Cat Chiropractor: Methods and Applications for Feline Diseases

methods of cat chiropractors

The concept of applying chiropractic methods and techniques to the kitty cat seem somewhat strange at first until we realize that like all mammals the cat is a creature with spines, nerves, and spinal segments. Also cats live on a planet where they can get jostled around and injured in their spine as they jump, run, are attacked, age, and are chemically insulted by any number of toxins in the environment.

When a cat experiences one of the above events, the body of the kitty cat has an incredible mechanism to modify and protect the kitty cats spine and musculoskeletal system. The spinal cord segments respond with a neuronal interference that essentially takes a section of the spinal cord off-line in order to prevent further injury. This is called “vertebral subluxation complex”. It is not a bone out of place, it is not a partial dislocation, it is a neuronal interference that cannot be seen on x-ray or on MRI.

It is very common (vertebral subluxation complex),  as the reader of this article has at least a half a dozen or more in their own spine right now. It is important to note that this is a pro-survival mechanism that biological systems (mammals) has developed over millions of years of evolution it is mother nature’s way of protecting an injured area of the body.

“Mother nature does not give us something that we don’t need nor does it give us something that cannot be repaired.” What is the first thing that I kitty cat does when he gets up in the morning?….Of course, it stretches, the same thing that a piano player doesn’t sit when they sit down to play the piano, they flex their fingers to loosen them up.

So the stretching in the morning and the piano player flexing his or her fingers re-establishes normal motion to joints that are compromised by vertebral subluxation complex.

Unfortunately, sometimes the above spontaneous reduction of vertebral subluxation complex by normal stretching and flexing cannot be attained and then this neurological interference remains intact and continues to direct other conditions associated with this neuronal interference.

These are the diseases and conditions of lameness, paralysis, paresis, and decreased for lack of function of internal organs that we see in the domestic feline.

How do I find a chat chiropractor near me?

You may visit our website’s Find a VOM Practitoner Near Me section.

Further analysis of spine related feline conditions:

Chiropractors for the last hundred years or so been trying to apply classic manual adjusting techniques that they use on humans to the feline. They very often do not get good results or any results at all.

The problem lies, not in their technique, nor does it lie the fact that most cats will not cooperate, but rather the fact that the feline, unlike other mammals has a higher amount of elastic tissue and all their connective tissue and their elasticity makes chiropractic manual adjustments very difficult.

vertebral luxation complex on cats

One of the ways to reduce a vertebral subluxation complex, is to take a joint to its “para-physiological maximum” and then with the rapid thrust force it through that in point which will stimulate the mechano-receptors of that joint and reset the spinal segment thereby reducing the vertebral subluxation complex. This would successfully reduce the vertebral subluxation complex and adjusts the kitty cat chiropractically if it actually could be successfully done. The problem is that cats are just too flexible.

A classic chiropractic move is called a “rotary break” which involves twisting the bones in the head and the neck and is what people think about when they think about going to their chiropractor who will “crack” their neck. To do this in a cat, because of their increased flexibility you would just about have to twist the kitty cat’s neck off which, of course the cat will not tolerate in that kind of movement will produce one pissed-off little kitty cat.

VOM: Chiropractic adjusting tool for cats

We can however, very easily reduce subluxations using hand-held spinal accelerometer. That device delivers a pulse at about 1 ms, with a high degree of force and a tiny amount of motion so that the animal cannot be injured whatsoever and will be adjusted all the time every time. The technique that we use in VOM (veterinary orthopedic manipulation) utilizes this technology and was begun in 1982 by Dr. William L Inman DVM CVCP in Seattle Washington in his small animal practice focusing mostly on dogs and cats. To date, hundreds of thousands of animals (cats) have been successfully adjusted with the VOM technology. Please see a complete description of how VOM works and is applied by visiting: http://vomtech.com/what-is-vom/

Interestingly enough the use of the instrument also allows us to evaluate where the vertebral subluxation complexes are in the cat’s spine. It is interesting to note that mammals that move horizontally (not humans) have a neurological uniqueness in that they will actually give us a pathological “read” when a vertebral subluxation is present at the spinal segment when pulsed by the adjusting device.

So here we have a device that not only diagnosis but also treats simultaneously. If we were to sit back and look at the various reading patterns that we see routinely and cats will find that we see the same disease processes occur over and over and over indicating those patterns of vertebral subluxation complexes in the spine of the cat hold the disease processes in place.

Another amazing thing about the feline is that it has the highest degree of somato- visceral disease that we see in any species. A number of disease processes such as inflammatory bowel disease chronic gastroenteritis, acute pancreatitis, urinary tract disease, and many others are held in place by an unbalanced autonomic nervous system. An unbalanced autonomic nervous system is served by nerves also and these nerves also can have subluxation complexes associated with them and those neuronal interferences hold in place these disease processes. The VOM technology has also directed to treating the somato-visceral diseases. For more information on these diseases, why they occur, and how we treat them please see the website: http://vomtech.com .

cat chiropractic vom device

As I mentioned before manual adjusting technology is very difficult to do in kitty cats because the amount of elastic tissue they have in their bodies. Because of that, several manual adjusting veterinary chiropractors have given up on adjusting cats and have maintained that cats cannot be adjusted using chiropractic methods.

In fact, in Colorado, manual adjusting veterinary chiropractors convinced the chiropractic board and the state of Colorado to allow chiropractors to be certified (using VOM and other technologies) to legally adjust animals however they are limited only to horses and dogs as they’ve been told that cats cannot be adjusted. Not true!

Benefits of chiropractic approach on cats:

Cats are very easy to adjust using an instrument, cats respond very effectively to instrument-aided chiropractic methods such as Veterinary Orthopedic Manipulation (VOM).

chiropractor treating a cat

Some significant benefits of using the VOM technology in cats are;

  • Cats have really two problem areas; neck and mid back
  • Cats very commonly require 1 to 3 adjustments and they are done.
  • Cats can be adjusted with an instrument in hand and restrained with the other.
  • Cats can absorb a huge amount of energy so they cannot be injured.
  • The cat does not have to cooperate with an instrument-aided adjustment.
  • Success rate in cat chiropractic is always very high.

Cats are very tough creatures. They truly have nine lives. In cat surgery it’s been said that if you get to broken bones of the same cat in the same room at the same time you’re probably going to win. In the feline, we only need to nudge the kitty cat towards health to resolve the problem.

Opening up these neuronal tracks that have been temporarily compromised by vertebral subluxation complex is a quick and easy, and also very effective way to induce the cat to solve it’s own problem.

“It is been said that we heal these animals, that is not correct. But we do is may make it possible for the animals to heal themselves.”

If we experience a kitty cat is having trouble jumping up on things or jumping down from things, it may be due to a subluxation phenomenon occurring in the neck. Their range of motion may also be compromised with her head may be on crooked to some degree. This is very easily fixed with an adjusting device. This very often can be completely and totally repaired with one adjustment.

Old-age related cat illnesses and laser related treatments:

Old cats (14 to 19 years old) often have a whole series of subluxation complexes that begin around the ninth thoracic vertebra and go all the way to the sacrum. This very often compromises their activity in their later life and also the subluxations that occur around T-7-8-9 can compromise blood supply to the kidney which will predispose the animal to an accelerated degeneration of kidney function and shorten their lifespan by 3 to 5 years.

old cat kidney failure

Kidney failure in cats is the most common reason that a cat will pass away from “old age”.
All of these animals and kidney failure have reading patterns in their mid thoracic area as above. Conversely, cats that lived to be 19 to 23 years of age are free of vertebral subluxation complex in this area of their backs. And even more insidious problem is very commonly they will have the series of vertebral subluxation complexes in their mid-and lower back in not show any clinical symptomology whatsoever, until finally they start to lose weight and shrink away from us and die of old age or kidney failure. They look like this until they don’t.

We have a number of other methods of treating impending kidney failure in the kitty cat besides adjusting routinely with the VOM technology. That very commonly out involves this using a frequency specific low level laser therapy (FSLLLT) which serves to reactivate kidney cells that have “gone to sleep” due to lack of blood and nerve supply and can potentially be re-awakened and reengaged with a laser that has a right wavelength (635 nm) and the right frequency (42 and 24 Hz).

For more information on frequency specific low level laser therapy or FSLLLT, please see the linked page and search for information about laser therapy is extensive on that page. Also at that page you’ll see a number of YouTube videos dedicated to all types of disease conditions and particularly feline disease processes.

When presented with a cat with an nebulous problem very commonly will use the adjusting device is a means to diagnose the problem areas. This is done by challenging each vertebral segment and evaluating whether or not a pathological reflex is engaged when we put energy into the spinal segment. This is known as a “read”. As mentioned above very, the have reads in their upper neck and their mid thoracics usually starting around T-9. Sometimes will see that will read everywhere along the spinal cord. This is common for hyperthyroid cats and also cats with a lot of subluxations and inflammation in the spinal cord.

Another condition that we see in the feline is called feline hyperesthesia syndrome or what we call feline skin spinal reflex syndrome. This is a very common problem and is searched on YouTube videos by cat owners who are seeking a solution to this problem and have not found one in classic allopathic veterinary care.

We were able to diagnose and begin treating this condition as early as 1982 with adjusting devices but we found that we had to adjust the animal almost monthly for over a year to get this problem resolved. When we started using myofascial release, we found that we could reduce the amount of time that we had to use down to a couple of months which is great.

We also found in this syndrome, that these animals were toxic and had inflammatory chemicals in the fat stores that are wrapped around the nerves close to the spine and those toxins and heavy metals can be removed with a product called hydroxybutyric acid or HBA plus which is nutritional supplement powder that is sprinkled in the food for about 90 days. We also been particularly effective in using frequency specific low level laser therapy for treating this condition. HBA plus can be reviewed and ordered without prescription at: http://vomtech.com/products/

The number of feline disease conditions that we routinely treat using these technologies can also be seen in the YouTube videos they’re catalogued unique for the feline on the Youtube playlist: Feline Diseases & Conditions.

By investigating that opening page you will see a link of YouTube videos, that show the processes that we use to treat feline diseases that are heretofore untreatable or poorly treatable in classic veterinary care.

Treat your own cat with VOM chiropractic training!

This is why so many veterinarians, chiropractors, and other health professionals and paraprofessionals seek out certification through the VOM technology. Both doctors  and non-doctors can take the online courses and become certified in this technology. Please see the website: http://vomtech.com/online-courses/ for more information about a courses that are available.

or…

Contact Wm L Inman DVM ,CVCP 888-935-4866

email: drbill@vomtech.com