Dog Chiropractor Stories

Dog Chiropractor Stories

A new breed of Dr. Doolittles? by JOY POWELL, Star Tribune

Lacey the dog couldn't stop limping.

A car had run over her, cracking the ball of her hip. After surgery, she still walked gingerly.

So her owner, Lisa Cottrell of Wyoming, Minn., took Lacey to an animal chiropractor, Dr. Mark LaVallie. He adjusted the pelvis and lower spine of the black Lab-collie mix.

Cottrell said the limp disappeared: "It was remarkable, like night and day." Now Lacey has $45 adjustments every six to eight weeks.

She joins a growing number of dogs, cats, horses, cows and even llamas being treated by animal chiropractors in Minnesota. In July 2008, the state became one of the first to pass a law allowing chiropractors who work on people to also work on animals, as long as they get specialized training and meet other requirements.

There's growing demand for such alternative therapies for animals, said Larry Spicer, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Chiropractic Examiners. That agency licenses chiropractors for humans and registers those who complete 210 hours of additional training so they can treat animals, too.

LaVallie splits his practice 50-50 between humans and animals. He's the busiest among 18 animal chiropractors registered in Minnesota. Nationwide, there are about 1,800 animal chiropractors, according to officials with Options For Animals, the biggest of three U.S. schools for animal chiropractic, said Robbie Hroza, administrator of the Wellsville, Kan., school.

"In the last five years, it seems like a lot more people are going to a holistic approach with chiropractors -- in conjunction with the veterinary care, because you still need that," Hroza said.

Minnesota's law was designed to require a veterinarian's referral to go to a chiropractor to ensure that the animal has no disease a human can get, such as rabies, and that it received proper veterinary care, said Dr. Trevor Ames, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Students there can take elective courses in animal chiropractic care.

Does chiropractic care work for animals? Ames said there's no scientific proof because there have been no clinical trials yet.

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Owners swear by treatments -

For Vernette Karwoski of Scandia there's no question. She's among advocates who pushed for the law to be changed in Minnesota, in part because she had to drive to Wisconsin to take her dogs to an animal chiropractor.

On a recent morning on Karwoski's farm, she held the head of each of her four llamas steady while LaVallie adjusted them, along with a sheep and two dogs.

It was the llamas' first treatment. They flicked their ears and licked their lips, relaxing as he worked. LaVallie found vertebrae that he said had become stuck in place in their long necks, in their pelvises and in sacroiliac joints.

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LaVallie, of St. Croix Falls, Wis., has been a chiropractor for humans for 30 years. After Minnesota changed its law, he studied at the Healing Oasis near Racine, Wis., so he could work on animals, too. Since February 2009, he's adjusted about 1,200 animals, LaVallie said.

He travels around, working with eight veterinary clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin. "Working together, the relationship with the veterinarians is phenomenal," he said.

There are cases where the animals are beyond help, he said. But many times, he's been able to help even those whose owners feared they would have to be put down. The manipulations help animals feel better, perform better and live longer, LaVallie said.

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Wagging her tail again -

Among his clients is Deb Volk of Andover, whose 6-year-old Weimaraner, Ellie, had a tick-borne disease called anaplasmosis, which affects joints, muscles and nerves that send messages from the brain to the paws. Though she was on intravenous feeding, strong antibiotics and arthritis medicine, Ellie was left with a front leg and back leg partially paralyzed three months after getting sick.

"We followed the vet's advice," Volk said. "She got better to a certain point and then no more, and that just wasn't good enough."

LaVallie soon found six vertebrae out of place, as well as a pelvis "way of out whack," Volk said.

Ellie had weekly adjustments until her spine was aligned, and the Volks did treatments at home. The dog soon began wagging her tail again. Now, she runs much of the day and is "a happy, happy dog," Volk said.

"Dr. LaVallie performed a miracle," Volk said. "He fixed Ellie. It's just unbelievable."

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017

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