Nala and Fix Case Studies

Nala, a young black Labrador

Nala’s owner wanted me to check Nala since she had appeared stiff and sort of “compact” in her body.
She even seemed to walk heavy on her front paws. Nala had been checked by their veterinarian, but
never found anything wrong with her and she showed no signs of pain. But, according to the owner, Nala
had become “slow”, not runing around and playing like she used to.

I noticed some stiffness in her ribcase. She didn’t want to extend her left front leg, and her pelvis was a
bit tilted. I treated her with the Functional Indirect Techniques, and we decided to continue with the
treatment the following week, since I felt I had only taken care of the most urgent problems.

But life got in the way, and we weren’t able to meet again until one month later. Nala’s owner then told
me that after that first treatment, that same evening, Nala had turned into a very happy dog! She stayed
happy and cheerful for about two weeks, then she started to slow down a bit again. This time a little bit of
the stiffness in her ribcage had come back. I took care of that, and also fixed the remaining stiffness in
her left front leg. No other problems were found. Nala is doing well!

Fix, a 4 year old Golden Retriever

Fix had a rough start in life. He grew up in a busy family, no real human contact, no training, no exercise,
and a lot of stress.

When he was 2 years old, Nala’s owner took care of him and has had him for 2 years. He always had a
sensitive stomach, easily got diarrhea, and even on good days, the stools were never firm. He didn’t gain
weight. He stressed a lot and did a lot of panting indoors. It was hard for him to relax, and during training
sessions, he used to get hyper-excited and wear himself out in no time.

We needed to remove the stress from Fix’s body. He was in “Sympathetic Overdrive”. After the treatment,
our intention was to continue with him as well the following week, but as with Nala, we didn’t meet until a
month later. By then, I was sure to do the whole treatment all over again, since I wasn’t 100% satisfied
with the way he responded during the first treatment. But here is what had happened: Fix’s owner didn’t
really notice anything different about the dog for the first two weeks after treatment, but then the dog
started to change. He calmed down, his stools got firm enough to be picked up, he stopped panting indoors,
and is now easier to train. He also started to gain weight. They even had to cut down on his food!

A funny story: Fix’s owner never told her parents about the treatment he had and after a few weeks,
her mother told her to take Fix to a vet. Why? Because he was suddenly so calm, something must be
wrong with him! But, of course, there was nothing wrong with Fix – after four years of a life in constant
stress mode, he was finally able to settle down.

Janina Rastedt, Vet Tech and Animal Massage Therapist, Finland