Natural Arthritis Treatment for Horses: Cupping Therapy
Arthritis is a commonly known diagnosis for many horses. As a horse owner or caretaker/provider for horses, ideally, we have a way to treat a horse without the use of medications, when appropriate.
Sometimes, it can be helpful to utilize therapeutic and holistic approaches long before a horse is ever diagnosed with arthritis or experiencing pain.
In this blog post, we’re going to talk through a natural arthritis treatment for horses, specifically cupping therapy, and how using cups as a method of treatment for a horse can help to alleviate pain and improve movement.
What is cupping therapy?
Cupping is a means of holistic treatment whereby we use silicone cups to attach to the skin of the horse, lift the skin, and create decompression between the tissues beneath the skin.
To sum it up in short: cupping can lead to decreased pain, improved tissue mobility, and overall improved health of your horse.
And it’s a very comfortable treatment for the horse, too.
How does cupping help a horse with arthritis?
Cupping therapy is a noninvasive option for pain management and swelling due to arthritis.
A specific article looked at pain, morning stiffness, tenderness to touch, crepidations, swelling, disability, and nighttime pain.
Cupping therapy demonstrated significant improvements in all categories, significantly better than the oral acetaminophen (650 mg three! times per day) in *all categories measured. Sometimes cupping improvement was double the improvement of the oral medication.
Directly from the article: “The efficacy of treatment with cupping therapy in relieving signs and symptoms of knee osteoarthritis is comparable to that of acetaminophen 650 mg thrice a day orally, in terms of analgesia (pain relief), anti-inflammatory, and resolutions of edema”
Cupping therapy done correctly can improve your horse’s quality of life too.
If we consider a horse’s overall wellbeing and performance, we may notice that a horse who is receiving cupping therapy for treatment of their arthritis may show:
A better gait pattern
Easy movement
Decrease lameness
Improved performance
Where to learn how to cup your horse
If you are looking to learn exactly how to cup your horse, I offer a Cups and Blades class that can be done online, at your own pace, and you will have lifetime access to all content.
You’ll receive specific and detailed video tutorials, my favorite applications, as well as the anatomy and education behind the applications. This way, you’re not just memorizing applications, you will understand the why as well.
If you’re ready to get started, enroll in the equine cups and blades course!
If you want to learn more, feel free to check out these resources:
