Can Chiropractic Care Help Lame Horses?
Chiropractic techniques are commonly used to treat back pain and stiffness in horses. Since long-term lameness can often cause related problems in a horse’s neck, back, and pelvis, a study was conducted to see if chiropractic care could help.
What the Study Did: Researchers studied a group of horses suffering from chronic lameness. The horses received four chiropractic treatments over a three-week period. The study used a variety of tests to measure lameness, pain, and stiffness, including both subjective (opinion-based) observations and objective (tool-based) measurements.
What the Study Found: After the treatments, the horses showed improvements in subjective (perceived) measures of lameness, back muscle pain, and overall neck or back stiffness.
However, the objective (tool-based) measurements of lameness showed limited or inconsistent improvements.
In short: The study suggests that chiropractic care may help reduce the perceived pain and stiffness associated with chronic lameness, but it might not be fixing the underlying lameness itself. More research is needed to understand which types of lameness might benefit most from this type of treatment.
Read the published research on the MDPI website.