This week on the Animal Chiropractic Clinic Chatter Blog, I will interview Dr. Andy Ibarra. Dr. O- Today we have the lovely Dr. Andy Ibarra, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dr. Ibarra- Yes, thank you for having me, so I have been an animal chiropractor for three years now. I started right when I graduated from regular chiropractic school. My practice is mostly animals actually, it's almost split but more on the animal side and I treat small animals, a lot of dogs and some cats.
Dr. O- You didn't have a practice beforehand but you know in talking to some of your classmates and stuff how do you think animal chiropractic has helped your practice? I have talked to some of your classmates and I am wondering, how do you think animal chiropractic has helped your practice?
Dr. Ibarra- Well it's helped by, when I was in chiropractic school I didn't really have a niche or really know what specialty I wanted to go into. Until I did animal chiropractic, so it definitely helped me narrow things down and base my whole practice off of that. Whereas you know, if i hadn't done it i would still probably be searching for that thing that i really really enjoyed doing. So that really helped me in that way.
Dr. O- Good all right and so you're what three years out now, how would you rate your clinic as successful?
Dr. Ibarra- I would consider it successful. I'm doing something that I love and I'm getting to help a lot of animals and their owners as well. So I would consider that successful.
Dr. O- Good all right! Are you staying busy even through COVID right?
Dr. Ibarra -Yeah the animal part of it hasn't slowed down throughout all of this, so that's been really nice.
Dr. O- Okay cool alright, so tell us about your biggest animal win. Dr. Ibarra- So, my biggest and most dramatic I guess you could say would win would be a dog, his name was Mur and he's a bigger dog. He's a mix and his owner brought him to me but she had to have her son help her because he had to carry him. Mur was totally limp, he couldn't even hold his head up . So they brought him in and laid him on the floor on his side because he couldn't get up straight and she told me that this had just happened a few days before. She wasn't exactly sure because she didn't see what happened but he just started to go down more and more each day. She took him to the vet first and they wanted to put him down because they didn't they didn't know what had happened. They suggested this because his quality of life was not good. He hadn't pooped or peed in four days, he wasn't really interested in eating and so she had an appointment to put him down. She searched around and somehow found me and just thought she was gonna give it a last chance. So they brought him in. I worked on him and after that first appointment she said he was moving his head a lot more. He was eating and then after the second appointment which was a few days after that she said he got out of the car. He stood up for the first time and then he went on to the grass and he peed and he pooped. Then the third time, probably a week later, he walked out of my office. So I got to see him walk out on that third time and that was probably one of the most dramatic and more successful stories that I've had. It was really awesome and you know it's really nice for the owners too because they didn’t know what else to do so she gave it her all and searched around and thank God she found chiropractic for him.
Dr. O- Right cool alright, so what do you wish all the animal owners in your area knew about animal chiropractic?
Dr. Ibarra- I wish that they all knew that it's not only for when something bad happens to your animal. Don't wait until they can't walk anymore or until their back legs are paralyzed. I wish everyone would look at it more as a preventative. Just like it is for people. We don't wait until our teeth are rotting to go to the dentist. We get our teeth cleaned or we should. We get a checkup every year. So I wish owners would take a more preventative approach with it from the moment that their animals are young because birth is a very traumatic event. So from then on, there could be issues that don't show up until later. So I wish they would all, you know, keep up with it regularly throughout their animal's entire life and not wait until something really bad happens.
Dr O- Cool so, what about the veterinarians and chiropractors in your area, what do you wish they knew? Dr. Ibarra- I wish they knew how much of an effect it had on animals. I don't think people realize until they've witnessed it. You know it really does save animals lives. Aside from that it will help you grow your practice, if you're a chiropractor. It'll bring in a lot of people patients as well and if you're a vet, you have a lot more tools that you can utilize before you go to drugs or surgeries.
Dr. O- Okay so let's talk logistics and legalities for just a minute because I know you're in a state where we need veterinary referrals and Ihear all the time about how hard that is to get. Have you found that difficult or have you found ways to get referrals on most patients?
Dr. Ibarra- Yeah I have found it to be difficult. I would say there's maybe like 30 to 40 percent of veterinarians that don't want to sign off because they're not really sure what animal chiropractic is about and their liability reasons. So it has been pretty difficult but the best way that I've done it is, if the owner is the one that goes and approaches their vet telling them that they want this and then I always make myself available if they want any of my notes or want to talk to me and find out more.
Dr. O- Cool so if their vet absolutely says no then you most of the time your clients are willing to go to a different vet and get the referral correct?
Dr. Ibarra- Yeah if they want animal chiropractic they're going to find a way to get it and they'll go to a different vet to get their dog examined and get that referral signed.
Dr. O-Yeah cool alright so, it's important that we stay within the law but it is doable and obviously your practice is not suffering because of that. If we had direct access how busy would you be?
Dr. Ibarra- I would probably be at least twice as busy.
Dr. O-So anyway we'll work on that all in all 50 states but for now any parting words for owners and students of animal chiropractic? Dr. Ibarra- Students Yes, I would say get all your modules done as fast as you can and really appreciate when you're doing the modules, because it's nice to be surrounded by other animal chiropractors or soon to be animal chiropractors. Ask questions and it's really nice that you get a lot of hands-on experience. So you walk out knowing how to adjust animals, being able to do it right and after that so you're much more confident each time you go.
Dr. O- So define hands-on because, I've heard everybody say we had our hands on animals every day, no matter what school they go to. So you and you went to one program, you went to our program but you have some friends that went to other programs, so tell us about hands-on.
Dr. Ibarra- You adjust a lot of horses and a lot of dogs, I lost count of how many we did because it was a lot. We go to the dog rescue and adjust the animals there. Then there's a lot of courses to adjust, so you're not only setting up and feeling everything but you're actually doing the adjusting so you know that animal is depending on you to adjust them and do everything that you just learned.
Dr. O- So, then do you get any immediate gratification when you're here?
Dr. Ibarra-Yeah you can tell by their behavior, you know. At first they might be a little timid, especially if they've never had an adjustment ,they're not sure what you're going to do to them. Then you just notice them relax and at the end they're friendlier and whatever pain they were probably feeling isn't quite there anymore so they shake it off and then they're happy and cool. They do great.
Dr. O- Alright so, what about maintenance? How often and how many people, once you get them going, continue to come for maintenance?
Dr. Ibarra- Yeah maintenance I always try to get everyone on maintenance. Most likely it's once a month, unless they have more severe issues. It kind of just depending and there's some people that do maintenance others don't. Then they wait until their dog or cat has that same issue and then it takes a few to get them going again. Whereas, if they did maintenance they would be good to go and just maintain that. Dr. O- So alright, well thank you so much. Is there anything that you wish you would have learned more of in school or animal chiropractic school.
Dr. Ibarra- I guess just the best way to reach out to vets that don't quite get what animal chiropractic is that would probably be one of the biggest things. Getting them on board to also refer to you and send those cases that they can't help with to you.
If you are in the Dallas area and would like to get in contact with Dr. Iberra, you can reach her at the following:
Dr. Andi Ibarra Dallas, Tx dr.andiiberra@gmail.com
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And as Paul Harvey used to say “Now you know…the Rest of the Story Have a Good
Day.” Dr. O