The Miami Herald
December 27, 1997

Pet-u-Puncture
By Geoffrey Tomb

The patient was an older lady, her hair gone to gray.  She was there for painful arthritis in her left leg.  You could see the swollen joint.  Her gait was bowed.

   The doctor used an inch-long stainless steel needle.  Gently, he taped the needle into her stink, then slowly twisted it, going deeper and deeper.  She wagged her tail.

   Enter needling, the latest must-have for Fido and Felix, main targets of the billion-dollar pet industry.

   It seems that acupuncture, one of the pillars of human alternative medicine, has gone to the dogs.  And cats.  In fact, the professional business card of Dr. Robert Ferran, DVM, reads "Vet. Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Acupuncture, Homeopathy."
 House painting? No.

   Taking pets to the vet for a "needling" is a hot trend in California, of course, and in Europe.  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.

First, he completed a two-year course on traditional Chinese medicine for humans, on that delved deeply, into human acupuncture.  Then he studied veterinarian acupuncture.
   "I had to experience it myself," he said.  "I needed to know what it feels like and what it will do before I could recommend it."

He uses it himself.  (It feels like an itch.)

   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:
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.

   She seemed to relax.  After 15 minutes, he withdrew the needles, she wagged her tail and licked him with her purple-black tongue.  Next came a gray cat named Gigi.  Cat-u-puncture?
   Drugs are not always the answer, he said.  "I try not to have to do that.  I want it as natural as possible."

   Ferran hasn’t' exactly thrown conventional veterinarian medicine out with the bath water.  He uses it when applicable.  But he says he wants to be able to call upon acupuncture and herbal treatments as additional methods for diagnosis and treatment.

   In general, he likes acupuncture for what he calls the "three P's: pain, paralysis and paresis."
   "Sometimes you can see the animal yearning for pain relief," he said.

   This is particularly common in geriatric patients, older animals that may try to hide their pain by sleeping all the time.  A visit to the acupuncture man - generally at $40 a visit - may perk him or her up.

   Thus, a little needling might teach old dogs new tricks.