House rules

Editorial standards

Animal chiropractic sits in a thin strip between veterinary medicine, human chiropractic regulation, and a large unregulated market of animal bodyworkers. These rules keep the copy on that strip honest.

Veterinary first

We never advise an owner to replace a veterinarian with a manual therapist. Lameness, neurological signs, incontinence, collapse, fever, a horse that is down, a dog that cannot rise: those are veterinary presentations. Manual therapy, if it is appropriate at all, comes after imaging, diagnosis, or a clear all-clear.

Titles and qualifications

“Chiropractor” is a protected title in Australia. We do not call an unregistered person a chiropractor. We distinguish Animal Biomechanical Professionals Australia membership — RMIT or Box Hill postgraduate training after a veterinary, chiropractic or osteopathy degree — from short animal-massage certificates. We follow the Chiropractic Board of Australia animal-chiropractic FAQ when we write about advertising and recency of practice.

Evidence

The published evidence for animal chiropractic is limited, uneven, and often extrapolated from human or physiotherapy literature. We say that. Owner-reported improvement is not a trial. A biomechanical rationale is not a proof. Where we describe technique, we describe what practitioners say they do, not what a journal has settled.

Conflicts and paid copy

Staff and guests declare clinics, courses, and products they profit from. Paid links and commercial guest placements use rel="sponsored", as set out on the write-for-us page. We do not take payment to suppress a correction.

Corrections

If a fact is wrong, we change it and note the date on the article. Email the contact desk with the URL, the sentence, and the document that contradicts it. We do not argue clinical taste in a correction note; we argue documents.

Animals and people

We do not publish identifiable client names or case files without consent. We do not use photographs of treatment that we cannot license. Every image on this site is a Creative Commons work, credited on the page and on the credits page.

Voice

Australian English. Specific places. No American clinic tropes. No “wellness journey.” Read a piece from the essay archive if you want the tone before you pitch.