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Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic is an integral part of the holistic trend in health care. Its purpose is to treat the animal as a whole at the very foundation of health and function, rather than treating symptoms separate from overall health.

Chiropractic care offers a conservative approach, natural alternative, and supplemental treatment to medicine.  The foundations of chiropractic philosophy are based on the intimate relationship of the nervous system to the spine, as well as the role of the spine in biomechanics and movement. Motion is absolutely essential to life, especially the motion of joints to the life of organs and tissues. Chiropractic is concerned with the relationship between structure and function and is designed to restore motion to joints and balance to the body in order to improve efficiency, speed, endurance and overall health. 

Benefits

  • Improves biomechanics
  • Creates more efficient movement
  • Facilitates the nervous system
  • Improves overall functions of health
  • Reduces inflammation and pain
  • Enhances horse and rider harmony

Chiropractors treat misalignments or motion restrictions of the spine called vertebral subluxation complexes (VSC), as well as those of the extremities. These joint dysfunctions can be directly related to altered function of the nervous system and other organ systems, altered movement, inflammation and pain. The chiropractor treats the subluxation complex utilizing a manual adjustment, a very specific, short lever, high velocity, low force controlled thrust. Animal chiropractic care is integrated with concurrent veterinary primary care and is not meant to replace that.

The treatment of an animal with chiropractic care involves adjustment of the spine and extremities as well as advice on the management of the animal to facilitate optimal response to chiropractic care.

Evaluation

Prior to adjustment treatments, a through evaluation is conducted. This includes:

  1. Detailed case history
  2. Posture analysis
  3. Gait analysis
  4. Vertebral and extremity static and motion palpation

Following the evaluation it will be determined if the animal is a good candidate for chiropractic care, or if the patient will be referred back to primary care veterinarian for further evaluation or care. The animal patient MUST always have concurrent care by a primary care veterinarian.  In addition, in Nebraska the animal must also be examined, diagnosed and referred to the chiropractor for care by their veterinarian.

Treatment

  1. Chiropractic adjustments for horse
  2. Chiropractic adjustments for rider
  3. Saddle fit analysis
  4. Individualized treatment plan to optimize results


Horses

Dogs

Cats

Signs & Symptoms in Animals
If your animal has any of the following signs or symptoms chiropractic care may be helpful. This information is from Options for Animals College of Animal Chiropractic.

Horses

  • Pain and stiffness when moving or being touched
  • Reduced performance
  • Negative changes in behavior or attitude
  • Abnormal gait, shortened stride or lameness
  • Inability or difficulty in taking a lead
  • Bucking
  • Difficulty or inability to collect
  • Pinning ears or snapping when being cinched
  • Difficulty flexing at poll
  • Changes in posture
  • Resistance to being ridden​

Dogs​

  • Pain when being touched, pet or lifted
  • Reluctance or difficulty when climbing stairs or jumping
  • Difficulty when getting up after lying down
  • Negative changes in attitude or behavior
  • Altered sitting (“Puppy Sitting”)
  • Changes in eating or eliminating
  • Constantly licking or chewing paws
  • Lameness or changes in gait
  • Changes in performance
  • Lying on one side

Cats

  • Loss of appetite
  • Obvious pain or discomfort (difficulty jumping, reluctance to climb stairs, cries when being picked up)
  • Increased thirst (often a sign of diabetes)
  • Unexplained changes in weight
  • Bad breath
  • Diarrhea or changes in litter contents, urinating outside the box
  • Prolonged or repeated vomiting (though eliminating hairballs is normal, continual vomiting is often a sign of infection and can cause dehydration)
  • Discharge from the eyes and/or nose (common sign of upper respiratory infection)
  • Lump or lesions evident to touch or sight
  • Finally, cats tend to hide if injured or ill. If your cat has suddenly gone into hiding, it’s generally a sign that something is amiss.