Straighten Up and Gallop Right!
Veterinary chiropractic can help heal injuries, ease pain

by Kerry Bleskan

Taco (short for La Taco Bella) seemed to be a healthy two-year-old when one day she simply couldn’t stand up. Her vet gave the fawn-colored Chihuahua a cortisone shot to reduce some inflammation near her hip joint but said he couldn’t do much more. The nearby vet school might be able to help, but tests would be very expensive. Faced with few options, Taco’s family, the Loys, learned how to take care of their very sick girl, feeding her by syringe and expressing her bladder.

“She couldn’t even bark,” Mesha Loy said. “She was basically a vegetable, but we didn’t want to just give up on her.” Six weeks after that emergency trip to the vet, someone told Loy about veterinary chiropractic, so she decided to take Taco to Calistoga chiropractor Maryanne Kraft.

The results were amazing, Loy said. After just one visit, Taco could stand. Shortly after the second visit, Taco was continent again, and was soon truly mobile. Loy’s husband called her at work. “You’re not going to believe this,” he shouted into the phone. “She’s running in the yard. She’s running in the yard!”

Sublux what?

Chiropractic care is a physical adjustment of the spine and/or joints meant to keep them properly aligned. It is based on the principle that the bones of the spine and joints should be in a specific alignment. When that alignment is disrupted (a “subluxation”), healthy body function can be disrupted in turn. “Subluxations affect the nervous system, local muscles, joints and even distant organs, glands and body functions,” according to the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA).

The term chiropractic was coined in 1895 from the Greek words “cheir” (hand) and “praktos” (done): “done by hand.” Back then chiropractors seeking respect for their new profession worked on animals primarily “to demonstrate that the adjustment had more than a placebo effect, as had been charged by the medical community,” according to Daniel Kamen’s The Well Adjusted Dog .The profession has long since come into its own (although legislative quirks in some states forbid chiropractors to work on animals).

Chiropractic is used to help animals with a wide range of ailments, including injuries, muscle spasms, nerve problems, and pain. Since treatment does not involve drugs or surgery, it appeals to natural-medicine types, but can also be combined with conventional health care. “I receive referrals from vets as well as people finding me on their own,” Kraft said. “More owners and vets are becoming receptive to this specialized form of noninvasive treatment.”

Uh, I think my pet frog is subluxed

“Everyone is a good candidate for chiropractic care,” says Kraft . “Our spines house our central nervous system, which controls every function of the body. It is important to have that system working at its optimal level.”

“Pets, service and other working animals, and those involved in agility and the show ring can all benefit from chiropractic support,” said Kelly MacKay, a chiropractor who does “house and barn calls” throughout Sonoma and Marin counties. She is certified through the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, which offers its two