anxiety. I started crating her all day before she was ready because she was destroying the house (getting dishes out of the sink and breaking them, ate my taxes, destroyed all of the furniture in that room, etc.) She is now crated in a wire crate in a tiled bathroom. She has since destroyed the wire crate. Over the weekend she actually punctured her leg on a caribiner that I was using to clip the door shut. (This is when the vet agreed that she needed some sort of medical intervention). Yesterday she chewed a few of the wire off and was stuck with one paw and her head/neck outside of the crate.

For the record... yes, I'm doing desensitization training with her. I have another crate in the living room that we're working out of so we don't back track every day when I have to crate her (from the "I'll be home" book). So please don't think this is a "drug my dog so I don't have to deal with her" situation.

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Yesterday evening was our first acupuncture appointment. She did fairly well with the placement of the needles. She growled/whined some when the needles were placed on her legs/paws. The vet said that she actually got a lot further than she though she would during the first session. After that the vet and the tech shut off the lights and left the room to let us relax for about 30 minutes. Being in a new place, Artie was totally curious and wanted to sniff everything in the office. Eventually she settled down and almost slept. They came back in and removed the needles then did several small B12 injections at the acupuncture points to continue stimulating the pressure points. (she didn't like that) The vet said she's a "hot" dog and didn't have the proper herbs on site so she had to order them and we should have them sometime this week. I did a little research on that and found a list of "hot" and "cold" proteins and am thinking about switching to the wetlands formula of TOTW since duck is a cold protein. Hey, if we're venturing down this road, might as well jump in all the way! Anyway, she was really relaxed last night. She did pretty good this morning. She didn't seem to be panting as much as usual when I put on my shoes. I guess we'll see.

I just wanted to say good luck! Dealing with separation anxiety is very trying. I'd never even heard of TCM being used on dogs, so it will be very interesting to see what happens with yours.

You should see if you can combine other non-medicine treatments with this, such as the thundershirt and the D.A.P. diffuser. (These did not help for my dog back when, but maybe in combination with other non-medicine treatments...)

Again, good luck!

That is totally awesome that TCM can be used on dogs, but then why shouldn't they're like us structurally, as per skin, hair, bones, internal organs etc etc.
With Beth being Asian she is a big believer in TCM. At times I've very much doubted what they can do but even now many health insurance companies are starting to accept TCM practices.



Please keep us informed on how Artie does with this as it has me very interested in t he out come.

Well, no change as of yesterday. Started the morning off nice and calm but excited to be in her crate with her pumpkin Kong. Got home yesterday evening and he had moved the crate across the bathroom and somehow managed to close the door in the process so she was stuck in a pitch black room for lord knows how long. (I leave the hall light on right outside the doorway because the bathroom doesn't have air ducts and the lights get HOT in there). Waiting on the herbs to make it here. They're thinking Friday!

Well this is day 2 post acupuncture and I came home to a dry dog with the crate in the EXACT location that I left it. I'm cautiously optimistic as she has previously had "good days." To be continued...

That's good news and its good to be optimistic.

Thursday we had a bad day, Friday, came home and she was dry and in the same spot I'd left her. Bought a new, bigger crate so tonight's project is getting it reassembled in the bathroom, aka, "doggie dungeon." It's bigger and heavier so I'm hoping she won't be able to move it.

We have been having the same problems with our girl we had to get a trainers crate for a while because our girl would do the same thing to the wire one. We have discovered calming collars do help her relax a lot. She has now graduated back to the wire crate and does not escape any longer.

We're still having bad days but I don't think they're AS bad. She's been slightly damp vs. soaking wet in the evenings. The new, larger, heavier gauge crate is helping too because she's not able to move it nearly as much. She started her Chinese Herbs Monday and so far I'm not any difference. We're supposed to give it a month or so and see if we need to switch.

We didn't have as many good days as we did last week. This Monday she didn't want pins in her head so the vet focused on points near her tail. I'm going to start keeping a detailed notebook so I can try to figure out if there's any pattern to her good days.

Overall I'm going to say that I'm really surprised at the progress that has been made the past two weeks. I'm not completely sold on the acupuncture but I can't deny the fact that there has been improvement.

Thanks for the updates. I'm reading them but usually not responding.

Haven't updated because... well, she's been doing awesome! She's started having more good days than bad in August, did GREAT the entire month of September, then has kind of back tracked this week. She has not had any additional acupuncture so I'm actually thinking about bringing her back for another session. Honestly though, my husband has been out of town the past two weeks and I think she's just confused/stressed because of the change here at home. We'll see how it goes!

In other news... we're starting obedience training next week! Don't get me wrong... I've been working with her this whole time, but I need someone who can better train ME!

Karen, I am SURE she is stressed.

Bravo dear!