The Importance of the Chiropractor

September has been whirring by with blinding speed. The month is already nearly 3/4 over and I don't understand where the time has gone. I always look forward to September because to me September means fall, but it seems that Texas as usual has not received that message. The heat index today is supposed to be 106. 106! That's just cruel. How can I enjoy my pumpkin spice treats if it still feels like I'm living inside an oven every day? A client told me the other day that she just wanted it to be cool enough to wear a light jacket, and I told her that she better put that on her Christmas list, because at this rate she's not going to get that kind of weather before then.

Dylan has had about a week off. He had a small amount of puffiness in his leg this week, and it wasn't hot, and he wasn't lame, but it was concerning to me nonetheless. I texted my vet to keep him on the alert in case I needed to bring him in for a recheck, and in the meantime stopped his workouts and started icing and poulticing as per my usual. The puffiness stayed, which surprised me, because if there is anything I'm good at, it is getting swelling out of a leg. I am the champion of such things.

His chiro was scheduled to come out on Wednesday, which I was thankful for, as I recalled a previous incident with Gogo where she also had a puffy front leg without heat or lameness that resolved when her chiropractor adjusted her navicular bone. The swelling vanished overnight and she was fine. 

His chiro came on time, as she always goes, and got to work on him. He's a very funny horse to work on chiropractically, as he is so huge and muscly and also has a giant stallion neck that gets in the way of everything. By now he knows what the chiro is here to do, and he tries to help her - he'll shove himself into her touch to try and show her where the spot it, to the point where he'll lean all the way over onto her with legs quaking. He also sticks out his lip and makes all kind of "right there!! right there!!" faces.

Chiro faces. You can't see in this picture, but he was rocking back and forth trying to help her!

 

One of my favorite things about my chiro is that she will continue to work on an area until the horse gives her a sign that she has gotten the spot to release. A lot of the other local chiros just get in there and slam around and are done in a few minutes. I've had two others work on O with no effect whatsoever, and saw a third actually lame two horses after he and his assistant basically threw them both to the ground in the name of adjusting their backs. It took me 5 years to find this one but she's worth keeping! Dylan is really obvious with his releases - when she gets a stuck spot un-stuck, he will immediately yawn and yawn and yawn. Sometimes he'll give a little chew or a head shake, but mostly he yawns. If she doesn't get it, he'll either stand there and look at her blankly, or he'll cross his jaw, frustrated that she didn't get it. She always goes back to work on it again if he doesn't give her a sign that she got it. 

This time in particular, he wouldn't release anything all the way down his body. He was just completely stuck. No releases at all. No crossing his jaw either, which was good, but he would just look at her like "you didn't get it." Finally she went back to his sacrum and adjusted it, and then finally he gave her a whole bunch of big yawns. She went back over his body again, and this time he released everything with big huge yawns. For whatever reason, she had to unlock the sacrum first, and then everything else followed.

When she got to his wonky leg, I told her about how it had been puffy this week and I wanted to make sure it got checked thoroughly. Poking around at it, she went, "oooh yeah I can see why," and adjusted his accessory carpal bone and both his sesamoids. With each of these, she got more huge yawns, especially with the carpal bone. He REALLY was glad to get his knee adjusted. I know it sounds a little weird and crunchy granola, but it's the truth.

By the end of the day, his leg was completely back to normal. Swelling gone. And it has stayed that way. How about that. 

I gave him a full three days off following his adjustment, just to be sure, and now today he goes back to work. I can say one thing.... I'll never be without a good chiropractor! They make all the difference in the world!