Osteopathy in dogs

Osteopathy considers the body as a single element, which in case of instability, can develop self-healing mechanisms if we know how to activate them at the right place by gentle, non-forced, and targeted manipulations. This is how veterinary manual medicine, known as osteopathy for animals, has found its place by proposing an alternative therapeutic or preventive approach that complements allopathy in response to certain dysfunctions in dogs, cats, but also horses, cows, and even rabbits.

Collaboration of the dog is essential

Osteopathy for pets is quite recent in France, the veterinary doctors Francis Lizon and Dominique Giniaux were the pioneers between 1975 and 2000, with an approach similar in substance to that of human osteopathy. Its philosophy: to rely on letting go and listening to the body manually, provided that the animal being treated cooperates perfectly during the session.

This manual medicine helps the body to find its balance gently and harmoniously, whether it is a musculoskeletal, articular or visceral disorder. It allows the detection of dysfunctions following a trauma, an accident or simply to give the body the possibility to recover from the consequences of a surgery or an illness. It is also a way to prevent compensatory pain that would have affected other parts of the body.

Different approaches or techniques are used according to the practitioners depending on the area to be considered: osteopathy can be energetic, it can work on the link between emotions and organs (based on traditional Chinese medicines) or it can be structural and mechanical. In this last case, we all remember the traditional "CRAC" which allows to give back mobility to some vertebrae by rotation.

What can be treated in dogs?

Osteopathy opens a vast field of possibilities by allowing to intervene in numerous zones:

• the head
• the vertebrae of the neck
• the spinal column from the rachis to the pelvis
• the anterior and posterior limbs.

Veterinary Osteopathy is practiced in case of osteoarticular anomalies that are expressed by lameness, imbalances, lumbar pain, malformations, or arthrosis; it acts by restoring functional mobility.

Neurological or visceral diseases can also benefit from this alternative medicine when dysfunctions disturb the kidney, the bladder with cystitis, the liver, the stomach, or the intestine during diarrhea or constipation. An imbalance in the body can have repercussions on a particular system, such as the skin in the case of allergies or excessive licking, on the reproductive organs with a form of infertility, on the respiratory system with coughing, or for certain behavioral disorders.