No, the article I am referring to is NOT entitled ‘ANIMAL CHIROPRACTIC (AC) IS NONSENSE’ – quite to the contrary, it is entitled ‘Animal Chiropractic. A Basic Description and Its Importance in Veterinary Practice’. Yet, I feel that the former title would be more suitable.
Judge for yourself. Here is the abstract:
Properly applied AC can be safe and effective. Only licensed health care professionals who have completed extensive postgraduate training should offer AC. As we initially described, AC’s goal is to improve afferent and efferent homeostasis, stability of joints through better sensitivity, and efferent motoric response to improve joint stability. By providing AC, veterinarians can help their patients achieve the highest level of function, independence, and quality of life possible. In this article, we have described AC as a valuable modality that, by improving afferent input and positive modulation of the ventral horn cells and their efferent motor neurons, can positively affect patient strength, stability, and mobility. Therefore, improved conditioning, performance, and postoperative recoveries can enhance patient outcomes by including AC in veterinary practice.
“Any evidence?”, I hear you ask.
Yes, there is an entire paragraph entitled ‘Efficacy and safety’; here it is in full:
There have been several articles published showing the efficacy of AC. Most articles published discussing effectiveness and safety have been from human research, reporting a very low incidence of injuries when provided by licensed and trained professionals. Other national agencies have published information showing the statistical significance of SMT in humans over other treatment therapies.
Surely, this cannot be all!
But it is!
So, let me help out and provide a full summary of the evidence:
THERE IS NO RELIABLE EVIDENCE THAT ANIMAL CHIROPRACTIC DOES MORE GOOD THAN HARM.
And that’s why I think the article should best be entitled:
ANIMAL CHIROPRACTIC IS NONSENSE.
PS
And on reflection, I even think that ‘nonsense’ might be too polite a term for describing it correctly
10 Responses to Animal chiropractic is nonsense
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Where there’s money to be made there’ll be scam(s).
This is a good read. Been mentioned here previously.
No Way to Treat a Friend. By Alex Gough
Looks like veterinary spinal manipulation. Another example of folks wrongly thinking spinal manipulation and chiropractic are synonymous.
yes, and because Trump also slept with some adults he is not a pedophile?
Hilarious, though too serious to laugh at. Of course it is all nonsense, dangerous nonsense.
> Only licensed health care professionals who have completed extensive postgraduate training should offer AC.
That “extensive postgraduate training” consists of a pathetic series of short courses for veterinarians together with a little group of human chiropractors who are already believers in the cult. Thus very little chance for critical thinking once you are in the courses.
My wife (veterinarian) and I (M.D.) scrutinized these courses some 15 years ago, our interest having been ignited by a malpractice case where a horse (!) had suffered a brainstem stroke following neck manipulation by such a veterinarian. The horse died slowly and painfully of esophageal congestion a year later, and the vet-chiro was aquitted. Of course. He only did what chiropractors do, and they are a licenced “profession” – at least for humans. And nobody knew about animal chiropractic, so there were no regulations. And the judge confessed (personal communication) that he too had visited a chiro for his own back pain …
Several international veterinary journals dared not publish our report, but you can read it at Science Based Medicine: Ekström Kjellin R, Kjellin O. An Appraisal of Courses in Veterinary Chiropractic. Science-Based Medicine. 2012.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/an-appraisal-of-courses-in-veterinary-chiropractic
> to improve afferent and efferent homeostasis,
This kind of sciency phrases is a direct nonsense-flag.
> positive modulation of the ventral horn cells and their efferent motor neurons,
Do they really believe they can manipulate the ventral horn cells in the spinal canal? And what if they really could reach and touch them selectively, should they squeeze them? or pull them? or press them? or nudge them? Or what? Who can predict the outcome of such manipulation, which rather would require a skilled neurosurgeon than a chiropractor, i.e., a charlatan. It is strange that veterinarians can fall for it. After all, they do have a profound medical and scientific education.
Wow, is that horse case study published somewhere? I find it hard to believe that a relatively small human could exert enough force to do anything meaningful to a horse’s spine, let alone cause a stroke!
The horse’s long nose is a very powerful lever.
But apart from that, you are correct, there is no chance even for the strongest human to “adjust” the vertebrae of a horse – or even to palpate a “misalignment”. Nevertheless, you can find Youtube videos by proud chiros “adjusting” horses and other animals – even cats and chicken! Some of them with an activator, this ridiculous magical wand.
When I read the symptom descriptions, my first thought was a lateral, medullary syndrome (Wallenberg’s syndrome). Particularly dysphagia and ataxia. But veterinarians are not typically familiar with this primarily human syndrome with complex ipsilateral and contralateral neurological deficits, so the horse wasn’t further tested. It’s overwhelming problem was the dysphagia that eventually led to esophageal congestion and death.
I don’t think there was a case study about this horse. It was a malpractice case submitted to the supervisory board. That way their AC teaching materials (that the defence referred to to show how well educated he was) was made available to the public, so we could obtain a copy of it and read. Very sad reading, indeed.
How does this compare to animal physical therapy (including manipulation)? Is it only the chiropractic aspect, or is any manual therapy for animals nonsense?
all spinal manipulation is unproven for animals.
And for humans.
Prof Ernst
in your normal fashion, you forgot to include this…
http://www.animalphysiotherapist.com.au