A perentie lizard in Dallas, an African penguin in Boston and an Oberhasli goat in Chicago are just a few recent examples of animals at zoos and aquariums benefiting recently from acupuncture therapy. As acupuncture has gained wide use in human medicine in the U.S., it also has become increasingly common in veterinary practice, especially for pain management. The Conversation U.S. interviewed University of Tennessee Assistant Professor of Veterinary Medicine Joe Smith, a specialist in farm animal medicine and veterinary clinical pharmacology, about this trend. He describes acupuncture's current uses for treating many species, from household dogs and cats to large animals like horses, cows and llamas: There are two schools of thought about veterinary acupuncture. The original form of acupuncture, which has been practiced for thousands of years, follows principles of traditional Chinese medicine. It views the patient through a lens of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Both versions of acupuncture can help veterinary patients. They use very small, flexible needles, about two-tenths of a millimeter wide ' less than one-hundredth of an inch. The needles are placed at various parts of the body to elicit specific responses from connective tissues, muscles and nerves....
The worst part of having a pet is not being able to ask them what's wrong. As pet parents, we can usually tell when something is off, but it's not always clear (unless your pet communicates with buttons). If you're anxious like me, this means a lot of expensive vet visits. Veterinary telemedicine services are a great way to deal with problems that don't warrant an emergency visit. If you've ever fallen down a Google rabbit hole trying to figure out if your pet's actions are normal, you should give a virtual vet visit a try. With veterinary telemedicine, you talk to a vet over text, phone, or video chat to get real-time advice on what you should do for your pet. It's not a replacement for regular in-office visits, and most vets on telemedicine services can't diagnose or prescribe medications for pets they haven't previously seen in person, but they are able to give helpful advice. After trying a number of these services, here's what we recommend. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you'd like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day....
Dr. Audrey Wystrach spent 25 years treating dogs, cats and livestock in foul-smelling veterinary hospitals still operating on faxes and post-it notes. Antiquated booking processes stuck patients in the waiting room'sometimes for an hour'as vets scrambled to see them promptly. It was a situation howling for change. Wystrach turned to her brother Michael (formerly the CEO and co-founder of meal-kit service Freshly), and in 2020 the Wystrachs launched Petfolk, a tech-enabled veterinary practice. Investors took note, and on Wednesday, Petfolk announced a $40 million Series A round led by White Star Capital to bridge the communication gap between pet owners and their vets. The North Carolina startup combines telehealth with brick-and-mortar and mobile clinics to make it easier for pet owners to book appointments and access follow-up care instructions without dealing with long wait times. The ability to properly follow up on care, whether scheduling medicines at a certain time, exercising pets, or portioning out food, is key to making sure they don't need to revisit the animal clinic....
