How do animals get bad backs?
The ways in which animals acquire back problems are many and varied and depend on the kind of work the animal is called upon to do. Horses, for example, were designed to eat, reproduce and run away from predators. That’s it! Nowhere in their job descriptions does it say anything about carrying ten stone riders at speed over obstacles which, given the opportunity, they’d much rather run round. So they are natural prey to bad backs from the outset. Dogs can get back problems from horseplay with other dogs, extreme manoeuvres in play with frisbees and sticks and slippery flooring which gives them little or no grip and allows their feet the kind of freedom of movement their back can do without. Cats meet much harder objects like cars in the course of their independent wanderings and other animals get back problems in as many ways as you can imagine. In addition age reduces adaptive capabilities and makes minor back conditions much more debilitating.
