EP9: Should Your Animals Get Adjusted with Dr. Monica Marshall?

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Welcome to Healthy Knox, connecting Knoxville to better health. This is the show where we cut through the noise and get real about what it takes to live a healthier life right here in East Tennessee. Your hosts are two doctors who aren't just talking about health. They're living it and delivering it to this community every single day. Dr. Cherise and Dr. Trent from Corrective Chiropractic, let's get into it. Welcome to Healthy Knox, where we interview guests from all over Knoxville Bringing people to you that, that are focused on helping people and animals get as healthy as possible in Knoxville. So with that, I have a special guest today, Dr. Monica Marshall of Simply Chiropractic. Welcome, Dr. Monica. Thank you, Dr. Sharice. It's a really great pleasure to have you on our podcast today, and why don't you start by telling us a little bit about your background and what you do? So I am a chiropractor. I'm certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association to adjust animals. My background... How far back do you want me to go? Just basically what made you want to do chiropractic for animals. I've been adjusting animals way before they had certification. I'm dating myself, but at any rate, your knowledge and expertise is just amazing. So how did you end up getting into animal chiropractic? I was a nerd as a really little kid and had the encyclopedias in my room, and so I would read up on all the different dog breeds and horse breeds when I was- first learned how to read, thinking I was gonna be a veterinarian until when I was 14, I saw a horse get adjusted for the first time, and I knew in that instant that I- that's what I wanted to do. And so I fell in love with chiropractic at the age of 11, but 14 is when I really decided that's what I wanted to do as a profession. And so I went to chiropractic school. I lived with a chiropractor, Natasha Yasskowitz, who is amazing and just studied underneath her and learned as much as I possibly could. Is she an animal chiropractor as well? She is. She's also certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, and practices in the South Carolina where Sherman College of Chiropractic is. And she was an amazing mentor and went to Kansas for Options for Animals to do my post-doctorate education after I graduated from school, and then immediately went to sit for my exam to become AVCA certified, American Veterinary Chiropractic Association certified. And we don't need to work under a vet anymore- No a veterinarian anymore, right? That's correct. In the state of Tennessee now, anyone who practices chiropractic on animals must be certified and so it's a veterinarian or a chiropractor. And so that's a- an amazing win for the animals both for protection as well as being able to have access to care in the state of Tennessee because the certifications, you have to have continuing certification, cert education. Excuse me. And so it's a very good thing for the animals. I know myself, you just adjusted Daisy, my little Shih Tzu, and you found misalignments on her, and I could tell that, there's certain breeds and animals that have different types of weaknesses, like hip weaknesses or with their shoulders, as I like to call them. You've got all the anatomy and physiology down, and I'm always impressed by your knowledge and thrilled when you can come by and actually check Daisy. How often would an animal need to be checked? Does it depend on their breed or...? It really depends on what's going on with them. Some breeds do need to be seen a little bit more often especially the ones that may have a little bit more issues. Your certain breeds are prone to certain injuries. Your pit bulls are more prone to ACL injuries. Your smaller dogs, especially your Brachycephalic dogs, like your Shih Tzus, tend to have more connective tissue disorders and abnormalities within their structure. And so your pugs, your Shih Tzus, your Boston terriers, those types of dogs are gonna have more issues with luxating patellas and, dysfunctions of the joints. Knee problems. Knee problems. Elbow problems. They they have that little bow-legged- Clint Eastwood look to them. And so it's really important for those dogs to be checked on a regular basis. But- Regular like weekly, monthly? Most dogs are pretty good with monthly for maintenance. Okay. If there's something else going on, like if we have a dog that might be paralyzed have a de- a degenerative disc disease, or have a herniated disc, they might need to be seen more often. An elderly dog might need to be seen more often. I just referred someone to you because her pit bull one of my patients has a pit bull that was attacked by a rat, and the ve- the vet cleared the animal, but like a month or so later, he's got a head tilt, or she rather, has a head tilt, and she's got some other... It sounds like it could be a neuromusculoskeletal issues going on. So I'm hoping that she reaches out to you. But somebody that has an animal that has challenges like that would need to be seen more often, I would imagine. Yeah, and sometimes it's that you need to see them more often, a person would be. You need to see them a little bit more often, and then then you tailor it back until they're more on a maintenance schedule. The cool thing about animals is that typically you don't have to see them as often as a person would at the beginning- of care because of the way their neurology and their they're physically built. But they also don't have the same stressors. We all know that stress is what causes a subluxation. You have your toxins your thoughts- Traumas and your traumas. Your traumas can sometimes take a long time to heal. But your thoughts can sometimes take even longer. And figuring out the toxin aspect can sometimes feel like you're throwing darts at a board blindfolded. I just think it's an amazing service that you offer because the more I study about animals, like they can't tell you what's going on with them, but it, I started doing a deep dive into food because some of the products on the market are just really- Trash trash, yes. To put it bluntly, it's trash. And so I know for my Daisy, she was a rescue, so at one point she was a junkyard dog eating anything on the street, and now I've given her like a basic, a raw diet, but she eats more of an air-dry or a freeze-dried and with a topper. And trying to keep things pure for them because they've actually escalated. Their health and their healthcare has definitely declined over the years for our animals in America. I know that in England they don't even have rabies. Yeah. So how is that even possible? That's probably another discussion for another day. It's an island. Okay. There you go. There you go. So basically, not only do you adjust animals or do you also adjust humans, is that right? I do. I do. I started out adjusting humans. I went the doctor of chiropractic route instead of the veterinary route because I didn't wanna have to put animals down, didn't wanna be responsible for that. Maybe I'm a coward. But I do see people. My whole model was to be able to adjust the animals and their humans wherever they were. That allows for the humans to be less stressed, which allows for them to care for their animals better and then the whole happy family. Gotcha. So horses, dogs, humans. Do you have an office or, that they c- all come to, or do you go to them? No, I'm completely mobile at the moment. That's awesome. So my van is my office. And so I just, I go to the barn or to the home of wherever it is. Sometimes I meet people in the Tractor Supply or in a parking lot if they're traveling from a distance. I've seen people from Wisconsin, New Jersey, Texas have come to the Knoxville area, that's awesome. You're definitely chipping away at helping the dogs and the horses, and humans. And cows. Oh. And llamas. And... Wow. And cats and alpacas. Wow. And an occasional snake. O- okay. Is there anything you won't adjust? B- jellyfish 'cause they don't have a spine. Okay. Good to know. That's so great to know. What are the biggest issues that you see with animals? It's species dependent. Horses, there's just a myriad of different things that you see. Usually it's some sort of lameness that has occurred that travels up and affects the spine. Or it is just imbalance in the training or in the rider that has created an imbalance in the horse. And so deciphering and working really well with the vet and the trainer and the rider to make sure that we have a program that's going to be both corrective and maintenance is really important there. For dogs, it's usually the limps and it's the old age. And degenerative disc disease is super, super common to see in dogs especially the elderly dogs. And so is disc herniation. Wow. That's really interesting. So it just is amazing. There's not many people that are doing animal chiropractic and are certified, such as yourself. But it offers a whole new avenue of opportunity f- for us to help our animals, and I think that is so vitally important. So anything else you'd like to share about your practice or your views on holistic wellness for animals? I think it's important to note that animal chiropractors do not diagnose. So we work really closely with our veterinary partners and colleagues. And so it's really important that we understand that the body, whether you're an animal or a person, is incredibly complex, and so working with a collective to ensure that the animal's getting everything that they need and not just really saying that one thing is going to be a fix-all. Animals who have had surgery can have chiropractic care and all animals need some form of a medical professional on their side. And so it's really important to be listening to your veterinarian and for your veterinarian to be listening to you for your chiropractor to be listening to you as well as you to your chiropractor. But I think that everybody, every animal, it's important for their spine to be checked for subluxations, because a subluxation-free spine is a body that is working to its greatest ability. So by subluxation, you're talking about misalignments of spinal joints that inter- cause interference in that nervous system, right? Correct. So there's usually fixation that follows along with that. The vertebra is not moving very well, and when a vertebra doesn't move very well, you don't have good cerebral spinal fluid flow to the brain. You're not having very good nervous system communication from the brain to the body and the body to the brain, and that, over time, and sometimes in immediate acute situations, can change how the body functions. Not just pain. Pain is 10 to 20% of what the bo- what the nervous system does. The nervous system is so much more complex and overall than that. And so- And so vital and it's, it is the most vital organ in the body. So it just so happens to be housed in a bony structure to protect it. The spine. The spine, yep. Yep. Yep. So wow, we could really talk on this topic for hours on end, But I wanna make sure that we're highlighting your business, which is Simply Chiropractic. If someone wanted to reach out and get scheduled with you, how would they contact you? So they can contact me, it's usually best via email or text message 'cause if I'm seeing a patient, I can look back to see who texted me and get back to you quicker. But my phone number is 423-612-5016 or my email is simply chiropracticofbristol@gmail.com. And what is your area? Do you have any parameters or limitations, or where, what areas do you serve in the immediate region? In Knoxville? Knoxville, I am I have a, kind of a two-hour radius from Knoxville. I prefer to stay closer to Knoxville, obviously, because then I can service more people. But there is a lack of animal, certified animal chiropractors in the East Tennessee area, so I do serve about a two-hour radius of Knoxville. Is there something you'd like to tell the audience I am expecting, so the- Yay. Congratulations me and my husband are expecting another little girl in October, beautiful. Beautiful. This has certainly been a pleasure. I think you're amazing. I know that Daisy loves you, not necessarily always while you're adjusting, but when I see the effects- Yeah, she's- she is so much happier she hadn't even eating today, and as soon as we adjusted her, she decided she wanted to eat without- Yes even hand feeding her, now imagine that. And then play. That's right. She's doing so amazingly well. It's like day and night. So thank you for coming in. You're so welcome. I look forward to more of these conversations, and, Likewise, anytime excellent. All right. Okay, Knoxville, you heard it from Dr. Monica. It's time to get your animals checked, and we are really blessed to have her in our team and on our team. So everybody have a great rest of your day. This is Healthy Knox signing off. Thank you. That's a wrap on Healthy Knox. Thanks for spending some time with us today. If something we said stuck with you, share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to take the next step toward feeling better right here in Knoxville, come see us at Corrective Chiropractic. We're not just your doctors, we're your neighbors. We'll see you next time.