Chiropractic means "done by hand". Manual therapy has existed for over 5000 years, the earliest reference to it being in the Chinese Kong Fou documents from 2700 BC. The modern history of chiropractic started with Daniel David Palmer in 1895 with the first Chiropractic College opening in the USA in 1897. At the time animal chiropractic was included as a means to prove chiropractic treatment effective as animals are not susceptible to placebo. The first full post-graduate program for animal chiropractic was in 1982.

The first college in the UK was the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic opened in 1965 AECC. The two other institutes in the UK are the Welsh Institute of Chiropractic WIOC and McTimoney Chiropractic College www.mctimoney-college.ac.uk. Both the AECC and WIOC are full time 4 year courses resulting in a BSc (Hons) degree in Chiropractic, while the McTimoney College offers a 5 year part-time course resulting in a BSc degree in Chiropractic which is currently under review by the General Chiropractic Council GCC.

The only course offered in the UK for animal chiropractic which limits it's intake to only qualified and registered vets or chiroprators is through the International Academy of Chiropractic IAVC using the Options for Animals syllabus from Cleveland Chiropractic College www.animalchiro.com. It is also the only course to be recognised by the International Veterinary Chiropractic Association IVCA.

There is an animal chiropractic course associated with the McTimoney College offering an MSc in Animal Manipulation, however it is open to non-chiropracic and non-veterinary students.