From World Bird Sanctuary
Chiropractic care for birds? We’re trying something new for some of our patients with torticollis, a condition where the head is twisted partially or fully upside down! Torticollis can be the result of a number of injuries including head trauma, lead toxicity, and infections. Physical therapy has long been a part of our treatment for torticollis, but isn’t always effective. We’d like to thank Heather Seaver for her donation of her chiropractic services to give some of these patients another care option to help them recover. So far, chiropractic seems to be very relaxing to the patients receiving it.
Shown is Barred Owl 24-519 during a chiropractic session. The chiropractic seems to help relax him and there was notable improvement to his muscle tension after his session. 519 is suffering from lead poisoning, some older ocular trauma, and torticollis. When he was found, he kept making it up into a tree but was then not able to fly straight and kept falling back to the ground. This could be from the torticollis, or from the lead poisoning which is causing him to clench his feet and legs abnormally some of the time.
I was a bit surprised to see this. I know there tends to be some debate on if chiropractics is a good thing or not. I’d be very nervous with those hollow bones!
I think I will do a writeup on torticollis in birds, as this seems like something that could be interesting. I think my girlfriend’s nephew actually had this same condition. He was obviously able to get professional help for it, but wild animals typically don’t.
Here is another Barred Owl with the condition in an advanced stage.
I’m not going to agree or disagree with anyone’s take on chiropractics here, though I will say for how it is marketed to people, I agree with all you guys are saying. With animals, I don’t know the extent of our knowledge of orthopedics compared to that of humans, so I’m not sure what other options are available. Animals of course cannot be swayed by any type of hype for something questionable, but I do trust the rehabbers to see if treatments are having positive or negative effects.
I too have heard many horror stories of what have happened to people visiting chiropractors, and I also know a number of people who do feel it helps them. Same with reiki and oils and crystals and all that. I do have sympathy though for cases where other traditional methods have been ineffectual, and if nothing else has helped this owl, but this seems to do something, even if it can’t be scientifically explained, I’m not going to immediately crap on it. I’m skeptical of course, and I’m sure these caregivers are as well and are carefully monitoring what is going on.
This post is not in any way promoting or supporting the practice. I just was very surprised to see it being done, and have never seen it before. They do not seem to be being charged for it either, which I think helps me remain neutral on this. I’m not even asking anyone here to keep an open mind on the matter, it’s merely here as a curiosity. I don’t think this is abuse, again, as it is under supervision of people that have to meet many strict requirements of care. If anyone disagrees with that, I trust everyone that comments here to be respectful in their stances, and I don’t think that will be an issue. The comments so far have been very fair and honest. I’m just going to step back in this comment section and let you guys do your thing after seeing how this is starting off.