Interview with Dr. Kimberly Larson
This week on the Animal Chiropractic Clinic Chatter Blog, I will interview Dr. Kimberly Larson, from Phoenix Arizona.
Dr. O- Alright, welcome everyone to the next blog Animal Clinic Chatter. I'm
Dr. O, your host and today you wanna tell us about yourself?
Dr. Larson- Dr. Kimberly Larson, Phoenix Arizona.
Dr. O- Alright chiropractor or veterinarian?
Dr. Larson- Chiropractor
Dr. O-Alright how long have you been doing animals?
Dr. Larson- Well probably the last four years real consistently and but probably a little bit here and there over the last 20 years.
Dr. O-20 years, so that's good, some people won't admit that and that's okay that they did the animals before they got certified. What do you note, not before you got certified, what did you notice about the difference in your response to your chiropractic adjustments in the animals since you've been certified?
Dr. Larson-I would say it's improved. I didn't do a whole lot before, I mean, we did a little bit here and there so i do see it, they respond very well.
Dr. O- Yeah, what percentage of your practice is animals?
Dr. Larson- Probably, small, maybe 10 percent. We're busy with a lot of humans.
Dr. O-Why did you choose to add animals to your practice?
Dr. Larson- I always wanted to do it ,the laws got a little bit easier so,and as you get older it's like yeah I'm gonna do it.
Dr. O- Do it. So what's a typical weekend for you when you're adjusting and doing what you do? You can tell them about that too.
Dr. Larson- Well typical weekend especially right now, I do a lot of competing and cowboy modded shooting, so it's a lot of play and work. I have a portable table in the trailer so I'm usually in between runs adjusting people, adjusting horses, sometimes dogs. It's a lot of fun. Keeps me busy.
Dr. O- Alright and you know you get to enjoy your hobby more right?
Dr. Larson- Yes it's awesome.
Dr. O-Yeah? Cool so cowboy mounted shooting, alright. What's one of your biggest animal wins?
Dr. Larson- Biggest animal win? I'd say they're all wins and I expect everybody to have a good outcome. It's always cool when you see a really neurologic animal and it's having difficulty walking, you adjust them, they do a lot better. I like to see the performance horses do better. You know people will note that they're uncomfortable or maybe they're not running quite as fast as they should, they have difficulty in a turn. You get that good positive feedback that they're functioning and performing a lot better. Or you get the really elderly horse with crazy odd symptoms, you do a couple easy adjustments, and you hear back from the owner that , wow they're not laying down as much anymore, they're running and it's pretty amazing.
Dr. O- Yeah pretty cool! Is there an animal that you're like man I wish I could have done more or I wish I had known now what i know then?
Dr. Larson- Well we have similar stories you had a dachshund as a kid. Dr. O- Yeah.
Dr. Larson- That had a disc injury?
Dr. O-Yeah.
Dr. Larson- As a kid obviously that was pre-chiropractic but that would have been cool. That was probably one of the driving factors, and then my first horse also, he was colicky and I lost him with colic. So I wish, you know you can't go back. You're a kid back then, but those are
definitely two driving factors that had I known, would have definitely wanted to incorporate the chiropractic.
Dr. O- Yeah, do you think that would have been a huge difference for both of them? Dr. Larson- Probably.
Dr. O- What do you wish all of your clients knew about animal chiropractic?
Dr. Larson- I actually wish all my clients knew just the nervous system and spine in general. Be it human or animal, and they understood how the body worked. Some of them do understand, but they still choose to make unhealthy choices. I respect that, however, I wish they really understood and gave it a chance. Sometimes I think they have unrealistic expectations just because it's a big animal. I think they expect big movements and loud noises when it's really not all about that.
Dr. O- It's just about gentle realignment.
Dr. Larson- Absolutely, it’s about function.
Dr. O- Yeah and sometimes we hear loud audibles but not always. Dr. Larson- No
Dr. O- Yeah so you know anyway, let's see what else, what would you like to tell the non-certified chiropractors in your area?
Dr. Larson- It's definitely worth doing, having that line of correction is great. I think the more we all get together the better off we'll be. You get a lot of lay people out there claiming to be chiropractors and do a lot of stuff so that's unfortunate because I don't really understand it. There's a lot to it, you can do a lot of harm, if you don't know what you're doing. So I think as an organization and this group,the more we're together and understand it, the better off you're going to be.
Dr. O- Okay cool what about the veterinarians that say oh you know I don't know if chiropractic can help your animal,what would you like to tell them? Dr. Larson- If they're subluxated, it's going to help overall and hopefully they have enough information and should understand the nervous system just like medical doctors, right? If you don't understand, you don’t understand. I wish some of them had a better understanding,every profession, but I am seeing a lot more people getting referrals. Understanding vets and medical, I have people tell me, “Oh the veterinarian checked it out, ruled out a lot of things and they were suggested chiropractic or the medical doctor took x-rays ruled out a lot of things and they are suggesting chiropractic so that's encouraging.
Dr. O- Good, so it is nice to be working together with the questions, I mean as a veterinarian, sometimes it's really frustrating you know, I had one the other day I sent to the vet to get neck x-rays and it came back with fractal lumbar x-rays because the problem wasn't in the neck so, the owner went back and got those x-rays yeah the problem was in the neck imagine that yeah so anyway it gets kind of it's kind of iffy sometimes so how has animal chiropractic i think we touched a little bit on it but how has it affected your life and practice life?
Dr. Larson- How's it affected my life, well I love doing it. I love working with animals and I'll have to say, the animals for me, are almost easier to work with. Almost more rewarding, a lot of that has to do with, I think, a lot of complications that we have to deal with now as humans. We live in a world that we're not meant to live in, with a lot of stress. It's harder and harder to get humans to hold adjustments over the years that's been my observation, physical and mental stress, stuck at desks. It's been an interesting year with the COVID a lot of people working from home in non-ideal situations and chairs and setups. So you get a lot more interesting complaints, but the animals seem to respond very quickly; they don't have as much stress or junk going on as the human population. I like their nonverbal communication, not that I don't like human communication too, but no insurance is much better.
Dr. O- Yes.
Dr. Larson- You're not jumping through those hoops.
Dr. O- I think that's it unless you have any parting comments for us?
Dr. Larson- That's it? Alright, parting comments, stay adjusted, keep educated, get certified.
Dr. O- Big words of wisdom. All right, thank you so much ma'am. Dr. Larson- You’re Welcome If you are in the Laveen area and would like to get in contact with Dr. Larson, you can reach her at the following:
Dr.Kimberly Larson PO Box 91 Laveen, AZ 85339 nexnbax@hotmail.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