I’m not sure if learning gets harder the older we get, or if we just have too many other things on our mind.
I am so excited to be learning a new skill that I'm hoping will help many patients to be more comfortable, but I have to say that “re-learning” anatomy that I first learned 20(ish ☺) years ago is a little challenging! I love the “observation” part of medicine where I get to watch a patient move around and try to determine what is bothering them--what are they overusing, what are they trying not to move, and what could be causing that? Now, I am also learning new ways to evaluate these animals with hands-on manipulation.
Veterinary medical manipulation (chiropractic) has been around for a long time. I had the pleasure of working with a veterinary chiropractic in the past, and we were able to achieve some pretty remarkable results when combining my acupuncture with her chiropractic skills.
Here’s an interesting perspective: there are 319 bones in the typical dog, and they should never actually touch. The skeleton is supported by muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and the ends of bones are protected by cartilage. Since they don’t actually touch, it makes sense that there should be some (albeit very small in some cases) movement of each individual bone. When this movement is restricted, we start to develop problems. Chiropractic allows us to detect these restrictions and correct them before a patient develops chronic pain or loses the ability to function normally.
I have to send a shout out to Dr. Ben Schemmel, my chiropractor, for helping to keep me functional. Last year, I had severe pain in my neck, and my right hand was going numb. My physical therapist helped a little but just couldn’t get it to resolve, and massage seemed to make it worse. Dr. Schemmel worked on me a couple times a week for a while, and before long, I was as good as new!
Sometimes, it is really hard to tell if our pets are suffering in silence. Recently, I saw a Labrador that was limping a bit on a front leg, but her regular vet really couldn’t find anything wrong with the leg. She tagged along with her brother one day for a visit to Shiloh, so we decided to check her out too. I also couldn’t find anything wrong with her leg, so I asked the owner if I could practice my new chiropractic skills on her kiddo. She agreed, and I found restrictions in the right side of her neck. I adjusted the area, and she immediately seemed to feel better–she trotted around the exam room wagging her tail and bouncing around. Here’s the best part: her limp went away! I suspect that the restriction in her neck was creating some inflammation around the nerves that come off of the spinal cord to go to her front leg, and it was uncomfortable for her (much like my hand was becoming numb from my neck issue).
I have a long way to go and many, many hours of studying to do before I sit for my certification exam in December, but it will be so worth it if I can help keep our pets moving, active, and feeling good.
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