PetTherapy Veterinary Acupuncture & Integrated Pain Management

09/10/2025

09/10/2025

Sadly, obesity and pain go hand in hand in our pets so with today let’s have a look at some hard obesity facts:

> Being over ideal bodyweight increases the risks of various health conditions. This is because fat tissue, far from being an inert packing or storage tissue, is actually very active and can influence your metabolism and hormonal functions, and emits pro-inflammatory chemicals. Just having this excess tissue hanging around is driving inflammation in other areas of the body - joints, kidneys, heart, bowels etc.

> Obesity is NOT inevitable in neutered pets, certain breeds or those with reduced mobility - with the right support & a consistent approach from all the family you CAN help your pet maintain a healthy weight

> Reducing your pet’s weight is one of the few management strategies that will SAVE you money!!! on: food, vets’ bills, supplements, medications, etc.

If you are struggling with your pet’s weight and want some extra support ask your vet practice if they run a weight management clinic or get in touch with Dr Caroline Taylor AKA

My Recover programme encompasses a nutritional review to ensure your pet is not taking in excess calories, and I can support you in tailoring your pet’s lifestyle & habits to ensure they can reach & maintain a healthy weight.

https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-help-and-advice/pet-health-hub/conditions/obesity-in-dogs

Photo credit: Adobe Stock

04/10/2025

When you kneel down for 5 minutes and someone *really* wants your company 😆😻

03/10/2025

26/09/2025

To round off I just wanted to remind you of the benefits of my Recover pain management programme, which I started to offer when I recognised that alongside acupuncture my patients could benefit from changes in other aspects of their routine and lifestyle:

-Home visits to reduce the stress of travelling
- Introductory four session acupuncture course
- Thorough lifestyle and medical history review
- Musculoskeletal examination and gait analysis
- Medication review
- Home environment and sleep assessment
- Physical therapy review
- Caregiver self-assessment tool - because taking care of a pet in pain is heavy work!

For more information check out my website at https://www.pettherapyacupuncture.co.uk/services/the-recover-programme/

23/09/2025

Me feeling very chuffed that I have at last finished my Chronic Pain Management course 😁😁

Keeping up to date with new developments in the world of pain management is an ongoing aim of mine so I was excited to start this course, but when life got a bit overwhelming last winter I stopped and it took me a full 7 months to get back to it - thankfully with the encouragement of my networking group and some extra admin help I am back to studying regularly. So..course completed - what next? What extra services would you like to see from a pain management vet I wonder...?

23/09/2025

Continuing the theme of , its time to bust some pain medication myths!

As a veterinary acupuncturist, I am obviously very keen on using acupuncture and other holistic methods to manage our pets’ pain, but does that mean I am anti-medication? Not at all.

Here are some need-to-knows:
- Not all pain is equal: there is inflammatory pain, myofascial pain, neuroplastic pain, neuropathic pain - these are medical terms which you don’t need to understand fully but the essence is, pain can come from different sources, affect the nervous system in different ways and can be experienced differently (aching, burning, sharp stabs etc)
- Not all pain meds are equal: there are opioids, non-steroidal antiinflammatories, calcium channel blockers, cannabinoids, NMDA receptor antagonists, monoclonal antibodies, tricyclic antidepressants - again, veterinary terms but we need to match the drug to the cause of the pain not just throw random tablets at our pet and see what sticks!
- The most common pain we see is inflammatory pain (from joint diseases such as osteoarthritis) and so we need to consider anti-inflammatory medication first and foremost.
- Yes, all drugs have side effects - but that doesn’t make them off limits. We need to weigh up the pros and cons of every choice, and that means an honest conversation with your vet about the effects of the pain on your pet’s quality of life and whether the risks are worth the benefits for their welfare in this moment - preserving a dog’s kidneys so it can live an extra six months in excruciating pain is NOT a choice anyone should be making!!
- Not all antiiflammatories are equal: just because your pet didn’t tolerate or find one NSAID drug effective, doesn’t mean you should write off the whole lot. It is recommended you give up to three different ones a try before putting them to one side altogether. It might be that using a lower dose can still contribute to effective pain relief alongside other methods.
- Every pet should be monitored while on medication as changes in health conditions, age or diet may effect the absorption or effectiveness of any drug. This is why your vet will insist on regular check ups and/or blood tests while on prescription meds - they wouldn’t be doing their job properly if they weren’t, and at worst they may be writing a prescription for something that is causing harm.

My Recover pain management programme takes a holistic view of your pet’s pain management and includes an essential medication review to ensure that your pet is on the best regime they can be to best effect!

16/09/2025

Continuing the theme of I wanted to highlight some of the ways we can miss pain in our pets.

Firstly - are we looking for it? We never want to think our pet is suffering and so it can be easy to ignore subtle changes in their behaviour or put it down to ‘being fussy’ or getting old. But animals *always* have a reason to change what they have always been doing so think:
- Is my pet slower at certain tasks than they used to be? Could pain be a factor?
- Are they more anxious or aggressive than they used to be? Could pain be a factor?
- Are they avoiding activities they used to enjoy? Could pain be a factor?

Here is my cat Fezy, still very active at 14 years old: she still hunts, clears the 3 foot gate in my garden, jumps onto worktops so she can’t be in pain, surely? It was watching her climb down from this windowsill in stages rather than one leap that convinced me I need to add some pain relief to her regime.

As it is today, how about making a promise to your pet that you won’t ignore or make excuses for signs that may be pain-related? Get them to your vet for a check up, they will help guide you on the many options to keep your pet’s pain managed into their senior years.

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13/09/2025

I'm looking for a local business that will help my sustainability goals by producing workwear embroidery on preloved clothing items I already own - any ideas out there? Rushcliffe Business Partnership

10/09/2025

HOW MANY emails are in your inbox??!

As followers of mine will know, I am always looking for ways to reduce my carbon footprint and reduce the impact of my business activities on the environment. I recently heard a piece on the news that caught my attention: the use of water in data centres.

Data centres are known for consuming vast amounts of electricity and I purposely chose a host in Quick By Design that used renewable energy sources for their web hosting. But water? I’d never thought of it before but in a summer where a lot of the country has seen drought and wildfires, conserving water has got to be a priority.

Apparently data centres need a lot of water to cool and condition the air, as they generate a lot of heat.

How can we help? By only storing on the cloud what we actually need, we can all reduce the load on data centres:
- Regularly review photos and videos on your cloud storage and eliminate what you don’t need
- Delete documents and emails as soon as they are no longer required, and try to ensure they are not held in multiple places (two is adequate for back up purposes).