Our Services

Our team of professionals extends beyond the hospital walls:

• We are proud to utilize Tele-medicine technology to increase our effectiveness. We send images via the internet to board- certified specialists.  This ability tremendously enhances our service for you and your pets.
• MRI's  are available at a reasonable price.  Diagnostic tools such as this represent the best possible care available for your pets.
• Cardiology:  ECG's are routinely transmitted to a team of veterinary cardiologists in New York via phone lines.
• Hematology & Cytology: In addition to our "in house" blood analysis, we use a variety of private and university research laboratories throughout the United States and Canada.
• Board certified doctors in Ophthalmology and Orthopedic surgery are only an hour away (Spokane, WA) for referral.
• Human surgeons, medical and pharmacological specialists and dentists are utilized for information and for procedural support.  We also treat their pets.
• Washington State University school of veterinary medicine is less than a 3 hour drive from Sandpoint.  the depth and numbers  of the university staff, as well as, their state of the art equipment (including echo-cardiology, MRI's, Nuclear Bone Scanning) provides a tremendous asset to our hospital and to our patients.

Our Goal is to give your family the best possible care and to provide you with options and information.

Acupuncture: From Ancient Practice to Modern Medicine  

Our Hospital offers acupuncture in conjunction with western medical approaches.   Both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recognize the validity of acupuncture treatments for a wide variety of medical conditions.  The advantage of doctors with both western medical training, and knowledge of Chinese Acupuncture is obvious.

Veterinary Acupuncture
The use of Acupuncture is over 3000 years old and was originally developed in Asia.  It appears that it has always been applied to both humans and animals.  The importance of domesticated animals (for the last 10,000 years) to the survival of human cultures gives this theory substantial weight.

Long before the development of the Scientific Method in the 19th Century (the foundation upon which western medicine stands), the Chinese were using acupuncture.  It was not until the end of the 20th Century that the Scientific Method was applied to acupuncture to determine not only if it worked, but how it worked.

The difficulty in raising the necessary funding to complete extensive “western style” research on all aspects of acupuncture has been limiting, however, enough supportive evidence exists for the American Medical Association (physicians) and the American Veterinarian Medical Association (veterinarians) to endorse its use.  This illustrates that western medical specialists recognize the validity of acupuncture. 

Much of the scientific basis for how acupuncture works has been explored, although the majority of the research lies ahead.

How Acupuncture Works
The Acupuncture points, which have been mapped in traditional Chinese medicine, have been explored through western medical research.  The points have been found to contain various structures (such as high-densities of nerve fibers) and characteristics (such as areas of low electrical resistance) which certainly play a role in how acupuncture works.  Stimulating these points can have effects on various aspects of the body’s physiology.  This might include changing blood flows to specific areas, or causing the release of substances such as endorphins (your bodies natural morphine).

There are limits to what acupuncture can achieve, just as there are limits to any medical therapy.  Currently we are recommending the use of acupuncture (in conjunction with western medical approaches) on the following conditions:

• Chronic (long-term)  or acute pain from arthritis, disease, or injury.
• Pain following any surgical procedure (including orthopedic (bone) repairs, soft tissue surgeries, or dental extractions)
• Geriatric (Old-age) Diseases (such as kidney failure– to increase blood flow)
• Neurological problems (such as disc disease or trauma)
• Immunologic problems
• Skin (dermatologic) conditions
• Behavioral problems (such as cat urine spraying)

Treatment Sessions
Acupuncture is performed by inserting small needles into specific sites to achieve desired effects.  Sessions may last from 15 to 30 minutes and may include electrical stimulation of the needles (see pictures above).  Initially the sessions may be frequent, but often they become further apart or terminate completely.  Specific information on particular cases will be detailed by your doctor. 

Animals, like their human counterparts, tolerate acupuncture well and may even fall asleep during the procedure.