Enhancing Canine Wellness: The Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Dogs

Unlocking Better Health for Your Furry Friend Through Chiropractic Care

Pet owners cherish their dogs, often going to great lengths to ensure they live happy, healthy lives. Chiropractic care, while commonly associated with human back and neck issues, also offers remarkable benefits for dogs, aiding in everything from pain relief to improved mobility.

Why Consider Chiropractic Care for Dogs?

Dogs, much like humans, can experience misalignments in their spine or joints, which can affect their nervous system and overall health. Whether your dog is active, aging, or recovering from injury, chiropractic adjustments can play a crucial role in maintaining their well-being.

1. Pain Management

Chiropractic care is highly effective in managing pain, especially for conditions like arthritis or hip dysplasia. Adjustments help alleviate pressure on the nervous system, significantly reducing pain and enhancing quality of life.

2. Improved Mobility

Regular chiropractic sessions can increase your dog’s range of motion. This is particularly beneficial for older dogs who might struggle with stiffness and reduced mobility, helping them stay more active and enjoy their daily walks without discomfort.

3. Enhanced Performance

For canine athletes involved in sports like agility or flyball, chiropractic care ensures they perform at their best. Adjustments help optimize their body mechanics and prevent injuries, keeping them agile and strong.

4. Injury Recovery

Dogs recovering from injuries can benefit immensely from chiropractic adjustments, which support the natural healing process by ensuring the spine and joints are correctly aligned and functional.

5. Preventative Health

Chiropractic care isn’t just for addressing existing problems. It's also a preventive measure that can detect and correct subtle issues before they develop into serious conditions, thus maintaining your dog’s health over the long term.

Conclusion: A Step Towards Holistic Health

Incorporating chiropractic care into your dog’s health regimen can lead to a happier, healthier pet. It's a safe, non-invasive treatment that supports their overall well-being, allowing them to lead a more comfortable and active life.

How Do You Adjust a Dog? Dog Chiropractor

How do you adjust a dog? With care and specificity of course! 

From a human to a dog, there are some obvious differences in how I adjust as a chiropractor. 

Other than having to bribe dogs with treats, the obvious difference is that a dog’s anatomy is quite different from a human’s anatomy.  If I were to apply the same adjustments to a dog that I do to a human they would not be effective as the joints are angled and aligned differently.

The other major difference is the amount of force that I apply when doing animal chiropractic. 

Even a large breed dog’s vertebrae are smaller than an adult human, and if you see a toy breed, their legs and shoulders resemble chicken bones rather than dog bones. 

When all is said and done, there are some major differences when a chiropractor adjusts a dog vs. a human, but the principles of a chiropractic adjustment remain the same.  Align the spine and let the nervous system work optimally.

Neck Pain In Dogs - A simple test you can do to test

There are many reasons why a dog will limp in their front end.

It can be caused from their neck, shoulder, elbow, nerve damage, or even a strained muscle.

To help pin-point what is causing the limp, you have to rule out injuries to certain areas.

One way to test if it may be related to your dog’s neck, is to check their range of motion.

If your dog is having pain from something mechanical, then their movement will be limited in certain movements.

You can test your dog’s neck range of motion with the cookie test. Please see the video below for a quick explanation.

How to Check Your Dog's Hips

As a canine chiropractor, I am constantly checking hip range of motion.

Different breeds have different hip motion due to the fact that their lower back may be angled down more towards the ground, limiting the amount of movement they have in their hip.

Normal hip range should be smooth and pain free for your dog. They should allow you to slowly draw the hip back with little to no resistance.

Sometimes your dog will pull their leg forward. This is usually a protective mechanism to stop the hip from extending into a painful range.

If your dog has hip arthritis or you suspect that it does, you will notice that the hip range of motion will end early compared to the other side. This is due to the worn out cartilage, and decreased space within the joint itself.

The video below demonstrates how you can quickly check your dog’s hips at home.

Dog Agility Shoulder Problems

When you are putting your dog into agility training or an agility competition you are asking a lot of them physically.

Working at a high pace, and with many changes in direction, agility can put your dog into compromising positions that can stress different areas of their body.

A dog will usually work until they can’t.  They will push through the discomfort until it’s too unbearable anymore. They truly are resilient animals.

One body area that is particularly vulnerable with dog agility is your dog’s shoulder and lower neck.

The lower neck has a network of nerves that feed the front limbs.  While the shoulder is your dog’s primary joint for movement between the spine and the front limb.

If your dog injures either of these areas, the symptoms can overlap and look similar.

Typically your dog will come up lame and not weight bear well on that side.  They may have tenderness in that area of their shoulder or they may have limited neck range of motion.

In any case where your dog comes up lame you should have them assessed physically by either your vet and if nothing serious arises, make sure they have a physical assessment by an animal chiropractor.

One way you can determine where the injury is coming from, by testing the ROM in your dog’s neck.  If it’s limited or asymmetrical side to side it is a positive test.

You can test this by performing the treat/cookie test.  Do this by holding a treat while your dog is standing, and make your dog follow the treat in an arc to their left shoulder, and then back all the way to the right shoulder.  

Lower neck conditions in dogs are a big concern as they can potentially lead to damaging nerve trauma and produce longer recovery times.

If your dog is starting agility or is currently doing agility it is a good idea to have their function in all joints assessed by an animal chiropractor.  

Better function = Better performance.

Animal Chiropractor For Agility Dogs

Agility competitors (both dogs and humans) have to be in great shape to perform well.

But let’s face it, the dog is the high performance athlete in this case.

If you and your pooch are competing in dog agility you know that every second counts.  

Just like in high performance human athletes there is a difference between being injured and being hurt.

Being injured usually requires time off to heal, recoup and rehab back to shape.

Being hurt usually means, playing through discomfort, but not being able to perform at optimum capacity.

The same is true in your performance agility dog.  It’s obvious when they get injured. They may go lame, or pull up and stop at obstacles.  However, when they are hurting signs may be less obvious.

The most common objective measure that a dog may be hurting is that their performance is slipping for no apparent reason. You are training hard, they are responding to you well but yet the time isn’t up to where it should be.

This is a good time to have your agility dog check by an animal chiropractor.

When joints in the spine or extremities are not functioning optimally, your pet’s performance is not going to be optimal either.

Time and time again I see agility dog’s that respond really well to getting a chiropractic check up and adjustment.  

Think of it like a tune up analogous for a high performance sports car.   

After all you would never miss an oil change with your sports car would you?

Low Back Pain in Dogs?

Determining where the root problem in a dog can be difficult.  They can’t explain to you what they are feeling and they don’t have fingers to point where it specifically hurts.

When I see injured dogs as an animal chiropractor, I am usually presented with a dog that has very common symptoms like limping or change in activity levels, but it usually comes with no diagnosis of what is happening… and I totally get why.

Full diagnostic work ups and imaging such as x-rays can cost a lot of money since your dog isn’t covered through OHIP.  Most owners are hesitant to get these tests done because a lot of the time they come back negative.

You spend your hard earned money and get no answers.

Sometimes those tests are absolutely warranted and I usually tell people right away that they need to go to their vet first and get them done instead of seeing me.

However, most of the time it is a mechanical injury such as a muscle strain, or a joint injury that is causing the pain.  This is the perfect time to have an animal chiropractor check your pet.

The bottom line is you don’t know until it is examined.  But in the meantime here are some clues that might help you determine if you should take your dog to the chiropractor for a low back issue.

Lameness - If you aren’t from the horse world, this just means that your pet is not moving normally, ie.  something is disrupting their normal gait. This could be caused by soreness therefore they would limp.  Or this could be caused by weakness, sometimes associated with nerve irritation from the lower spine.

Change in normal activity - You might start to notice your dog, avoiding normal tasks such as going up and down stairs or avoiding getting up from their bed as often as they would before.  Dogs are really resilient but if they are in discomfort they are going to avoid the normal daily activities to lessen the aggravation.

Point tenderness - If you suspect something may be going on with your dog’s low back, don’t be afraid to poke around.  Slowly run a finger down either side of your dogs low back from the ribs down and apply appropriate pressure depending on the dog’s size.  If your dog has a sore spot they will turn their head quickly, they may try to move away or their muscles in their low back will twitch. These are all an attempt to remove the pressure from the sore area.

If you find any of the above in your dog it might now be a bad idea to have them checked by a dog chiropractor.

How Do You Adjust a Horse?

How do you adjust a horse?  This is a common question I get from people, especially from people foreign to the equine world.  

I get it though, it’s a big animal and it would be tough to visualize enough power to move a horse.

The thing is an animal chiropractor doesn’t adjust horses, an animal chiropractor adjusts joints.  

A horses vertebral (facet) joints that we target are not large, much smaller than my hand.

If the force is applied specifically to the joint than the amount of pressure needed is not that much.

Is it more than say the pressure a chiropractor would need when adjusting a human? Yes.  But with knowledge of equine anatomy and working with the horse rather than against it, the amount of force need is really not that much.

So if you ever wonder how does an equine chiropractor adjust a horse, they don’t! They adjust the joint :)