Prickly Pug

As I have been getting older, I've noticed more and more pain in my hips and have been less able to jump up on the couch and the deck.  It's really embarrassing, but Woman has to pick me up onto the couch and carry me back into the house after I do my outside business.  I've been on Dasuquin (a joint supplement) and Metacam (a pain medicine) since January, but those meds aren't working as well as they used to, so Woman decided to take the next step toward my hip health.

For the past three weeks, I have been going to physical therapy where I am forced to walk on an underwater treadmill and do other unnatural things like balance on a wobbly board and traverse an obstacle course.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am having trouble breathing under heavy exertion, so we are thankfully stopping physical therapy.  Did I mention that I really hated physical therapy?  Puggy don't like to be underwater!  So, Woman started searching for other options to keep me mobile, and decided to try acupuncture.

Here I am yesterday at my first trip to the Acupuncturist.

I have needles sticking out of my butt and my head!  Pretty cool, eh?  Those wires that you see are sending an electric pulse through the needles.  Freaky, indeed, but it has helped tremendously!  I was able to jump up onto the deck today all by myself, and Woman said I am walking much better this morning!

Woman was impressed with how good a boy I was during my session.  I told her I was just trying to hold still, because I was afraid of where else they might try to stick those needles if I wiggled around too much!

I have to go to the Acupuncturist once a week for the next four weeks, and then we will evaluate my progress to determine if we can cut back to every other week.  If you are a puggy with hip problems, I encourage you to give acupuncture a try!