In December, 2011, Choju, our almost 3 year old Akita, had been been out playing with my husband. There was some light snow on the ground, but the walks were cleared. She ran up the deck steps to go inside in a hurry for that treat she knew she would get. Halfway up the steps, her back legs slipped and she ended up hitting both legs on the steps, the left one hard enough that she didn’t put weight on it for a few minutes. We took her into our traditional vet and after x-rays, she was given anti-inflammatory medication. This helped while she was on them, but she clearly wasn’t improving quickly. Choju does agility, and we skipped her workouts until she was off the medication. Then we started her out slowly, but she was not able to jump and even going up and down inclines were painful for her.
Then we went to a seminar at Pawsitive Paws Academy, where Choju trains. Dr. Christine gave a presentation on how Chiropractic care can help performance dogs. After that, I made an appointment for Dr Christine to see Choju. This was about 4 months after her accident. After one chiropractic and magnawave treatment, we saw noticeable improvement in Choju. She was not as stiff and moving better. Dr. Christine gave us stretches to do with her to help her improve. Then we came back 2 more times, again seeing some improvement, but not the improvement Dr Christine wanted. Dr. Christine then added acupuncture to her treatment and finally Choju was making steady progress. We have done monthly treatments progressing to maintenance treatments every 6 – 8 weeks.
As she started her recovery, we needed to strengthen her muscle tone and we started Fit Paws training at Pawsitive Paws Academy to build up her core and leg muscles. After she learned to balance on the equipment, she has shown steady improvement. Her muscles are stronger than they were and she has learned better balance. She has started her Agility workouts again and is stronger than before she was hurt. Working with Dr Christine and with the trainers at Pawsitive Paws Academy, our beautiful Akita is back to full strength and full activity. I am so happy that I went to that seminar and I found Dr. Christine. I would recommend her to anyone looking to keep their pets in top shape!
