|
I'm Vav Simon, a chiropractor
living and working on the Isle of Wight. Some fifteen years ago, I got the
opportunity to build my practice, so I started with a lot of explaining to do
around the horse yards and dog associations. Things took off and now my week is
divided into days where I am doing quite different things, usually around the
Isle of Wight, but also around the South Coast on what we call 'the mainland'.
I got the chance to set up the
Natural Therapy Centre for Animals in a farm on the outskirts of Ryde (which was
apparently the inspiration for the Beatles song 'Ticket to Ride'). The idea was
to provide a range of complementary therapies from one practice. I provide the
chiropractic and massage work, with occasional muscle-stimulation and herbal
remedies. I have visiting specialists for homeopathy, acupuncture, etc, etc.
My day begins early with breakfast
followed quickly by a trip outside to let my chickens out and then listen to the
answer-phone and collect record cards for the day's appointments. Every week I
get 70 to 80 messages the answer-phone really works for its keep!
- and amongst those, there will usually be one owner in tears, telling me
their dog has just died. Animal patients usually live shorter lives than humans,
and I go on to my next appointment with a heavy heart, only to be greeted at the
door by a 6-month old puppy full of the joys of life!
Horse Visiting Day
Mondays are horse days, visiting
around the Island.
Veterinary chiropractic is a travelling profession. We are always on the move,
with perhaps half-an-hour's driving between patients. I'm an outsidey sort of
person so I enjoy it, and I get to see the real places on the brand new Isle of
Wight version of Monopoly!
My first visit is to Ellie, a
lovely little Welsh Section D mare who had been kicked in the vagina by another
horse in the field. The injury had required internal stitches, and when that had
healed, she was still moving with difficulty, clearly uncomfortable and unhappy.
When I treated her, I found
misalignments in pelvis and lumbar vertebrae not surprisingly. The way they
were misaligned made me think that the kick had affected her pelvis and her
stilted way of walking as a result had then pushed her lumbars out of alignment
over the following months. Within a couple of days, she began to move more
freely and her owner Sarah brought her back into work.
At the follow-up visit, I found
Ellie much improved and starting in
dressage lessons. Sarah said Vav made such a difference and to
me as well, because she saw that I was out of alignment too and recommended me
to a nearby chiropractic colleague.
Five horses later, I get to my last horseyard. Everyone has offered me coffee,
but rarely a toilet. In a horse yard, I can have a quick wee in the stables or
in a quiet corner somewhere out of sight. Once I'd just got settled behind the
stables when a double-decker bus drove slowly past on the other side of the
hedge. I didn't look to see who was looking back!
Small Animal Day
Wilfred was a rescued cat not
injured as far as we know, but unwanted in his first home. As a youngster, he
had had a head tremor for a short time. He settled in his new home with Jill,
and managed hunting around the garden and over the fences well. But one day nine
months later, she heard a great clattering as he fell off a six-foot fence
perhaps a claw had got stuck? He staggered in and the tremor began again, and he
was scratching madly at his head, and tipping over onto his face and falling
down.
 Jill took him to the vet, and
together they thought of trying chiropractic she had previously brought dogs
to me for treatment. I found two extremely severe misalignments, one at the top
of his neck (the atlas) and the other at the eighth thoracic vertebra. This
explained a lot the atlas would give him vertigo and headache, and T8 would
contribute to the head tremor and weakness at the front through the trapezius
muscle attachment.
After treatment, Wilfred had a
fairly severe reaction, scratching and shaking his head even more. But within
five minutes, he was running around the room without hesitation, and jumping on
and off the furniture. The tremor and scratching stopped and since then has been
completely normal and settled. Jill said, We had been preparing for the worst -
we'd decided to put him down on the Friday. Vav came on the Thursday and he's
been right as rain ever since, nearly four months now.
Human Patients
I do my two-legged patients on
Wednesdays in Newport the capital town near the centre of the Island. I still
do a human clinic they are often animal owners who've said Thank you for
helping my pet, I wish you could do something for my back too! - so I do.
It's my chance to work indoors,
which is great when there is a storm blowing over the Needles. For once I get
the chance to wear perfume to work I dont usually because animals can react
badly to strong artificial smells.
Clean Ear Day
Thursdays is my dog clinic day. For
my assessment, I usually start with a visual check, analysing their gait. But
sometimes I can't get that information for instance, with a hairy Old English
Sheepdog or a dog so lame it can't walk.
Palpation is an intuitive skill
human senses can pick up more than machines. This is just as well because
animals can't tell us where it hurts. Every patient is different, regardless of
species: the causes are different, the results are different, so the treatment
has to be 'tuned' to every individual.
With animals, chiropractic
treatment is done entirely by hand, just as it is with humans. But we need to be
willing stretch over a horses back or work with tiny movements for a guinea-pig.
The differences between animals brings a need for a wide variety of skills to
achieve the same results.
 Today I saw Robbie, a 10 year-old
Golden Retriever for the second time. At his first appointment, I found his
pelvis was way out of alignment an elderly gent, he'd slipped on the
newly-tiled kitchen floor and ended up very weak at the back, with strange
action in his right hindleg.
I adjusted his pelvis (and
everything else that needed doing) and he seemed OK immediately after. This
visit, I asked was he stiff and sore after the treatment? - because that is
how it affects most patients. But, no, he had been fine. And now so energetic,
free-moving and interested in everything great!
The day always ends with me having
the cleanest ears on the Island, after every dog has licked them as a thank you!
More Visits
Friday is a very mixed bunch, with
several horses, a dog and a couple of sheep. It's a shame, but most farm animals
are worth such a small margin that it becomes uneconomic to pursue health
treatments very far. Much of the Isle of Wight is quite rural and there are many
farmers quietly interested in complementary healthcare methods. Some are very
caring and use these therapies especially for their more valuable animals
bulls, best mothers, a favourite sheepdog, and so on. I treated a baby alpaca
who couldn't stand they are valuable for their specialist wool successfully,
which has lead on to treating others in the herd. I don't often treat sheep,
which are difficult because my hands can disappear into the woollen coat.
Sometimes the problem has a cause
that can be eliminated easily such as a horse's saddle fitting badly, a dog's
harness pulling sideways, or a pet's bed positioned so the draught goes up one
side of their back. In these cases, when I visit the animal's home, I can often
spot these sorts of causes, and that allows owners to take action to prevent
recurrence.
Near Newport is Carisbrooke Castle,
where King Charles the First was imprisoned for a while. The castle has its own
well, and in the days before electric pumps, they had a donkey walking in a huge
wooden wheel to pull up the water bucket. These days they still have several
donkeys for tourist demonstrations, and they were concerned when one fell badly
in the wheel. I worked through the treatment OK, but
I was quite puzzled at how his problems came
about so I didn't know what advice to give. Then I was told the detail that made
the difference: these donkeys spend their working lives walking uphill, inside
the wheel a very artificial environment. So I suggested that time off should
include turnout in a flat field to counteract this where possible.
Pet Preferences
Chiropractic can help with a much
wider range of problems than most people expect. Horses who are lame, rearing,
bucking, refusing fences, dogs who are banana-shaped or roached-up, cats who are
hunched, are easier to identify. But a puzzling loss of performance or sudden
behaviour problems can also stem from tiny misalignments. Because it is so
cost-effective chiropractors do not need large clinics, expensive equipment or
sedation drugs it is a very popular treatment.
But working with animals is not
very glamorous up to my hocks in mud, up to my bum in nettles, up to my ears
in dog saliva... But they do remember when they next see me, and they don't get
bashful or coy they give me a lot of instant love as a thank you. They are so
straightforward emotionally that it warms my heart and makes me look forward to
my next encounter in the mud!
|
