Chiropractic Care for your Pets

What is chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a modality focusing on musculoskeletal disorders and their effect on the nervous system. Treatment is aimed at restoring normal musculoskeletal function by providing an adjustment to the animal's body.

What is the chiropractic adjustment?

The most common definition is a high velocity thrust on a specific joint given by hand or an instrument to restore normal motion to the joint. The result should be to relieve pain or to correct abnormal posture or movement.

What types of problems can chiropractic treat?

Many lameness, behavioral, and performance problems can be treated successfully with chiropractic. If your animal can't run, jump or move in his usual manner, it is possible chiropractic treatment could help. There is no list of exact problems that always respond to chiropractic but common conditions or symptoms that tend to respond well to chiropractic include:
• Back or neck pain
• Lameness
• Stiffness
• Abnormal body posture such as neck held low or back hunched
• Difficulty getting up or lying down
• Gait abnormalities such as bunny hopping, pacing, not tracking straight
• Muscle loss or weakness in one or more limbs
• Behavior problems such as head tossing or unwillingness to go forward

How does chiropractic treatment work?

To oversimplify, a chiropractic adjustment affects the neuromuscular system. Muscles move bones. Nerves tell muscles what to do. There are various theories suggesting how chiropractic might work. A manual thrust over a specific area may affect stretch and tension receptors in muscles and joints. The effect is to restore normal musculoskeletal tone. Special receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints convey messages between muscles and the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) about the state of muscle tension. Restoring normal musculoskeletal posture and motion is a central therapeutic goal across all types of manual therapy, including osteopathy, massage, TTouch, and chiropractic. Chiropractic primarily uses a high velocity thrust to achieve results. Other methods of manual therapy appear to have a similar effect on the neuromuscular communication system, so a common mechanism of action may apply across different therapies.

Is chiropractic safe? Does it hurt?

For most musculoskeletal disorders of domestic animals, it is likely that chiropractic treatment has less risk than that associated with common medical and surgical treatments for these conditions. There is no published data on the safety of animal chiropractic treatment. In human patients, chiropractic (like all medicine) does have documented risks. Statistically rare complications have been reported. The most common side effect is localized muscle soreness. If a practitioner is not familiar with veterinary anatomy, or if the animal is nervous and moves around or stiffens its muscles during the treatment, soft tissue or joint trauma may occur. It is important that your animal feels comfortable with the practitioner and is relaxed during the treatment. There are some gentle chiropractic techniques that do not use manual thrusts, and these may be more appropriate for a tense or uncooperative animal.

A veterinary examination prior to chiropractic treatment is important to identify patients that might be harmed by chiropractic. For example if your pet has a fracture or a tumor, chiropractic treatment in affected areas is contraindicated.

Professionally trained doctors know how to assess pain and reduce the chances of painful adjustments without medication. If a manual adjustment is too painful for your animal, I will use a gentle instrument-assisted method or apply a different treatment such as acupuncture or laser.

Is is a cure all?

Chiropractic care is not a cure all and should be used along with your regular veterinary care. But is can help your animal live a pain free life and help with aligments listed above.