ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> <meta name="Author" content="temp"/> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.51 [en] (Win95; I) [Netscape]"/> <title>Ludlam-Dixie Animal Clinic - The Miami Herald</title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFCC" link="White" vlink="White" alink="White"> &nbsp; <center><table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="8" width="700" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td> <center> <img src="graphics/TOP.GIF" height="144" width="700" alt="header"/> <br/> <u><font size="+2">The Miami Herald</font></u> <br/><b>December 27, 1997</b> <p><font size="+3">Pet-u-Puncture</font> <br/><b>By Geoffrey Tomb</b></p></center> <p><font size="+1">The patient was an older lady, her hair gone to gray.&nbsp; She was there for painful arthritis in her left leg.&nbsp; You could see the swollen joint.&nbsp; Her gait was bowed.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; The doctor used an inch-long stainless steel needle.&nbsp; Gently, he taped the needle into her stink, then slowly twisted it, going deeper and deeper.&nbsp; She wagged her tail.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; Enter needling, the latest must-have for Fido and Felix, main targets of the billion-dollar pet industry.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; It seems that acupuncture, one of the pillars of human alternative medicine, has gone to the dogs.&nbsp; And cats.&nbsp; In fact, the professional business card of Dr. Robert Ferran, DVM, reads "Vet. Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Acupuncture, Homeopathy." <br/>&nbsp;House painting? No.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; Taking pets to the vet for a "needling" is a hot trend in California, of course, and in Europe.&nbsp; South Florida has its share of veterinarians who use it, but Ferran, with offices in Miami Beach and Pinecrest, of course, is different for the most.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">First, he completed a two-year course on traditional Chinese medicine for humans, on that delved deeply, into human acupuncture.&nbsp; Then he studied veterinarian acupuncture. <br/>&nbsp;&nbsp; "I had to experience it myself," he said.&nbsp; "I needed to know what it feels like and what it will do before I could recommend it."</font></p> <p><font size="+1">He uses it himself.&nbsp; (It feels like an itch.)</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; He will launch into a discussion of yin and yang, balancing the body and paw you with terms like chi and endorphins. Yet know this: <br/>Without sedation or doping of the animal with drugs, he stuck nine, inch-long needles into a 15-year-old, fully alert chow dog - into her paw, her legs, two in her back and one at the top of her head ("the brain point") and she never snapped, bit, chomped, howled, growled or whimpered.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; She seemed to relax.&nbsp; After 15 minutes, he withdrew the needles, she wagged her tail and licked him with her purple-black tongue.&nbsp; Next came a gray cat named Gigi.&nbsp; Cat-u-puncture? <br/>&nbsp;&nbsp; Drugs are not always the answer, he said.&nbsp; "I try not to have to do that.&nbsp; I want it as natural as possible."</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; Ferran hasn t' exactly thrown conventional veterinarian medicine out with the bath water.&nbsp; He uses it when applicable.&nbsp; But he says he wants to be able to call upon acupuncture and herbal treatments as additional methods for diagnosis and treatment.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; In general, he likes acupuncture for what he calls the "three P's: pain, paralysis and paresis." <br/>&nbsp;&nbsp; "Sometimes you can see the animal yearning for pain relief," he said.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; This is particularly common in geriatric patients, older animals that may try to hide their pain by sleeping all the time.&nbsp; A visit to the acupuncture man - generally at $40 a visit - may perk him or her up.</font></p> <p><font size="+1">&nbsp;&nbsp; Thus, a little needling might teach old dogs new tricks.</font></p> <center> <p><a href="Default.aspx"><img src="GRAPHICS/BACKHOME.GIF" height="100" width="100" alt="home"/></a></p> </center> </td> </tr> </table></center> </body> </html>