This big eared and bright-eyed girl is Ellie. Ellie is in the early part of her elder years and she has long dealt with spondylosis. This is a broad term used to describe several conditions in the spine, often including narrowing of the spinal canal, spinal stenosis, early stage arthritis, and overall degenerative changes leading to pain and stiffness.
In Ellie’s case, her bones had begun to fuse and the disc space that should have been between each vertebrae had narrowed tremendously. This resulted in severe arthritis in her spine and very limited range of motion. She received steroids to help her condition, and they often did, though only temporarily. As she aged, her fur mama was concerned with the repetitive use of the steroids and what that was doing to her Ellie’s body. Though not completely sold on chiropractic care, her mama decided she was willing to give it a shot to see if this alternative could help her baby girl. Ellie did wonderfully. She started to move better, became more fluid and have greater stability, and she was even able to recover quicker after a spill. She began to be more puppy like than she’d been in quite some time and this warmed everyone’s hearts. Ellie was finally able to get some relief from the severe arthritis without having to undergo any invasive procedures or be on medication constantly. Inherently, structure will determine function, so when the structure shifts away from normal, function will too. With adjustments, we have been able to restore some of the normalcy into Ellie’s spine and thus help return some higher functioning into her daily life. Ellie is truly a light in our day and we are so glad her fur mama took a chance on chiropractic, for if she hadn’t those big ears would have never been apart of our journey.