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Small animal

Using acupuncture to manage wound healing and chronic back pain in a guinea pig

02 October 2021
Features
02 October 2021
Volume 26 · Issue 9
Figure 4. Patient wearing a protective body bandage made from Granuflex (ConvaTec, USA) and cohesive bandage (NVS, UK). This body bandage was worn for 20 weeks to support wound healing and to prevent further self-trauma. It was also acting as a brace to support the back. Concerns were raised regarding the patient's quality of life if this was required to be worn long term. Note the patient's wide eyes and lack of facial grimace.
Figure 4. Patient wearing a protective body bandage made from Granuflex (ConvaTec, USA) and cohesive bandage (NVS, UK). This body bandage was worn for 20 weeks to support wound healing and to prevent further self-trauma. It was also acting as a brace to support the back. Concerns were raised regarding the patient's quality of life if this was required to be worn long term. Note the patient's wide eyes and lack of facial grimace.

Abstract

Acupuncture is being increasingly used in veterinary medicine in the management of wound healing and chronic pain. In this case study, a guinea pig responded to chronic back pain caused by fractures to multiple thoracic vertebral spinous processes and subsequent vertebral luxation, with severe compulsive self-injurious behaviour. This resulted in a large, full thickness skin wound. Wound healing was managed with a combination of support dressings, multi-model analgesia and manual acupuncture. The underlying back pain was initially managed with manual acupuncture and multimodal analgesia, then subsequently successfully managed long term with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and electroacupuncture.

The domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) is a popular children's pet and is also frequently used in laboratory animal medicine. As prey animals, they have evolved to hide their pain as a survival mechanism. Consequently, pain recognition for is challenging for both the pet owner and veterinary professional. This case study looks at a guinea pig who responded to chronic back pain with severe compulsive self-injurious behaviour. This resulted in a large, full thickness skin wound which was managed with a combination of support dressings, multimodal analgesia and manual acupuncture. Following wound healing, the underlying back pain was managed long term with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and electroacupuncture.

Manifestations of pain in guinea pigs may be subtle, infrequent and inconsistent. Because they are a prey species, signs may be suppressed around humans as a survival mechanism (Turner et al, 2019). Accurate pain assessment is essential for maintaining animal welfare. Frustratingly, analgesia in guinea pigs ‘remains an empirical exercise based on anecdote, experience and best practice’ (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, 2009), highlighting a critical need for evidence-based recommendations. Extrapolation from pain assessment tools used in rabbits and rodents is unreliable (Cohen and Beths, 2020).

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acupuncture
back pain
chronic pain
electroacupuncture
guinea pig
neuropathic pain
self-injurious behaviour
wound healing