Beck’s back
Chiropractic care restores Dobie’s zest for training.
The dog: Beck, a 6-year-old Doberman Pinscher. The problem: For the first year of his life, Beck grew up in Florida, where his world was literally flat. When he arrived at the Arlington, VT home of Traci Mulligan, he had a hard time adjusting to the mountain topography. “The concept of going out into the woods and jumping over a fallen tree was foreign to him,” remembers Mulligan, who trains her dogs for Schutzhund, a vigorous sport which includes scaling 6-foot walls and clearing high jumps. “Beck was never much of an athelete, so he did a lot of crashing and burning.”
After several years, the wear and tear caught up with the enthusiastic Dobe. “He started to back off and hesitate before jumping into his crate in the back of the van,” Mulligan says. It was obvious Beck was hurting.The conventional approach: Mulligan guessed that Beck had a musculoskeletal problem. But a number of tests, from X-rays to blood work, are often needed to rule out other causes, such as a tumor or a chronic illness, like Lyme disease.
In several cases, a veterinarian may recommend a magnetic resonance imaging test, or MRI, which sometimes will reveal an area of compression on the spine. “The degree of compression will dictate the treatment,” explains Stephanie Woolwich-Holzman, VMD, a veterinarian certified in veterinary chiropractic in Manchester, VT. “If the animal is very paralyzed, surgery may be the next step, But if the compression is minimal, or the MRI comes up empty, oftentimes they will come to me.The holistic approach: Chiropractic is a healing system that seeks to restore the body’s balance by manipulating and adjusting the musculoskeletal system, with particular focus on the spine. “Often these animals have some area of the spine that is locked up and not moving properly,” Woolwich-Holzman says. “It can be anything form a moderate disc compression that’s causing a problem with the nerve to a subtle muscle spasm that interferes with normal motion.”
The earlier a problem is dealt with, the better, she adds, because the animal soon starts to compensate for the injured area, using it less and less and compounding the physical logjam. “Often a dog can kind of get by, except when he’s asked to do something at a higher speed or intensity,” as happened with Beck and his stalled crate jumping.The result: After Beck’s first chiropractic treatment by Woolwich-Holzman, Mulligan saw an immediate improvement. “He went back to jumping into the crate. It was night and day,” she says. Beck continued to visit Woolwich-Holzman for four or five more visits to monitor his progress, eventually returning to his Schutzhund training. Caveats: State laws regulating animal chiropractic vary dramatically. In some states, veterinarians can refer clients to a chiropractor trained in animal chiropractic; in others, only a veterinarian can provide treatment.
This is the quintessential conundrum in veterinary chiropractic: Who is better suited for the job – a veterinarian who is an expert in canine anatomy, but may not have the same mastery of chiropractic technique, or a chiropractor, who has the opposite strengths and weaknesses? Woolwich-Holzman says what’s needed is a spirit of cooperation, and a focus on the ultimate goal—the well-being of the dog. “The chiropractor needs to be the first person to say, ‘You touch base with your vet,’” she stresses. “And vets need to be open minded to the fact that they might not know a lot about chiropractic.” Resources: Practitioners, whether veterinarians or human chiropractors, must be accredited in veterinary chiropractic. The American Veterinary Chiropractic Association provides a referral list at www.animalchiropractic.org. _
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Denise Flaim is a DOG FANCY contibuting editor, the pets columnist at NEWSDAY, and author of The Holistic Dog Book: Canine Care for the 21st Century, (Howell, 2003, $16.99). She lives in Sea Cliff, NY.