TCC Alumna Treats Our Four-Legged Friends

    Texas Chiropractic College alumna Mary Ann Lopez treats patients of all shapes and sizes, as most chiropractors do, but hers have one major difference: four legs. Dr. Lopez is an animal chiropractor with her clinic, Paw Prints Animal Chiropractic, located in Houston.

“A lot of people don’t know about Animal Chiropractic," Dr. Lopez said. "Whenever I tell them what I do I usually get from one extreme to the other. Either ‘What, you’re kidding!’ or ‘Oh yeah my dog has been to the animal chiropractor. It’s very interesting.”

Animal chiropractic is far from a new idea. It can even be traced back to B.J. Palmer.  He was quoted in 1944 saying “In the early days of chiropractic, we maintained a veterinarian hospital where we adjusted the vertebral subluxations of sick cows, horses, cats, dogs, etc. We did this to prove to ourselves that the chiropractic principle and practice did apply. Even today, occasionally, somebody brings us a valuable pedigreed pet to adjust.” 

The techniques used on the animals, which can range from small cats and toy dogs to horses and cows, are fairly similar to those used on humans. 

“It is still a system of adjusting the spinal segments and joints by hand in order to restore proper nervous function," Dr. Lopez said. “Some of the movement will be different. We can’t put a dog on an adjusting table and do a side posture, but the basic philosophy is the same.”

One of the challenges of working with animals as opposed to humans is that patients cannot describe their pain or express their problems.

“You really have to be in tune with the animal and you have to have good palpation skills,” Dr. Lopez said. “A lot of times you can tell by the animal’s body language how they are feeling. Sometimes it’s about watching their ears or their tail. Most of the time you are analyzing their gait and their posture, but palpation is key.” 

Not only do you have to love chiropractic, but you also need to be someone who loves animals to enter this profession.

“To me it’s like I’m not even working at all,” Dr. Lopez said. “I absolutely love what I do, and I love going to my job every day. It is very rewarding and enjoyable at the same time.”