#9 massage

We all love a great massage, right? Our dogs are no different and a massage can be especially beneficial to a dog with health issues, like epilepsy. Now you are probably wondering how a massage can help a dog with epilepsy. Epilepsy affects the brain, massage helps muscles. Well, a massage can be helpful to an epileptic dog when administered in the correct way. During a seizure all of the muscle groups in your dog’s body tighten and become painfully tense. After the seizure your dog’s muscles are all very sore from being tight for so long. Imagine how sore you would be if you tried running a mile long marathon as fast as you can without ever warming up or conditioning your body first. That is basically what happens to your dog after a seizure. A great massage will really benefit your dog in that it will help ease the tension in those muscles and reduce the pain. A massage can also be beneficial in preventing seizures. Often time’s seizures are triggered by stressful situations and events.  In our day to day lives it can be almost impossible to prevent stress in our dog’s life. Often something as simple as a trip to the vet or a visit to the local dog park can be extremely stressful for your dog, and can trigger a seizure. The best way to prevent a seizure from starting is to get your dog into a very relaxed peaceful state of mind so they are more able to deal with the stressful situation. To get your dog to that peaceful state you can give them a massage.  The massage you give your dog can be a full deep muscle rub down or just lightly petting him or her, or a combination of these methods. Whatever your dog will tolerate is what is best. It will also benefit your dog to give them a similar massage after the stressful event to bring them back to a place of relaxation. By limiting or reducing the amount of stress your dog experiences you can greatly reduce the intensity and or severity of seizures he or she has.

When massaging your dog you should be mindful of the various acupressure points in the dog’s body. Acupressure is an alternative medicine technique based in traditional Chinese medicine. The belief is that all living beings have meridians that run through the body in which energy travels. By stimulating these meridians, energy flow is increased to specific parts of the body.  By increasing energy flow through these meridians you can help your dog recover from seizures, relax, and reduce incidence of seizures. 

  Below is a link to a very helpful site that shows illustrations of  canine meridian points, how to apply them, as well as different ailments that can be improved by the application of acupressure to these points. I hope you will check it out!! www.luckydoghealth.com/dogacupressurechart.htm

    

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