Dogs With Ear Infections

Does your dog suffer with ear infections?  Don’t worry, you are not alone.  There are many dogs that make their way to our practice because of chronic ear infections.  Why is this and how can animal chiropractic help?  Read on to find out.

Why might dogs with ear infections benefit from animal chiropractic care?

At first, it seems counter-intuitive to think that animal chiropractic care might benefit an infection in the ear.  However, it is well known in the human world that there is a relationship between the top bone in the neck and the ear canal.  In fact, many practices focus on treating children suffering from this condition with great results.  The same concepts can be applied to animals.

When the top bone of the neck (known as the atlas) is in an abnormal position, it can push against anything that travels through the area and cause inflammation.  One of the items traveling through the upper neck is the Eustachian tube and other areas connected to the ear canal.  If the atlas rotates into these tubes, it can cause increased pressure.  When this happens, things aren’t able to drain properly.  Think about it like a clogged pipe in your sink.  The water will drain very slowly, if at all.  Bacteria now has a better opportunity to grow in the ear leading to an infection.

So what do animal chiropractors do to address a misalignment in the spine?

Animal chiropractors are trained to identify misalignments in the spine, frequently known as structural shifts.  When they find these structural abnormalities, they use a gentle correction to guide it back to normal alignment.  Don’t worry, this doesn’t hurt your pet and there is typically no cracking or popping.  In fact, it’s so gentle that if you blink  you may miss it.  Board certified animal chiropractors are trained to treat your pets – which is very different from the human side!

To sum things up, animal chiropractic care is an effective way to complement traditional care for ear infections – especially the chronic cases.  By identifying structural shifts of the spine in the upper neck, animal chiropractors can make a gentle correction to restore it to a more normal position.  This will relieve pressure on parts of the ear canal and allow the ears to drain.  This should result in relief for dogs with ear infections.