I was sort of surprised to hear you mention a zoo might call in a chiropractor, as I researched chiropractors a while ago and found that there doesn’t seem to be any scientific evidence at all that they actually do anything. I wouldn’t expect a zoo to call in a homeopathy ‘expert’, so what gives?

why-animals-do-the-thing:

What gives is that the nursery keeper and veterinary staff decided it was better to bring in an outside practitioner with professional experience in spinal manipulation to treat a neonate that had sustained physical trauma rather than let her die. And it worked. The zoo in question was the AZA-accredited Cincinnati Zoo, and the team that made the decision to bring in a chiropractor was the same one responsible for Fiona’s survival. 

I’m not going to focus this post on the debate about chiropractic efficacy, but here is a short overview of pertinent information about chiropractic treatment. Of all the “alternative medicines” out there, chiropractic is one that’s really misunderstood by the general public. There’s a reason that medical insurance will often pay for chiropractic adjustment and why it’s usually taken more seriously in the medical community than other holistic or “alternative” treatments – because the idea of manipulating the body using manual adjustment is solid (and there are peer reviewed studies in credible journals that back this up). In the context of other types of medical treatment, it’s called physiotherapy. Chiropractic manipulation can make a lot of sense for specific conditions – provided that the practitioner has a good understand of anatomy and physiology and is honest about the limitations of what their practice can do (it’s not relevant outside musculoskeletal conditions). The origins of chiropractic care were not based in anything scientific, true – but it’s not the 1880s anymore, and there are many good, evidence-based chiropractors out there who reject the “woo” origins of the field and use their knowledge of the body to treat skeletal and muscular pain without surgery. Chiropractic therapy at this level overlaps with massage therapy, physical therapy, and sports medicine. While some chiropractors still tout some kind of innate, metaphysical knowledge of the human body, that’s not what they all are. Chiropractic care for animals – when applied by someone with professional veterinary training and only after an appropriate diagnosis has been reached – can be equally effective at treating specific issues. (Before y’all call in @drferox to double-check me here, we’ve already discussed it; her major concerns are the lack of regulation of animal chiropractic practice, and the fact that it’s too often applied in lieu of other appropriate treatment or even a medical diagnosis. She agrees that physically manipulating the body can have positive effects, and that she has no problem with it in the context of licensed veterinarians who choose to add chiropractic adjustments to their repertoire).

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So what happened in that specific situation? I was lucky enough to see a presentation on that tiger’s care by Cincinnati’s nursery keeper last summer at a conference, so I can go into more detail than what’s provided by the news articles about it.

Chira was the first of three Malaysian tiger cubs born to a first-time mother – and the mom had a really adverse reaction to the cubs. She was effectively trying to run away from her cub as it emerged from the birth canal, and in doing so, ended up throwing Chira to the ground. It was decided that the cubs were going to be pulled and raised in the nursery when the mother completely refused to engage with them after birth. 

It was noticed almost immediately by a veteran nursery keeper that the cub appeared to have contracted tendons in her neck and was holding her head backwards at a weird angle. Massage and light stretching seemed to help resolve the issue at first, but she very quickly began to have issues with being able to control her mouth enough to suckle on a preemie nipple (which is a really bad sign on the first day of an neonate’s life). Vet staff was called in to check her out after nursery staff watched the videos and realized her issues were from physical trauma during the birth, but it was unclear why she was failing to thrive. The lead nursery keeper had a connection with a chiropractor who is certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (which is a fairly stringent certification) and had been doing adjustments for small animal and equine practice under veterinary supervision for almost fifteen years. The zoo team decided it was worth a try to bring in this chiropractor because without some sort of diagnosis and treatment plan it was unlikely the cub would survive; he was scheduled for an appointment with Chira two days later. 

This is a photo of Chira from the presentation I attended, taken at three days old right before her first adjustment. This is the position she was most comfortable sleeping in due to the issues with her neck – while it might look superficially cute, that’s not how neonates should rest. 

When the chiropractor visited, he found that Chira had basically no motion in the joints of her two upper-most cervical vertebrae, as well as some issues with lack of motion in the thoracic and lumbar spine. The interview he gave in this video with the CEO of the Cincinnati Zoo doesn’t do a great job of describing the reason that was such a problem, but what’s important to know is that the atlas (C1) and axis (C2) are two really specialized vertebrae; they control most of the motion of the skull. C1 is attached directly to the skull and controls vertical movement (think nodding) and C2 is literally the axis on which C1 pivots, which allow for sideways and rotational motion. Issues with or damage to those upper cervical vertebrae often cause severe injury, because there is potential for impingement on both the spinal cord and the arteries that supply blood flow to the brain. Chira was having issues with moving, suckling, and holding her head up – all symptoms potentially related to restriction of those first cervical vertebrae. 

(The video is worth a watch if you want to see how neonates are palpated for range of motion and what a chiropractic adjustment on a tiger looks like. I think the footage is probably from the second or third treatment, given her size and mobility in the footage – we were shown a video at conference of her first treatment at three days old, and man, watching her try to move was physically painful. It was also really interesting in that first video – which doesn’t appear to have been released to the public – to watch the chiropractor teaching someone I think was the attending veterinarian how to palpate Chira’s cervical spine and feel for restricted motion.) 

Nursery staff reported that after her first adjustment, there was an almost immediate and drastic change in Chira’s mobility – for the first time in her very short life, she could actually hold her head up. All she did for the first 24 hours was sleep and eat, but by morning, they reported that she was finally behaving in an appropriate way for a normal tiger cub of that age. She was able to move without shaking, suckle appropriately, and actually started chuffing at the nursery staff rather than crying all the time. She quickly started reaching appropriate developmental milestones, catching up to her siblings in growth over about two weeks. Over the next couple of months she received a couple more adjustments, each occurring as the nursery keepers noticed signs of restriction reoccurring in her neck or indicators that she was in pain; her final adjustment was when she was about three months old. 

Since then, Chira is a healthy and fully functional tiger, with no lasting indication of motor issues or neck pain. She and her sisters have been living on exhibit at Night Hunters since May of last year. Zoos frequently think outside the box when it comes to finding appropriate medical treatment for their animals, and the choice to bring in a chiropractor was one made by fully informed veterinary staff and veteran nursery keepers who were familiar with the literature on chiropractic treatment. It proved to be the right choice, and Chira is now thriving because of it.