THE GRIZZLY AND THE CHIROPRACTOR

FRED - A "BEAR" OF A PATIENT

FRED GETS AN X-RAY

AND AN ADJUSTMENT FROM HIS  CHIROPRACTOR

When you are the one and only chiropractor in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, you are apt to find yourself working on some very different patients. Dr. Kyle Goltz, our local chiropractor, does work on humans but he has also worked on the rear leg of a dog, the middle back of a cat and assisted another chiropractor working on a horse's neck.

He probably would tell you that the most unusual patient he has ever encountered was Fred, the grizzly bear, who was residing at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. Fred was born in the Alaskan wilderness in December 1990. He became known as a nuisance bear in Denali National Park. By the age of three, he had become way too accustomed to human garbage for food. Authorities had attempted several times to relocate him but he kept returning to the same community. It was at that point the decision was made to relocate him.

In 1993 Fred came to live at the Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. Early one Spring the keepers at the Center discovered that Fred was showing some stiffness in his neck and his head was tilted to one side. They tried antibiotics but that didn't work so the decision was made to x-ray Fred. First he was sedated and, as unlikely as it seems, he was moved to the local medical clinic for his x-rays. It was there that Dr. Goltz discovered that his fourth cervical vertebrae was out of alignment.

Dr. Goltz says that a bear's anatomy, including their spine, is very close to that of a human. After his x-ray, Fred was taken back to the Grizzly Discovery Center where he was injected with muscle relaxers and then Dr. Goltz went to work.

Long story short, Dr. Goltz did his work and in a very short time, Fred showed improvement to the point where he was able to play and rough house with the other bears.

In 2002 Fred was moved to the Buffalo Zoo. As Fred got older he experienced some neurological changes that ended up causing  paralysis in his back legs. On a Friday morning in April of 2010 the decision was made to put him out of his misery so Fred was euthanized in 2010.