Can chiropractic help dogs?
First of all, I strongly recommend all dogs should have a thorough veterinary examination, to rule out any other health conditions (in dog health), before any chiropractic work is done.
I have witnessed many positive changes chiropractically with the numerous dogs I have treated over my 35 plus years of practice.
The ones that really notice the improvements are the owners, who quite often comment that “our dog now seems to be able to enjoy walks, movement and play. Whereas before they looked uncomfortable, appearing stiff, unmotivated and many times susceptible to putting on extra weight through lack of exercise !”
I previously lived in a big farming community, and was the only chiropractor in my district for my first 10 years of practice. My human patients would present me with animals, including farm working dogs to treat via chiropractic methods .Satisfyingly I was many times able to achieve some significant changes with these dogs, just by using the same principles as used in my human chiropractic work.
My clientele widened to breeders, show dogs and regular “pooches.”
Often talked about is hip dysplasia (shallow hip sockets) which is a very common condition with certain dog breeds, but there were many dogs who seemed to have “movement “ problems that were not necessarily the result of diagnosed dysplasia. The chiropractic methodology utilised seemed to often have a major effect in enhancing, plus easing painful movement problems. There were also dogs that had some diagnosed hip dysplasia (varying degrees), that were still helped to function better with the application of chiropractic work, despite the expectation of relentless deterioration.
These chiropractic methods are certainly not for curing conditions like hip dysplasia, but instead maximizing biomechanical function throughout the animal .
My objective is to aid reasonable quality of life, by maximizing mechanical function thereby slowing expected decline. This makes owners happier, as nobody wants to see their “family members “ suffering.
With hopefully increased overall function and decreased pain levels many dog owners are delighted to potentially be able to put off having their pet or working dog put to sleep.
With dogs, the other end of the spine, the neck or cervical region of the spine, is also quite vulnerable to injury via play/jumping traumas that can effect overall locomotion movement.
In my experience, if a human has a stiff and sore neck, they cannot run properly or are unmotivated to run!! Dogs are the same even though they cannot tell you!
Since I have had significant results with animals, I began adapting certain chiropractic instruments to apply chiropractic technique to animals ,particularly dogs.
NOTE:
My chiropractic practice is predominantly human orientated so any work on dogs has to be done at special times.
Like human treatment, I do not accept all animal cases!
