Chiropractors - what's the general consensus?

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Flicker

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Are they worth the money?
My lad has been off work for 2 months with an injury (leg injury). I have been offered a place on the list of a visiting chiro, who is supposed to be excellent, although expensive. The rationale I was given was that I would be wise to make sure my chap was straight and had a leg at each corner before I started to bring him back into work.
My vet is extremely dismissive and said that any back / alignment problems should be treated by a vet, and used the comparison of how long each of the respective disciplines have studied etc...
I'm confused. I want to do best for my boy, but I also don't really have a lot of cash to shell out, especially for something where the results are dubious.
What is the general consensus when it comes to 'back people'?
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I would only use a "back person" on recomendation of the vet, i dont agree with people just coming out to "sort the horses back" when you dont really know whats wrong in the first place, the vet will be able to tell you if your horse needs that kind of work doing and will recomend someone, also if you do it this way it comes under complementary treatments in your insurance claims
 
I do agree with ginger nut as far as the vet is concerned normally. However i have had a lot of horses with a lot of back problems in the past and my new one is the same. I have an amazing osteopath who works all over the UK and europe with racehorses and competition horses who comes out and checks my horses back every 3 to 6 months and he is better than the vet at diagnosing problems (eg horse with such severe arthritis in knees and base of neck it should never be ridden had 3 different vets out 6 times and they kept saying it was different problems etc and prescribing extremely expensive medication - he came out and first time said that was the problem and get vet out for x-rays - lo and behold he was right!).

Plus i can tell when my horses back is not right, even the breeder and old owner said his back wasnt great (after i bought him - 7 stage vetting didnt even pick anything up) and he picked up all the right bits straight away! Hes £50 flat rate so i think well worth it as he normally sorts any problems in one treatment which lasts anywhere from 3 months to years from what i have seen! Where i am at home no one else i know uses anyone else, yet no one has a bad word to say about him!

So i would get the back checked by an osteo (can have his number if you want) or chiro/physio just to be on the safe side and cheaper side if i were you
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my horse sometimes slips in the wet field and will then come up lame because she has jarred herself and misaligned something for this i have always got a mctimoney chiropractor who is fab and has fixed her everytime in one visit! my lady charges £40 to give u an idea!
 
Just like to add, if you have used the person before and you know they are reputable i dont see a problem in calling them out if you know your horse and know something is wrong. But i would never just call someone out on a friends recomendation, would always get a vets opinion first.
 
I don't use any Chiro's anymore now, i did use to for years. However in my own experience ive found that the results are short lived & many many session are needed. Meaning that there always treating the same problems.

I now use a properly registered Vetrinary Physio & ive found her to be asolutely brilliant. I get her in once every 3-6 months depending on horses workloads. She will say if there is nothing wrong & if there is she quickly helps to sort out the problem.
So ime i would say get a registered ACPAT Physio in, your vet can normally recommend one to you.
 
I think that osteopathic treatment is better than chiropractic. Osteo treatment tends to rely less on aggressive joint manipulation and seems to view itself as sorting out a problem more than being a permanent regular thing.

Can only speak from my own experience but I was pretty shocked that my husband's chiropractor seemed to think it was quite normal for him to have to go once a month for the rest of his life...... whereas the osteopath we have both seen works on regular treatments to sort a problem and then either stopping or becoming less frequent when the problem is eased.

The chiro also seemed pretty negative about sports etc and was totally unsympathetic to sporting injuries etc.
 
ok re the physio chiro osteo debate in my (for me) and for my horse! experience it really does depend on the practitioner.

any chiro I have seen has been very positive about sports .......... one particularly likes people with horses, lugging bales about keeps him in business.

The lady I now use does both me and my horse. She understands the mechanics of both, there is minimal agressive joint manipulation (though some human chiros I know do seem to relish this bit) and a lot of massage. for some reason pony always gets more than me
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I suppose there is more of him.

so I do think it depends on each practitioner as a person rather than their practice as a whole. I have had dealings with some pretty rubbish physios in my time particularly when I have had specific injuries.
 
Thanks everyone. For clarification, what are the differences? I've heard of Mctimoney, and there are also regular chiro's, 'muscle release therapists', physio's, osteo's etc...
Does each discipline specialise in a different thing, or would you get broadly the same result whichever one you went with?
There is a girl on the yard who has recently qualified as a muscle release therapist, but didn't seem to take too long over her qualification, yet also disses the chiro's and say they do more harm than good.
It is a bit of a minefield, isn't it?
 
not heard of muscle release therapists, sounds like a posh name for massage

mctimoney use smaller movements than regular chiros. tbh dont work for me (human) just make me very stiff but no constant improvement. To qualify animal mctim i dont think takes v long.

normal chiro/physio both go down the degree humans first route then do extra training to cover animals (this is what my chiro has done). Osteos I think are the same.

all I can say is what happens with me..... physio minimal result. osteo/mctim medium result. normal chiro really good result. so that is what suits me
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- person wise.
 
It is a minefield its so difficult to decide what to do because if done badly it obviously wastes your money but also can do further damage to your horse, where abouts are you i might be able to recomend someone.
 
Thanks Ginger_nut. The area I live in is quite remote, but if you could PM me with any recommendations, I would be most grateful
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I use a Chiro for my horse and one for me, both are fantastic and the horse one is Mctimony (she is in the process of training to be a human one, then I will use her for me too) My mare gets a check every 3 months as she was unfit when I brought her and she is now a hard working comp horse, my chiro is also a sports massage therapist, so she has a lovely afternoon very 3 months. She sorts out any problems or stiffness, its usually really minor, but if you deal with it at that stadge then u are less likely to hjave long term problems.
 
I use a veterinary physiotherapist myself, I have never tried a chiro. I just wanted to say that it is, IMO, definitely worth having a horses' back checked before/during bringing them back into work after a lay off - the time off can cause them to stiffen up and carry themselves differently, as can fatigue in the early stages of fittening work. I had problems with this with my mare and would always have her back looked at before and after bringing her back into work now.
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Ive used Bowen and mcTominey however I found that they found her problem rather than solved it (arthritus and therefore she just kept going back to the same conformation) however I was shown some basic massage techniques from the lady who did McTimoney which at least increased the bond between my mare and me if anything and seems to relax her for a while.
 
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