apitherapy and animals

[beehugger]

Does anyone practice apitherapy on their animals?
I have a dog with arthritis and his feet are so swollen and his toes are starting to curl inward. The vet says they x-rays show he has arthritis in almost every joint in his body. We have him on Rimadyl, but I've been curious about apitherapy. It's not something I would do without first seeing someone who's been trained in it, but it's seems hard to find anyone who even knows about it. I've even called the Vet College and of course they know nothing about it and don't want to learn about since we have so many drugs we can give them.
Just curious if this is a possibility or am I wasting my time?

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Sounds like uncharted territory. Medications for animals and small children are weight based. Since the sting mechanisms work the same in all animals, I would approach apitherapy with utmost caution. Try one sting farthest from the heart. Next day try a sting near the painful joint. Unless the joint pain is worse than the sting, the second and future stings will be a challenge to hold the animal still. My dogs get stung unintentionally. I was not concerned with the Rottweilers because of their size, but the little girl was less than ten pounds the first times she was stung. Four stings in one night did cause a mild reaction that warranted some concern. Now she can take a reasonable dose any day. They frequently step on the stragglers that are crawling home at night.

[Bee Bliss]

We started stinging our 13 year old black lab dog (75 pounds) in apitherapy in October, 2009. We started her after contacting the apitherapist that trained us on how to sting ourselves. From October '09 to May '10 she received 134 total stings on her back hips, top of the head, base of the neck between the shoulder blades and in two large grapefruit size tumors (1 fatty and 1 hard lump). Our dog was gentle enough that we found we didn't have to restrain her at all.

If you do this, start with a test and make sure the animal is not allergic. We stung for arthritis, fatty tumors and a hard big lump and her stroke situation. We were also advised to give her pollen, propolis and royal jelly.

Our dog was gentle enough that we found we didn't have to restrain her at all.

If anything, I would say we should have been stinging her more than we did. Since we stopped stinging her in May '10, the hard lump at her neck went from small apple size to being larger than a grapefruit and progressing down along her neck. The fatty tumor that was in her leg pit is also grapefruit size. We saw little change in that one's size since quitting the BVT on the dog. Our dog has received 3 stings this week.

At the very least, give your dog the pollen, propolis and royal jelly. Is your dog on steroids? With humans, steroids and bee venom therapy are a no no. Dogs can be given aspirin. Bee venom is anti-inflammatory.

Just like humans, don't start stinging small areas too soon due to swelling. The good thing about bee venom is it enters the bloodstream and will travel to all areas. Eventually though, you will want to get certain areas directly.

Check the American Apitherapy Society webpage. There was at least one dog talked about in the testimonials.

[Bee Bliss]

Oh, and Fido should be getting treats before and after.