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O ne day, Alyssa DuVall's dog Zeus, a 12-year-old minia
ture pincher, just stopped walking. He had been healthy
his whole life, so this was shocking. He'd try to stand
and his legs would splay out on either side. The family started
to carry Zeus outside to relieve himself and inside to sip water.
The dog's veterinarian in the Cat and Dog Clinic on
Hawthorne Avenue suggested the family let Kasey Stopp, also
in the practice, see Zeus. She examined him and determined
that the little nine-pound dog had a tumor growing on his
spine that was pressing on his spinal cord and blocking nerves.
So she did a chiropractic adjustment, DuVall says. "And it
was amazing???he could stand up," she says. "I didn't expect
it to work at all, but Zeus was able to stand up for at least an
entire day." Moreover, Stopp's gentle way with animals "made
her the first vet Zeus really trusted. She would touch him and
his whole body would relax."
The tumor kept growing. DuVall knew the case was a ter
minal one, but she also knows that chiropractic treatments
greatly increased Zeus's quality of life as he was failing.
A 2013 graduate of the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine,
Stopp learned about doing adjustments for animals more than
10 years ago. She watched her mentor, Robert Gaston, a vet
erinarian in her native Cincinnati,
solve problems and restore animals
to a healthy state with chiro
practic. She knew she wanted to
include chiropractic???and eventu
ally, acupuncture???in her profes
sional practice.
She had learned first-hand how beneficial chiropractic
could be for herself. Believing getting an adjustment was "all
a bunch of fooey," she says, she nevertheless sought relief
from migraine headaches in a chiropractic office after tradi
tional medicine didn't help her. After one visit, her migraine
disappeared.
Animal chiropractic helped reduce and then eliminate prob
lems with a bout of incontinence that was plaguing Stopp's
elderly dog in Cincinnati. She became a believer in chiroprac
tic???for everyone.
Trina Morris decided to try chiropractic on her dog after
she, like Stopp, received help at a chiropractor's office. She
had injured her neck playing roller derby and found that a few
adjustments improved things markedly.
So it seemed like a great idea to take her 14-year-old dog,
Sequoia, in for an adjustment with Stopp. Part border collie,
part Labrador retriever and part some sort of shepherd, the dog
weighs between 60-70 pounds and has had hip problems for a
while. She started having trouble jumping in and out of cars,
Morris says, and developed incontinence. Hormones seemed to
make that problem better, but Morris wondered if more could
be done.
As Stopp was adjusting the dog, "she didn't love it," Morris
says. "I think it felt weird to her and was a little uncomfort
able." But when the dog got down from the table, she was
"just peppier, moving better and looking better."
At home, the pep continued, with the dog running all over
her yard. Morris says that after the second treatment, he and
Sequoia took a three-mile jog, "something she hadn't done in
three years. I think she feels really good. She's even playing
with my sister's dog, who's much younger."
Determined to learn chiropractic as well as traditional medi
cine, Stopp did some research and decided to attend Options
for Animals College of Animal Chiropractic in Wellsville, KS.
After graduating from the University of Georgia in 2013, Stopp
headed west for an intense five-week course. She learned how
to do adjustments for horses and other large animals as well as
dogs and cats, "and I really added to my knowledge of animal
anatomy."
She has feline as well as canine clients. A woman came
home from work one day to find her young cat limping. Just
out of kitten-hood, he had been very active, leaping effort
lessly from couch to floor to chair. A visit to Stopp resulted in
a prescription for a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine.
His limp disappeared for a while, but when it returned, the
owner brought the cat back to Stopp.
She told the owner she was going to try chiropractic and
why, and then she put her hands on the cat's head, feeling
his skull. Her fingers moved to the neck, where she found a
vertebra out of alignment. She adjusted the vertebra, moving
it slightly so that it could have full range of motion again, and
then she did the same thing on the
cat's shoulder, then examined all
the animal's joints.
When the owner took her cat
home, he jumped up on the couch,
the limp gone. "She told me if she
hadn't seen it with her own eyes,
she wouldn't have believed it," Stopp says. "Now he comes in
about every two months for an adjustment."
Though there are other veterinarians doing chiropractic
on horses in the Athens area, Stopp believes she's the only
one serving smaller companion animals as well as horses. She
is certified through the International Veterinary Chiropractic
Association.
Robbie Hroza, vice president for operations at Options for
Animals, says there are an estimated 4,000 animal chiroprac
tors in the world. The U.S. has three schools offering certifica
tion. "Younger vet students are kind of pushing for integrative
health practices for animals, like acupuncture and massage,"
Hroza says. But she doubts whether chiropractic will become
part of the standard curriculum of a veterinary college.
As a member of the team at the Cat and Dog Clinic, Stopp
says she assesses the comfort level of a pet owner before
broaching the subject of chiropractic. Most people just "don't
believe in it," she says. But if they are interested, she edu
cates them about the benefits of opening neural pathways and
restoring full range of motion in joints. After one or two treat
ments, after they see improvement in their pet's mobility and
overall health, she says they're usually hooked.
"I had a cat who was growling and hissing when I started
working on her," Stopp says. "I think she was uncomfortable
with the close contact. By the time I got to her tail, she was
purring. When I finished, she jumped off the table, curled up
and went to sleep."
Rebecca McCarthy
???I think she feels really good.
She???s even playing with my sister???s
dog, who???s much younger.???
10 FLAGPOLE.COM ??? APRIL 9, 2014
REBECCA MCCARTHY