Chiropractic for Animals
Once I got over the fact that this Shepherd wasn't going to rip my face off with its fangs or claw me to death, I began to relax. The dog seemed to sense that I was trying to help and it relaxed as well, even when I touched the sore areas at the base of its spine. I had no experience with any of this, and no idea of dog anatomy, but armed with my friend's confidence that "a spine is a spine", I ploughed ahead. The more I felt around this dog's back and legs, the more I became familiar with what I was feeling. It sure was obvious to me what was wrong. The dog had a humongous subluxation of its lumbosacral spine, the likes of which would have had any human writhing in pain and confined to bed. And yet this dog, this mere beast, was up and around, moving as best it knew how, never complaining, wagging its tail, going outdoors to play, enjoying its food, being petted and loved by the entire family. I was quite amazed, actually. The fact that an animal could show so much heart when in that much pain was either a credit to its species or a sad commentary on ours. This observation causes me to ponder and be humbled even to this day, as I see it frequently.
Anyway, at the sort of end of my "examination", I took the attitude that, if a spine was a spine, then an adjustment was an adjustment, and figuring the dog weighed about as much as half-grown child, I would work on it as if it were one of its owner's kids, except on the floor. I put the dog, who by this time had become as willing a patient as any I'd ever seen, on the floor in a side-lying posture and thrust on its spine just as I would a 10-year old boy with a sore back. I expected that this is when the dog would snap, growl and get mean (some 10-year olds do). But it didn't. The animal continued to be complaint, cooperative and somehow even appreciative of my efforts.
It wasn't exactly a miracle, but once I was finished, the dog stood up, gave itself a shake and walked off, roughly as crooked as before. However, over the next few days, it seemed to heal and gradually straighten out. Was
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