Prairie Creek Veterinary Services

05/25/2026

05/20/2026

We skipped a couple weeks but here is the last post about chiropractic care for animals:

The goal for the animal is that by regularly maintaining the mobility of the spine, injuries may be avoided, top athletic performance may be allowed and pain can be reduced.

Another key benefit is stimulation of the nervous system. A well functioning nervous system allows the body to be able to respond normally to environmental challenges (i.e. trotting over ground poles, completing an agility course, clearing a jump or performing coordinated dressage movements).

Decreased joint mobility and muscle tension occur on a regular basis depending on the degree of stress put on the body by normal work. Any animal can benefit from chiropractic care; working dogs, dogs in competition and horses that trail ride or compete in events. Even animals with medical conditions can be helped (i.e. hip dysplasia, lameness, tendon injures, arthritis) by treating the compensatory changes of the spine. This modality is not limited to the working or athletic animals. Animals that are family members also are subject to injuries, pain and conditions that affect their spinal mobility.

Depending on the severity and length of time of the decreased joint movement and muscle tension, chiropractic care is given in a series of therapeutic treatments. The frequency is dependent upon the condition and length of time that it has been apparent.

04/29/2026

What actually is a chiropractic adjustment and what does it do?

An adjustment is a high velocity, low amplitude thrust delivered by hand, in a specific alignment to a joint.

The act of the adjustment stimulates a sensory organ in the muscle-tendon junction where it's attached to the bones of the spine. This stimulation de-activates the muscle i.e. the result is muscle relaxation and pain reduction.
Then, there is restoration of normal joint motion which improves the health of the joint fluid, decreases pain nerves, restores normal nerve conduction and increases blood flow.

04/28/2026

We’ve been receiving a lot of requests for horses to receive the five way vaccine this year. There are a lot of manufacturers of vaccines and they all contain a different combination of viruses that they protect against. You really need to know what is in those vaccines and know what you’re protecting against.

A typical “5 way” vaccine does not include West Nile virus, which is not something that we can skip!

If you google horse vaccines, the ones that contain five things contain two types of encephalomyelitis – eastern and western, influenza, rhinopneumonitis (herpesvirus), and tetanus. Both influenza and rhino viruses are contagious horse to horse and in our opinion are optional vaccines for horses that are in contact with a lot of other horses at shows, etc.

What we consider one of our core vaccines for all horses, regardless of what they do or are used for is a “four-way” vaccine– it contains eastern and western encephalomyelitis, West Nile and tetanus. The first three are carried by mosquitoes (EEE), and can kill your horse, and tetanus is a bacteria in the ground that is also deadly.

If you want to add the influenza and rhinopneumonitis (causes upper respiratory infection symptoms of sneezing and coughing and runny eyes that the horse can recover from without vaccination) that comes in a combination “6-way” with those other four, or they can be added in a separate vaccine.

For horses that have vaccine reactions, we can break the combination vaccines apart and give the components separately at different times to determine what their reaction is to.

When we talk about vaccines, we always talk about the contents of the vaccine so that we all understand what the horse is being protected against.

04/20/2026

Interdigital Cysts in Dogs

Interdigital cysts are painful lesions between a dog's toes. They start as an inflamed hair follicle that can be red, swollen and drain clear to red or pus discharge. Symptoms include swelling, limping, and excessive licking. Causes range from foreign bodies like splinters to allergies. We see them a lot of times in dogs that excessively lick their paws and have allergies. See below for more information.

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/interdigital-cysts-in-dogs

04/18/2026

April 12-18th is Dog Bite Prevention Week

04/17/2026

What happens when the joints of the spine don’t move correctly?

Spinal joints held in a prolonged abnormal position by surrounding muscle tension create pain and discomfort because the spine and muscles are not allowed to move normally.

This muscle tension is controlled by over active nerves from the spinal cord. A spinal joint that is not moving correctly will set off a cascade of negative effects which can be local (close to the restriction in motion) or widespread (throughout the body).

The symptoms we see in response to this cascade manifest as muscle spasms or tension, muscle atrophy, weakness, abnormal digestion and pain amongst a host of compensatory gait and body posture changes the animal displays in order to avoid pain.

04/08/2026

This image shows an enlarged area of a few lumbar vertebrae, and the arrow indicates one of the joints that is actually being adjusted during a chiropractic treatment.
(The double sided arrow shows the location of the blown up image.)

04/08/2026

Today we start the chiropractic series! Every Wednesday for the next several weeks check in for information about what this therapy is about.

What is Veterinary Chiropractic?
This is the practice of using the hands to apply adjustments to the joints of the spinal column to aid the body in healing itself.

How does Veterinary chiropractic work?
Veterinary chiropractors diagnose and treat subluxations of the joints of the spinal vertebrae (i.e. a joint that has decreased range of motion).
During the adjustment the bones are not "put back into place." The joints that are not moving freely (subluxation) are found and the adjustment resolves the muscle tension that is holding the spinal vertebral joint or segment in a prolonged abnormal position.

04/06/2026

We did a series on acupuncture last year (see previous posts) and for the next few weeks we will be running a series of informational posts on chiropractic in animals. Stay tuned!