Dr. Megan Graham grew up on Martha's Vineyard where she was lucky enough to discover her passion for horses at a young age. She competed her horse, Wally, through Prix St Georges level dressage and has earned her bronze and silver USDF medals. After graduating in 2008, she pursued her interest in sport horse medicine with an internship at Fairfield Equine Associates in Newtown Connecticut. She wor
ked as an associate at Ocean State Equine Associates from 2009-2018. In 2015 Dr. Graham became certified in equine acupuncture through the Chi Institute of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. A series of recent life changes including a move to Plymouth MA and the birth of her second child prompted Dr Graham to start her own business, Graham Equine Complementary Medicine. Dr. Graham completed her certification in equine spinal manipulation with the Integrative Veterinary Medical Institute in December 2016. She frequently adds Chinese herbal medicine to her treatment plans. Dr. Graham provides services to horses in Rhode Island and southeastern MA including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. Dr. Graham first became interested in acupuncture as a way to treat chronic diseases and musculoskeletal cases that can be poorly responsive to conventional medicine. Many of the drugs we use regularly such as phenylbutazone (Bute) and steroids have undesirable side effects in horses when used long term. The Chinese have been using acupuncture to treat horses for over 2000 years. It works by stimulating specific points on the body (acupoints) with thin needles. This creates a local response which increases blood flow and causes relaxation of the muscle and surrounding tissues. This then leads to a series of interactions between the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems. Acupuncture has been used successfully to treat many conditions such as back/sacroiliac pain, pain from osteoarthritis, foot pain/lameness, behavioral problems, gastrointestinal issues, eye issues such as non healing ulcers and uveitis, reproductive issues, respiratory problems and laminitis just to name a few. Acupuncture points can also provide diagnostic information for equine musculoskeletal problems and can help identify subclinical issues before they cause lameness or localize the pain to a specific body area. Spinal Manipulation is similar to chiropractic in that it focuses on keeping the body's joints and nervous system working smoothly and free of restrictions. It works by using a high velocity, low amplitude thrust in the plane of the joint to restore normal motion to both the joint and the surrounding soft tissues.
