{"id":373692,"date":"2026-08-17T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373692\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:04:08","slug":"can-acupuncture-help-injured-animals-a-tampa-zoo-is-trying-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373692\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Acupuncture Help Injured Animals? A Tampa Zoo Is Trying It Out."},"content":{"rendered":"

Wondering whether acupuncture<\/a> can right your body\u2019s wrongs or if it\u2019s just a bunch of woo-woo nonsense is a distinctly human question that manatees and ducks aren\u2019t grappling with. A zoo in Tampa is taking full advantage of this lack of analysis and is administering acupuncture to said animals in an attempt to treat chronic conditions. Zoo reps say it appears to be working.<\/p>\n

According to ZooTampa veterinarians and reporting from IFLScience,<\/a> the zoo has begun using electroacupuncture alongside conventional veterinary care for animals dealing with nerve problems, pain, and injuries.<\/p>\n

Sloth is not a sloth. Sloth is a manatee suffering from chronic facial paralysis after a suspected boat strike. It affected his ability to blink his right eye and properly open one nostril. After some electroacupuncture, Sloth has regained a bit of movement around his eye and nostril. How effective it will be in the long term remains to be seen, but so far things are looking up according to the zoo\u2019s veterinarians.<\/p>\n

A Tampa Zoo Is Treating a Manatee and a Duck With Electroacupuncture<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Earl Grey, a black-bellied whistling duck who developed sudden weakness in one leg. After two acupuncture sessions combined with pain medication, fluids and vitamins, Earl Grey was reportedly able to put weight on his weakened leg once again. Electroacupuncture was just one element of a broad, conventional suite of medical treatments that the vets also applied to a rosette spoonbill chick suffering a similar leg issue.<\/p>\n

The animals may not be able to question whether electroacupuncture is doing anything or whether it\u2019s the traditional medicine that\u2019s doing all the heavy lifting in their recovery, but we can, and the question of whether it\u2019s helping is as murky as the waters these animals wade through.<\/p>\n

As IFLScience reports, acupuncture is typically considered a complementary therapy, meaning you do it in addition to what is hopefully a more traditional medical treatment. Studies on acupuncture\u2019s effectiveness are a real mixed bag. The consensus seems to be that it won\u2019t kill you, though whether or not it\u2019s actually doing anything beyond that is up for debate. <\/p>\n

IFLScience brings up a 2024 study<\/a> of acupuncture as the only treatment for chronic pain in dogs. The researchers found the evidence of its effectiveness to be \u201cweak.\u201d Seems like even as a complementary piece, it wouldn\u2019t be doing much.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably why ZooTampa isn\u2019t abandoning all traditional medicine in favor of poking animals with electrified sticks. Acupuncture is being used as a supplemental treatment in addition to the conventional ones. Maybe the needles do help, but there isn\u2019t enough evidence to suggest that they can help all on their own. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there is a manatee, a duck, and a baby rosette spoonbill in Tampa wondering why they\u2019re getting stabbed with a bunch of needles all the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wondering whether acupuncture can right your body\u2019s wrongs or if it\u2019s just a bunch of woo-woo nonsense is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1684,1210,115,135,137,136,49982],"class_list":["post-373692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-animals","tag-life","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}