Myth #7: I canʼt tell that my animal is feeling or moving any better, so the massage must not have worked.

There are many reasons that the benefits of

a massage may not be obvious right away.

For example, there may be some

inflammation from an injury or arthritis

causing pain that is still affecting how your

animal moves, even if many benefits were

accomplished. Most pain or movement

issues that we or our animals may want

help with have happened over a number of

days, months and often years. It would be a

lot to expect one or two massages to “fix”

it, although this can happen sometimes.

More often, you should expect noticeable

progress to take two or three massages, or

more, as well as other forms of treatment

such as chiropratic, acupuncture, or medication. Other treatments are often

complementary to massage, and vice versa.

Taking action towards preventing a recurrence of the problem is also

important. This could mean any number of things, such as changing

something about an activity that is causing repetitive stress injuries,

changing nutrition and/or weight, or providing regular maintenance

bodywork to alleviate the stresses that inevitably do accumulate.

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Of course, if you're not noticing positive effects after two or three sessions,

massage, or that particular style of massage at least, may not be the (only)

solution for your animal's current needs. Meanwhile, you should certainly be

consulting with you veterinarian if there are acute problems such as

lameness, injury or illness.