Oscar's Story

Oscar is an 8 1/2 year old Boxer. He has a underactive thyroid gland, has sustained cruciate ligament damage and more recently was suffering with a forelimb lameness. His owner Sarah, founder of Oscars Organics (see links) writes....

Emma has transformed my dog’s life…I have a Boxer, Oscar, who was just over 8 when she started treating him for lameness in his front left leg and a ‘twisted’ foot.

Around 6 months earlier Oscar suddenly went lame, and didn’t improve with various painkillers and anti- inflammatories. Finally after an x-ray of his lower front legs, he was diagnosed with calcification of the ligaments between the sesamoid bones in the foot. I was told he would be this way for the rest of his life, would get worse with age and that he would require long term pain relief medication

I wasn’t prepared to accept this, so I went in search of alternative measures, knowing in my gut that there was more to it than just the calcification: As fate would have it, I mentioned to a friend I was thinking about acupuncture, and this friend had just been talking to someone who had taken their dog to see a vet who performed acupuncture and had gotten great results – this person turned out to be Emma.

Emma was lovely and Oscar was (and still is) happy to be treated by her. It turned out that most of the muscles along Oscar’s spine and shoulders were all knotted and in spasm – probably as a direct result of walking awkwardly due to the calcification – and this was the main cause of the pain.

Oscar seems to be a ‘work in progress’ and sometimes, after vigorous activity, he can regress slightly and certain back muscles spasm up again. So I take him regularly and, combined with check ups with a chiropracter, we keep him on track. But at least he CAN run around now, and WANTS to play with his friends, something a year ago, I never thought I would see him do again. It’s all about quality of life and getting a balance. And thanks to Emma, he can now live as he should, with a little help from some tiny needles!

If you are in any doubt, go and try it, you have nothing to lose and you may give your pet a new lease of life…

SARAH PRESTON

Banstead