Chiropractic is a drug-free approach to your animal’s health care. It is the science, art, and philosophy that utilizes the inborn recuperative powers of all living creatures.
Animal Chiropractic understands the relationship of the spine and nervous system to proper function and overall well-being of small and large animals. It restores the important relationship between the animal’s spine and its nervous system and more importantly maintains its health. The goal of animal chiropractic is to correct subluxations utilizing a small force, high velocity thrust to areas of spinal subluxation in order to facilitate proper function of the nervous system resulting in enhanced performance, quality of life and well being of the animal.
Reference-Veterinary Chiropractic Learning Centre
Subluxations can create a number of symptoms, some obvious, some not. The most common is pain. Like their human counterparts, animals in pain will compensate by changing the way they stand or walk. They may shift their weight or avoid certain movements. They may be unable or unwilling to perform certain tasks, even the ones they love to do. In their attempts to avoid pain they might appear to be un-coordinated or they may be less flexible. When the spine is not functioning correctly in one area, stress is placed on another area, causing secondary subluxations in those areas, further complicating the problem.
Chiropractic offers tremendous potential in animal health care. It is a complementary therapy for the treatment of health and performance problems of dogs, cats and horses. It is a health care system based on movement and symmetry. Although chiropractic care does not replace traditional veterinary medicine and surgery, chiropractic offers and provides an alternative that often complements traditional care. Many musculoskeletal conditions respond dramatically, and rehabilitation can take place quickly and efficiently.
Assessing how long an injury or condition may take to heal is very individualized and may depend on many factors. Some of these may include: the length of time since the injury occurred, the severity of the injury, the age of the animal, the type of treatment received in the past, the type of animal and the regular daily activities of the animal.
Animals tend to respond fairly quickly to treatments and just a few adjustments may be required to correct small problems, with regular maintenance/seasonal visits to help prevent problems from recurring. Working animals or animals that may participate in competitive events such as race horses, equestrian horses, and agility, course or fly ball dogs may require adjustments on an ongoing basis since they are being asked to perform at peak levels every time they compete. Like human athletes, animals also require optimum structure and function to compete at a high level. Even the weekend warrior can benefit from regular chiropractic care. Not only can it give the serious athlete the competitive advantage, but it can help all animal athletes minimize the injury factor. The better the structure and function of the animal, the better the performance and less likelihood of injury.
A visit may last anywhere from fifteen minutes for a follow-up visit for a small animal to forty minutes which may be required for an initial examination of a horse. The first visit always takes longer and involves a thorough case history, physical examination (including palpation and gait analysis), adjustment and follow-up instructions.
If you have any questions regarding Animal Chiropractic and how your beloved pet can benefit from chiropractic care, please contact Dr. Jessalynn Frederick at 519-472-8700 or drjessalynnfrederick@gmail.com and she will be more than willing to address your questions.
You can download and fill out the initial visit form for your animal here (Animal New Patient Form) to save some time at the first visit.
Disclaimer: Dr. Frederick is a doctor of Chiropractic, licensed in the care of humans. She has attended several hundred hours of education specific to animal chiropractic at the Veterinary Chiropractic Learning Center in Brantford Ontario. This program is approved by American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, The College of Animal Chiropractors and the International Veterinary Chiropractic Association. Dr. Frederick is not a veterinarian and cannot take responsibility for the primary care of your animal. Animal Chiropractic care is to be used in conjunction with regular veterinarian care.
Testimonials
Here’s what our happy clients had to say about our services:
We had a serious limping problem with our 5 year old high energy Portuguese water dog. Our vet did a lengthy investigation and recommended going to Guelph University pet hospital to find a solution. Thinking that there was a wrist, elbow or shoulder tendon issue or arthritis. Our personal chiropractor had just heard of Dr. Jessalynn Frederick and got her contact info for us so we could get a second opinion on Gus. I called and made an appointment as Gus was still limping very pronounced. Two days later I dropped in with Gus. He limped in an 10 mins later walked out with his normal gate. She found he had a rib out in his back and when he reached ahead it hurt , giving the look as if there was something wrong with his front leg. Our Gus loves to play hard and so we’ve put him on a once every 6 week tune up program which seems to keep him playing hard. Side note….Gus is not a big fan of going to his groomer or his vet, but he pulls like a freight train out of the car to get in to see Dr J. So I think he’s got it figured out.
