FAQ'S
What is animal chiropractic?
Animal Chiropractic is a field of animal care that focuses on the neuromusculoskeletal system of the animal. The spine and limbs are assessed for restricted movement, and the chiropractor performs a gentle and specific adjustment to restore the movement to that joint.
Correcting this dysfunctional movement helps the nervous system function at its best, and since the nervous system controls the entire body, it helps keep the whole animal healthy and functioning at its best. ​​
Why would my animal need to see a chiropractor?
There are many reasons animals can benefit from chiropractic care:
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Pain relief: Like humans, animals can experience pain due to acute or chronic injury, genetic conditions, degenerative arthritis and lifestyle factors. By addressing joint restrictions and muscle dysfunctions, chiropractic is a safe, non-invasive method of pain relief for your animals. Where these issues are concerned, we are not going to ‘fix’ anything, but by stimulating the nervous system and removing joint restrictions, we can encourage the body to heal itself.
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Working and sporting animals: huge demands are placed on the bodies of our athletic buddies. It is important to ensure that their spine and nervous system are moving and functioning as best they can to ensure that the animals are in peak physical condition. Chiropractic can help address any restrictions or imbalances before they become in injury, and if they do become injured, chiropractic can help with recovery and addressing compensatory movement patterns to prevent further injury. Your mustering, agility, diving, frisbee and hunting doggo will love it, as will your jumping, dressage, mustering, camp draft, rodeo, polo crosse and endurance horses.
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Show animals: where perfect posture and movement are being judged, most professional showers and breeders know the benefits of having a chiropractic checkup leading into a show.
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Assistance, therapy and support animals: are subject to emotional and physical stressors that can effect the spine and the nervous system. Just like us, they can take on emotional stress that can manifest as physical tension- just think of how tense your shoulder get when you're stressed!
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Senior citizens: as our dogs and horses age, they, like us, can develop degenerative joint disease. Gentle adjustments and mobilisations can help with stiffness, pain and mobility issues associated with DJD and give them better quality of life.
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General health and wellbeing: many humans know the benefits of regular chiropractic care, we’re not just treating pain but basically put, we’re feeling better! It’s the same with animals, chiropractic adjustments from time to time can help them to feel better, move better and be happy healthy companions!
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Holistic care: Because chiropractic is enhancing nervous system function, chiropractic treatment can be beneficial for a wide range of health conditions, complementing traditional veterinary care.
How hard are you pushing to get an adjustment?
Not very! In dogs, the pressure used would range from what we would use in a newborn human baby for a small dog- even less for a puppy- and what we would use in a teenager for a giant breed dog. For horses, the pressure would range from what we would use for a teenage human for a mini horse to a large bodybuilder for a larger horse.
We are not looking for audible cavitations or 'cracks' in the animal spine (don't believe everything you see on Tik Tok..!). Due to the horizontal orientation, most quadruped spines are not subject to gravitational compression forces like the human spine is, and therefore are not under the kind of baseline tension that would be required to cause the 'cracking' sound. It may happen from time to time but it is not what we're aiming for with the adjustment.
What conditions can be treated?
Many musculoskeletal conditions can be helped by chiropractic treatment. Please know that we are not 'fixing' or 'curing' anything, we're just freeing the body from restrictions so that the nervous system can sort out the rest.
Conditions such as:
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hip or elbow dysplasia
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luxating patella/ patellar fixation
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intervertebral disc disease
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wobblers/cervical instability
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osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease
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cruciate ligament tears and ruptures
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fractures
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muscle/ligament tears
are all issues that can be helped by chiropractic treatment (helped- not cured!) While many of these, we would not actually treat the specific joint that is affected by pathology, we treat around that joint to enable the body to move better.
Some of these conditions may be required to have veterinary clearance before being treated, and any trauma or gross neurological signs will need to have clearance from your vet before the animal is treated.