THERMOMETRY OF ACUPUNCTURE POINTS AS A POSSIBLE WAY TO DIAGNOSE STRESS ON CATS

Acupuncture is an area in traditional Chinese medicine in which special points on the body are used for the impact on organism. It is gaining more and more popularity both in Europe and in Russia. We use acupuncture for stress diagnostic. The aim of my research was to find out how stress affects the acupuncture points, how the temperature in acupuncture points changes under the influence of stress factors. The research was made on five kittens that have the same parents. The measurements were made by infrared thermometer. Six acupuncture points located on muzzle were selected for the research. As a stress-factor was used suddenly reproduced from the dynamics sound with a volume 78-83 dB. The dynamics themselves were not stress-factor for the animals. The thermometry of acupuncture points can be used for stress diagnostic on cats. Points on muzzle are the most convenient for use: point 1 (can be used as an additional one because), 2 and 6 (where we can see noticeable rise of temperature) and 5 (decrease of temperature), points 3 and 4 cannot be considered indicative. It should be noted that purring affects the results of measurement and make them unreliable. Nevertheless, it is early to talk about statistics as only 5 testees took part in the experiment.