Every day, chiropractors perform more than one million adjustments on people all over the globe. As more and more people are seeing the value of going to chiropractic clinics for their own health needs, they are also seeing the good it can do for pets. Veterinarians are quickly embracing this kind of healthcare for animals.
A clinic in Arnold, Missouri is one chiropractic clinic that uses chiropractic treatments to help animals. Dr. Miri Logan is a certified animal chiropractor. Every week, she administers adjustments to Blue Belle, a dog who has been a patient of the clinic since she was a puppy.
When Blue Belle was still a puppy she broke her elbow and had surgery to fix it. Despite going to physical therapy, she was unable to fully recover from her injury. She needed drug free healing options and found that and natural pain relief from her visits to the chiropractic clinic.
Dr. Logan says she looks at the way her patients walks and then examines their spine for any changes to its anatomy. She says that in animals, swelling can be hard to detect. It can also be hard to know what symptoms animals are suffering. She relies on years of training and experience to see and help with issues the animals are having.
The law requires certified animal chiropractors work with licensed veterinarians. Dr. Tom Shelton, a veterinarian in Arnold, Missouri says that he has been treated at chiropractic clinics and experienced first hand the benefits of this kind of treatment. After his experience, he decided that his patients could benefit from the healing without surgery offered by chiropractic care.
Shelton has said that his patients cannot tell people what problems they are experiencing and that their owners/companions are often on the lookout for non-invasive treatments such as physical therapy and now chiropractic care. He noted that most treatments available for people are available for animals. After he brought Blue Bell to Logan, he noticed she felt better almost immediately.
Logan says that pet owners need to pay attention to how their animals behave to see what is wrong with them. She says that often animals tell people something is wrong by not doing things they normally like to do. When they stop playing or jumping, this can be a sign that they are hurting.
Logan’s career in healthcare did not start with animals. She started as a nurse but began looking at working with animals when her horse was injured in a competition. She took the horse to a veterinarian when he was seen limping but that did not help the animal. The horse was helped by one adjustment by a certified animal chiropractor and Logan decided to change her work. She said that after one treatment, he was fine. He placed 10th in that competition.
This experience inspired Logan to go back to school where she received a Doctorate of Chiropractic. Her studies were on people but she finished another 200 hours of training to become a certified animal chiropractor. Now she works with animals of all sizes. She treats dogs and cats but also show horses. Brilliant Lee, a five-time national champion, also known as “Billy,” is one of her patients. Billy is a 13-year-old Arabian Stallion.
Billy receives routine chiropractic adjustments to keep him healthy and happy. His training for competitions runs five days every week and he trains at least nine months out of the year. Logan says it takes less pressure to give a horse an adjustment than a person. She says she believes the adjustments make the horse feel like a rock star.
Massage therapy and the treatment received at chiropractic clinics have been known to help people who suffer from back pain. By some estimates, it can be about 92% effective in alleviating pain. In people, back pain is a serious and common problem that is one of the main reasons people call in sick to work.
While our pets and show horses do not call in sick to work or complain about back pain, they do suffer from injuries and pain. Given the number of other kinds of medical procedures they can have, it only makes sense that they benefit from chiropractic medical care.
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