Can Acupuncture Help Injured Animals? A Tampa Zoo Is Trying It Out.

Wondering whether acupuncture can right your body’s wrongs or if it’s just a bunch of woo-woo nonsense is a distinctly human question that manatees and ducks aren’t grappling with. A zoo in Tampa is taking full advantage of this lack of analysis and is administering acupuncture to said animals in an attempt to treat chronic conditions. Zoo reps say it appears to be working.

According to ZooTampa veterinarians and reporting from IFLScience, the zoo has begun using electroacupuncture alongside conventional veterinary care for animals dealing with nerve problems, pain, and injuries.

Sloth is not a sloth. Sloth is a manatee suffering from chronic facial paralysis after a suspected boat strike. It affected his ability to blink his right eye and properly open one nostril. After some electroacupuncture, Sloth has regained a bit of movement around his eye and nostril. How effective it will be in the long term remains to be seen, but so far things are looking up according to the zoo’s veterinarians.

A Tampa Zoo Is Treating a Manatee and a Duck With Electroacupuncture

Then there’s Earl Grey, a black-bellied whistling duck who developed sudden weakness in one leg. After two acupuncture sessions combined with pain medication, fluids and vitamins, Earl Grey was reportedly able to put weight on his weakened leg once again. Electroacupuncture was just one element of a broad, conventional suite of medical treatments that the vets also applied to a rosette spoonbill chick suffering a similar leg issue.

The animals may not be able to question whether electroacupuncture is doing anything or whether it’s the traditional medicine that’s doing all the heavy lifting in their recovery, but we can, and the question of whether it’s helping is as murky as the waters these animals wade through.

As IFLScience reports, acupuncture is typically considered a complementary therapy, meaning you do it in addition to what is hopefully a more traditional medical treatment. Studies on acupuncture’s effectiveness are a real mixed bag. The consensus seems to be that it won’t kill you, though whether or not it’s actually doing anything beyond that is up for debate.

IFLScience brings up a 2024 study of acupuncture as the only treatment for chronic pain in dogs. The researchers found the evidence of its effectiveness to be “weak.” Seems like even as a complementary piece, it wouldn’t be doing much.

That’s probably why ZooTampa isn’t abandoning all traditional medicine in favor of poking animals with electrified sticks. Acupuncture is being used as a supplemental treatment in addition to the conventional ones. Maybe the needles do help, but there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that they can help all on their own.

Meanwhile, there is a manatee, a duck, and a baby rosette spoonbill in Tampa wondering why they’re getting stabbed with a bunch of needles all the time.

The post Can Acupuncture Help Injured Animals? A Tampa Zoo Is Trying It Out. appeared first on VICE.

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