NEWS
Exciting changes at Animal Acupuncture and Canine Sports Medicine Facility! Update April 2024:
What started as a solo veterinarian house call business 16 years ago has transformed into a successful four doctor acupuncture and rehabilitative medicine clinic!
Two years ago, Dr. Owen reached maximum capacity for the patients she was able to see solo. With the type of services we provide, some of our patients are only in our care for 4-6 weeks, some for 16 weeks, and some weekly for life. Until recently, this has meant that a patient has to no longer require our care for a “spot” to open so that Dr. Owen can start a new patient on their journey to wellness.
In order to facilitate the ability of taking on new patients, Dr. Owen decided to incorporate collaborative care for her patients. Meaning that she can see more patients with a team of competent doctors by her side to aid her in their treatments. So far this has been an amazing journey for our patients. Dr. Owen is pleased to now be able to offer her services with the help of three additional highly trained doctors working alongside her!
With all of this exciting growth, you may notice that the clinic runs a little differently these days (in a good way, we promise!) While your primary veterinarian or veterinary surgeon may recommend you take your pet to our facility to see Dr. Owen, please know that you may see Dr. Owen or any one of our other three highly trained veterinarians at any point during their care.
What does this look like?
In some cases, your pet may start their treatment plan with Dr. Owen but continue subsequent therapy with another doctor via pain assessment and acupuncture treatment. Other times, a different team doctor may start your pet’s treatment plan with any of our doctors continuing their therapy. As a result, sometimes your pet gets to see all four of our doctors which allows really cool perspectives in their care and treatments!
Rest assured that each of our doctors effectively communicate with each other over every patient. Our goal is an early graduation from rehab for all of our pets and when that cannot be achieved, dignity and grace with their senior years. We know that some people have strong preferences as to which doctor they see (and that’s ok!), just let us know whenever you schedule an appointment. However, please be patient with us and our scheduling process while we try our best to accommodate your wishes.
Finally, allow us to introduce our amazing team of veterinarians! Eight years ago, Dr. Cami Wallis joined our team. She is a relief doctor with a heart for integrative medicine and we are blessed to have her with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Dr. Wallis is also trained in Chinese food therapy and we have seen amazing results with her integrative style.
Two years, Dr. Delaina Skinner joined our team. Dr. Skinner is a relief doctor who helps us out when we can’t get our personal schedules to meet. She truly provides us “relief” and allows your pet to not go without treatment when our other doctors are not available. Dr. Erin Ayres and Dr. Rachel Baldwin joined our relief team in 2026.
All of our doctors have undergone the appropriate training and play a pivotal role in getting our patients back to walking and functional again. Most importantly, all of our doctors have a true heart for people as well as their pets.
Thank you for your continued support and trust in our care of your pets over the past 16 years and for the years to come!
Shockwave Therapy Source Users Manual
Piezeowave2vet at elevation usa has published a user’s manual for effective shockwave treatment for a variety of conditions. Dr. Heather Owen, Dr. Ronald Koh, Dr. Evelyn Orenbuch collaborated to provide scientific research to canine shockwave therapy
An article published by Dr. Heather Owen about The Use of Piezoelectric Shockwave in Medically Managed Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture
Dr. Owen recently had an article published on the use of Piezoelectric Shockwave in medically managed cranial cruciate ligament rupture . To view it click the button below.
Guidelines For Choosing The Right Food For Your Pet.
Pet Foods that Meet WSAVA Guidelines for providing nutrition and safety for our pets.
In light of the FDA identifying specific combinations of legumes and exotic animal proteins leading to heart disease in dogs that had not had this kind of heart disease before, we feel that client education is the most important part of moving forward together. Pet nutrition is very near and dear our hearts as we know the most important drug that you put into a diet is food. To better understand nutrition, we will start with educating you on how to pick the right food for your pet. We understand that feeding your pet high quality ingredients is important to you as well as it is an emotional aspect of the human/animal bond. Feeling like you have picked the wrong food is hurtful. Our goal is to move forward together. As Mary Angelou stated, “when we know more, we do better”. My husband and I teach our children that we “only know what we know” and because of this part of my job is to continue to learn so I can know more and do better. Sifting through over 400 companies I was astonished on how many companies do not comply with WSAVA guidelines. Take corn for example (we have more research on corn than any other ingredient in pet food: we know how it affects our dogs when heated (high, low), powdered and in meal). Corn is also an emotional ingredient: you either don’t care that corn is in your pet’s diet, or you care deeply. This is also eye opening to us in our profession as shouldn’t we know how every ingredient affects dogs prior to placing it in their food? Shouldn’t we know our beloved sweet potato as complete as corn?
We do believe that for all of the dogs affected by the diets that it is not a taurine deficiency but how these exotic proteins, legumes, and carbohydrates break down in the gastrointestinal tract and block the ability for the dog to use taurine, thus, simply supplementing the dog’s diet with taurine is not the answer. Now, we know that the dogs affected were healthy prior to the foods, they did not have any outside influences such as flea/tick meds or prescriptions that interfered with their diet or their bodies. These dogs affected were also not known to have congenital predisposition to heart disease and the genetic implications (following lineage, siblings) did not result in any other dog developing the disease. That being said, we know that the information provided by the FDA can and should be studied for a way to do better.
So where do we start? We are currently looking into this as an industry standard and industry improvement as how did all of these companies end up being able to be sold but did not pass the most elementary cut off test: the AAFCO feeding trial. We believe in Veterinary Medicine that we can do better than just AAFCO but AAFCO is a starting place, and is the least expensive and easiest to pass trial, as well as humane for the animals, but very few companies comply. AAFCO feeding trials are extremely important in understanding how a diet will affect pets. Although this is a very simple test to perform (and we can do better) it is a baseline on which pet foods make/don’t make the cut. If the pet food companies decide to omit this step or to balance according to guidelines but do not test, that is a red flag to me that they care more about advertising than nutritional quality. I have included the AAFCO Feeding trial information:
How can you identify the pet foods that have undergone “more rigorous” testing of their pet food, rather than just the AAFCO statement on the bag?
Unfortunately, you can't. Even veterinarians can’t. The pet food label is really a legal document, and is not designed to convey significant nutritional information. As much as some sources (such as internet ranking lists) would like it to be possible, you cannot evaluate 'quality' from the label, especially from ingredient lists. You need to consider the manufacturer (reputation, experience, investment in AAFCO trials and research, etc.), cost, availability, and your subjective clinical impressions of how your pets are doing on various diets.
Board certified veterinary nutritionists in clinical practice are alerted to dietary issues with specific diets because of extensive interaction with clients, practitioners, and each other. Therefore, these specialists are often a reliable resource for determining which diets are causing disease problems.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association Nutrition Toolkit developed by the WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee provides many useful nutrition resources including Recommendations on Selecting Pet Foods. This document lists eight questions you can ask pet food manufacturers to help evaluate their suitability and is available on their website.
We Have Moved!!
We have officially moved! Our new location is at 4505 S Peoria Ave. Tulsa, OK 74105
Hildi and Gabby were featured in the Tulsa World.
Here is a link to the Tulsa World article.
Halloween Open House.
It's a Great Remodel, Charlie Brown!
Please join us on Friday, Oct. 30th, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to welcome our new team, during our Halloween themed open house! We will have costume contests for dogs and their people, door prizes and LOTS of food for everyone! Come by with your kids for safe trick or treating anytime between 8 and 5. We look forward to seeing everyone! 🎃
Changes are in the Air.
There have been a lot of changes around here lately and there are still a few more to come. We may be a bit rough around the edges for a bit so please be patient with us while we are in this transition phase.
This site is also a work in progress and may not be fully functional for bit.
Thank you for your patience.
Animal Acupuncture