What is Manual Therapy?
The spinal column is made up of bones, ligaments, muscles and nerves.

The bones are called vertebra and they have a hollow center that acts as a conduit for the spinal cord in its path from the brain to the sacrum. The junction of two vertebra form a window through which a spinal nerve exits the spine. Motion between them is enabled by 2 joints and a disc in front and behind.
Misalignments are vertebra that are unable to move correctly. This decreases flexibility resulting in stiffness and resistance.
Nerve transmission may be altered resulting in decreased synchronization of muscle contraction and relaxation. This diminished muscle coordination can decrease performance and damage joints, tendons and cause pain. The horse may compensate in posture and movement.
Manual Therapy: any procedure during which the hands are used to palpate, diagnose, mobilize, adjust or manipulate the somatic (skeletal) or visceral (organ) structures of the body.
There are literally two schools of philosophy and technique: chiropractic and osteopathy.

What is Chiropractics?
CHIROPRACTIC treats “subluxations” which does not mean ‘bone out of place’ but implies:

Spinal adjustments seek to restore normal joint motion which in turn normalizes function.
Adjustments are specific for each joint using vectors according to the angles of the joint facets and:

What is Osteopathy?
OSTEOPATHY considers that an osteopathic joint exists where two anatomic structures meet and that motion tales place between the two.

Osteopathic lesion: mobility restriction in one or more osteopathic joints results in localized and distant changes in:

What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific points on the body which have the ability to alter various biochemical and physiological conditions in order to achieve a healing effect. It is not a cure-all, but it works well where indicated and when used alone or in combination with traditional veterinary medicine.Veterinary acupuncture has been used to treat animals for nearly 4,000 years in China. In North America it has been used for decades, in both domestic and exotic animals. Acupuncture is one of a variety of therapies a veterinarian may use to treat your pet.

www.aava.org
© American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture

Interesting Links

www.aava.org
American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture

http://www.ivas.org/
International Veterinary Acupuncture Society

http://www.animalchiropractic.org/
American Veterinary Chiropractic Association.

http://www.avcadoctors.com/
Doctors, worldwide, certified in animal chiropractic by
the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association.

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