Owner assessment of pain and quality of life of dogs treated with acupuncture alone or combined to other therapies

Chronic pain is the most frequent cause of suffering and decreased in quality of life in dogs. It should be evaluated and treated in a multidimensional way, which includes acupuncture (AP). The aim of this study was to analyize the patients profile and investigate the efficacy of AP and associated therapies in chronic pain and quality of life of 181 dogs with neurological and/or musculoskeletal diseases. Neurological diseases were prevalent, especially thoracolumbar intervertebral disk disease and acute spinal cord injury. Treatment was successful in 69.5%. of spinal cord injuries. Association between AP manual and electroacupuncture was the most frequent technique and analgesics were the most used additional therapy. The second part of the study compared the AP (ALG) independently or associated with other analgesic therapies (AAG) through evaluation of initial scores and after 24 weeks of treatment using the Wilcoxon test and the evolution of success by the Kaplan Meier curves, with significant differences when p<0.05. There was 95%, 100%, 95% e 89% success for Helsinki chronic pain index (HCPI), quality of life scale and visual analog scales (VAS) for pain and mobility, respectively. For the two types of diseases both groups showed success in all evaluations. The AP results with or without analgesic therapy for HCPI and VAS were better in musculoskeletal patients than in those with neurologic disease (AU)