Animal Chiropractic
Dr Ines Wecker
“Get knowledge of the spine, for it is the requisite for many diseases.” – Hippocrates
Introduction
This information is being presented to help veterinarians and DCs to decide if taking a course in veterinary chiropractic would benefit their practices and the life of their patients as well as to inform owners on what to expect from a treatment from well educated animal chiropractors.
Overview
Veterinary chiropractic is a system of diagnosing and treating imbalances primarily of the neuro-muscular system of quadrupeds based on knowledge and skill. The theory cornerstones of the veterinary chiropractic education presented here is functional anatomy and functional neurology. Helping students to develop the skill is definitely in the center of our practical education.
No matter in which current state of health a patient is presented to the Doctor, we must be aware of the timeline leading towards the point of problems it is at this very moment.
Every veterinarian has diagnostic and treatment tools our modern veterinary medicine can be proud of to address diseases and injuries. Once structural damages are present like a bone fracture or a ligament tear in more severe cases, veterinary surgeons are the best choice to adapt tissues for the best prognosis possible. But what if we could address the root cause before pathology occurs?
Structural damage occurs, when the neuro-muscular system failed to react to external forces fast and adequate enough to prevent damage to happen. If you step on a tack, your reaction must be fast and your balance good to prevent your foot from having a puncture wound with probable subsequent infection.
Therefore, it does make sense to evaluate a patient for possible imbalances before it lacks perfect muscle control and body balance in reaction to external forces including gravity. Another point in the timeline of the patient health is rehabilitation. If structural damage occurred because there has been a root cause, putting a part of the body susceptible for damage this root cause will still be present after the veterinary surgeon did his best to treat the local problem.
Animal chiropractors have the knowledge and skill to evaluate quadrupeds by using their hands to determine if and what is going on long before symptoms become obvious. And Animal chiropractors restore balance to the neuro-muscular system for speedy recovery and prevention of a throwback.
Animals response
A chiropractic treatment session includes taking the history, doing posture and gait analyis and palpating the body of the animal before deciding which areas of the spine should receive an adjustment and which additional actions should be taken to enhance the patients health overall. Each case is an individual case and each patient has its own capacities for that treatment on that day.
Many people expect a chiropractic adjustment on a horse to be quite powerful, the doctor putting a lot of effort into it and needing to be strong. Well, not so much with BackBone graduates. You will notice how much a well educated animal chiropractor will work together with the animal, paying attention to all reactions the patients show. What we – and you – might be seeing when the job is done just perfectly is a horse (or a dog for that matter!) who relaxes during the treatment while maintaining a rather curious attention to what is happening. Sometimes the treatment looks very subtle and may not last very long but a good animal chiropractor knows how to recognize subtle signs of fatigue. After all, those through proper adjustments suggested changes in the neurological pathways are hard work. Try writing but not with your dominant hand and you get the picture.
Upon completing a chiropractic treatment your animal will have to take time to process the changes taking place throughout its body.
What Can You Do?
Look out for signs of imbalances ever so subtle. Get an animal chiropractor to adjust your animal and to give you ideas on how to enhance the health of your horse or your pet – either for prevention or rehabilitation. After a treatment observe how your animal is coping, no working on the same day. Start easy. And tell your dog even if he feels so much better he should wait to express artistic movements of any kind immediately (that´s the hard part 😊)