In the News: Tails of Marin
By Andrea Kern, CAMT, CRM, PCT
Pets can benefit from a little loving touch, too
Touch is extremely important in a pet’s life. Massage therapy takes touch to a whole new level and is about much more than ‘petting’ your animal companion. Through the knowledge of anatomy and physiology, massage techniques can be applied in an accurate and positive method for the benefit of your pet regarding any number of physical maladies, including stress, injury, edema/swelling, tone abnormalities, circulation issues, pre & post surgery, behavior problems, and many more.
There have been several scientific and medical studies done on the benefits of massage therapy for people. It goes without saying that if it works so well on humans, that it would work just as well on other animals — we are, after all, made of the same ‘stuff’! Their muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia are all made of the same exact material as ours … and, they, too, can get stressed-out, experience pain, and have difficulty recovering from surgery or shedding the effects of anesthesia.
Massage, applied with focused attention, can invite physiological changes at a cellular level, as well as release endorphins, which lead to a state of well-being. Behavioral changes can occur through stimulating or soothing the nervous system, potentially contributing to accelerated healing after an injury, surgery or stress. One of the main reasons massage works so well is that it increases the blood (and lymph) circulation without increasing the heart rate. Increasing circulation results in an increase inthe amount of healing oxygen to the cellular structures within the body. This means that tired, sore muscles and joints get flushed of the old, stagnant fluid and newly oxygenated fluid can get into the stiff, sore places, allowing for the cells to be stimulated with new efficiency. Lack of oxygen makes bodies more acidic, which is related to increased pain.
One other unforeseen benefit of regular massages for your pet is that it provides constant monitoring. The massage therapist develops a sense of what is normal for your companion animal and can identify a developing problem or a new concern often before it becomes a debilitating condition.
There are many more benefits of massage, including:
- It improves the elimination of metabolic wastes,
- It stimulates liver and kidney functions,
- It improves inspiration by relaxing chest muscles, allowing for easier breathing,
- It drains stagnant lymph nodes,
- It improves tone and elasticity of skin, and sloughs off old, dead skin and hair,
- And more.
Along with any type of ‘physical’ therapies, there are contraindications and they are few, but very important. One would never want to massage a pet who has a fever, cancer, is in shock, or has any kind of infection. This is because of the increased blood flow with these four issues — one would want to keep the issue isolated and not ‘spread it’ throughout the body. There are also good reasons not to massage open wounds, neuralgia or suspicious lumps. For my clients who have cancer, I have found that Reiki is an effective tool for helping them relax and eat.
“I’ve recently incorporated massage therapy into the treatments my elderly, arthritic dog is receiving and have been impressed by both the relief she gets from it and by her range of motion afterwards,” says Sheri Cardo, Humane Society public information director.
Andrea Kern, certified animal massage therapist and Reiki practitioner, is the founder of Loving Touch Animal Massage (707-480-0306). She wrote this article for the Marin Humane Society.
Tails of Marin appears every Saturday in the Home & Garden section of the Marin Independent Journal
