Kindred Spirits How the Remarkable Bond Between Humans and Animals Can Change the Way We Live

One Do Animals Feel Pain? There is little that separates humans from other sentient beings--we all feel pain, we all feel joy, we all deeply crave to be alive and live freely, and we all share this planet together. --Gandhi Several years ago, Carol, a fifty-year-old single working mother, entered my office with her fourteen-year-old son Scott, and King, their German shepherd. Carol was the only one of the trio in good physical shape. Tall and handsome, Scott had difficulty walking; he didn't shake my hand but limped over to a chair where he remained quiet and withdrawn throughout the visit. Twelve-year-old King wasn't doing much better. Due to weakness in his hind legs, he had to drag himself into the office. It was hard to tell whose face looked more worried: Carol's or King's, with his heavy eyes and his tucked-back ears. Struggling to remain composed, Carol told me that King had been diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy (an atrophy of the spinal cord) and hip dysplasia (physical malformation of the hip joint). Their veterinarian had treated the dog with conventional medicines, steroids, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories. Nothing had worked. The veterinarian now felt it was time to put King to sleep. "Is there anything at all you can do?" Carol asked, despair permeating her voice. She told me about a friend whose ill cat had lived years longer than expected by taking a series of nutritional supplements that I had recommended. Carol had brought along King's X-rays and medical records. Looking them over, I saw extensive arthritis in the back, a condition called spondylosis, as well as in the hips. After gently lifting King on the table to conduct a physical examination, I noted that the dog's eyes were still bright, with no evidence of cataracts or other signs of aging; that his teeth were solid, showing little dental tartar; and that his lymph nodes and abdominal organs were normal-sized. His heart and lungs auscultated--or sounded--normal, too. His coat was in good condition, though a bit dry. But when I conducted my neurologic and musculoskeletal examinations, I found that the dog had significant pain in his hips and back, which correlated with the findings on the X-ray. The nerve reflexes in his hind legs were greatly diminished, and the muscles were significantly atrophied, probably from disuse. When King placed both hind feet on the ground, they knuckled under, indicating that he had little sensation in the top of his paws, suggestive of decreased feeling from the nerves in that area. Fortunately, the reflexes in his knees were still good. The nerve damage in the hind legs could have resulted from either degenerative myelopathy (a progressive debilitating disease more prominent in German shepherds) or from the spondylosis in the back impinging on the nerves to the leg. It is not uncommon to see both of these conditions simultaneously in German shepherds, which makes differentiating between the two quite challenging. As gently as possible, I shared with Carol and Scott my sense that King's situation was indeed serious and then went over the treatment options available via conventional Western medicine. Next I reviewed the possible approaches with alternative medicine and how they might work, especially if the nerve damage stemmed from arthritis. I explained how--if the damage was not due to degenerative myelopathy--acupuncture could help by increasing the circulation to both the muscles and the joints (thereby increasing the blood and oxygen supply to them) and by stimulating the nerves to the hind legs. Acupuncture might also relieve some of the pain of the arthritis by stimulating the release of endorphins, the body's own painkilling hormones. It could also relieve inflammation (without the side effects of synthetic cortisone) by stimulating the body's own cortisone release mechanism. I also suggested we trySchoen, Allen M. is the author of 'Kindred Spirits How the Remarkable Bond Between Humans and Animals Can Change the Way We Live' with ISBN 9780767904315 and ISBN 0767904311.