Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy for Animals

 

A physiotherapist focuses on the musculoskeletal system of the body including muscles, tendons, ligaments and joint structures. They may also work with the nervous system to improve your animals balance and abilities.

Physiotherapy encompasses lots of different modalities. Depending on the skills of the therapist it can include some, or all, of the following.

  • Phototherapy
  • Massage
  • Passive range of motion exercises
  • Stretches
  • Proprioception techniques
  • TTouch
  • Neurological enhancement techniques
  • Active exercise prescription
  • Myofascial release
  • Therapeutic Ultrasound
  • Heat and Cold Therapy
  • Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy

A physiotherapist requires vet referral to treat your animal and will then perform a thorough assessment to discover where the areas of concern are. They will then outline a treatment plan and apply the most suitable treatments to address those problems.

Physiotherapy should NOT be painful for your animal and any treatments chosen must be suitably tolerated by the animal itself. Since there are so many modalities to choose from it should not be difficult to find one that every animal can cope with without needing to force it upon them.

Physiotherapy is a great way to make sure your animal recovers from injury or orthopedic surgery and recovers their optimal function. It is also a great way to keep older animals mobile for much longer and helps slow the progression of debilitating conditions such as osteoarthritis.

A physiotherapy assessment is also a great way to give your animal an ‘MOT’ to check that they are moving to their best ability and that they are not starting to lose their function.

If your animal is exhibiting behaviour problems or seems to be refusing to do things you ask it is worth having a physiotherapy assessment to check there is not an underling musculoskeletal cause as this can often be the case.

Read our CAM4animals blogs about Physiotherapy for Animals

A sample of our blogs showing how physiotherapy has been used for animals is displayed below.

Remembering Animals in War

Remembering Animals in War

We'd like to mark the enormous sacrifice people and animals have given in times of war, sometimes without choice and often above and beyond the call of duty. This blog honours the many animals who have helped and continue to help safeguard our future.

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