My Story

by Treacle Tart, the Springer Spaniel

This is the story of Treacle and her pet parent Jane through severe necrotising liverdisease.

Treacle is naughty and very good at sneaking and typing on Jane's computer with her gun dog paws... She sent us the story herself

Veterinaryacupuncture is an amazing tool for the management of chronic disease in general. Treacle will be 10 in September, she has been having regular acupuncture sessions for a year now and we are looking forward to seeing her for many more months to come.

"My name is Treacle Tart and in October 2020 I was taken very ill and was an inpatient at the animal hospital for 5 days.  I was in a sorry state and needed to be tube fed.  I had lots of blood tests and other tests to find out what was wrong with me.  As you can imagine, my pet parent was beside herself and the kind vets at the animal hospital weren’t very hopeful I would make any recovery.  I am a spaniel of great determination and tenacity, and was described as ‘a stoic little dog’.  I’m pleased to tell you, I did recover and go home.  I have always been a discerning (my pet parent says 'very fussy’) eater, and after I came out of hospital I have been exceedingly picky, although homemade Victoria sponge cake and chicken curry are always a favourite if I won’t eat anything else.  In April 2021 I started to be very poorly again.  

My pet parent thought very hard what she could do to help me and scoured the Internet for last ditch help and advice about alternative medicine for hairy children with chronic liver disease like me. That’s when she spoke to the team at Petersfield Centre for Integrated Veterinary Medicine.  I came to the Centre for a consultation as I was not eating anything, not even cake, and I was very yellow - not a good look for a spaniel.  Cristina said my pet parent would notice a difference in 24 hours after my acupuncture and laser treatment.  While my pet parent was trying to be hopeful, there was a part of her who wasn’t sure about the benefits of acupuncture; after all, I had been going backwards and forwards to the animal hospital and they were very sad, but they didn’t think there was anything else they or anyone else could do to help me.  After my first treatment I was very sleepy and when I got home I lay on my pet parent’s knee while she massaged my legs in the way Cristina showed her.

My pet parent put some fresh kibble in my bowl at teatime, but I wasn’t interested and went to bed instead.  My pet parent felt a bit despondent when she went to bed.  At 3am the following morning my pet parent woke with a start, there was an unusual clinking sound - my tag on the side of my food bowl…  Now I have regular acupuncture sessions when I need them, and while I have to be careful how much and what I eat, I usually eat my proper meals, and my gums and skin are a regular pink colour rather than yellow.   I have some additional tummy issues which acupuncture helps soothe.  I think I’m doing amazingly well and my pet parent thinks that without acupuncture my story would be very different. I had a review in June 2021 with the vet at the animal hospital who discharged me from their care and was so wowed by my appearance, my healthy coat, bright eyes and pink gums that she decided she was going to enrol on a course to learn more about acupuncture so the hospital could offer this service to their hairy patients in the future.  

I wasn’t too sure about acupuncture at first, but Mar and Cristina are very gentle, take their time and sit on the floor with me.  I find lots of cuddles and bribery with duck treats goes a long way.   I also take a lot of traditional veterinary medicine which Mar continues to prescribe for me.  I like going to see Mar and the team, and I think I should be allowed to sit at the front desk to welcome hairy children (perhaps not cats though) and non hairy people.  My pet parent feels overwhelmed with gratitude that the team are so kind and she can’t recommend acupuncture or indeed the whole Centre enough.  As you know I just like to lick all of you.

Treacle Tart"