Animal Physiotherapy

Every new patient OR returning patient who hasn’t been seen in six-months or more is booked for a Physiotherapy Functional Assessment (FA). During FAs, the therapist thoroughly evaluates the patient & administers some initial treatment/therapy modalities. This will include manual therapy & soft tissue work & possibly Laser, BEMER or Electrotherapy. FAs take up to an hour & a half to ensure that there is adequate time for the therapist to work with the patient & provide feedback to owners on their proposed therapy recommendations & bookings.

Follow-up Physiotherapy Treatments are booked when patients need further manual therapy & soft tissue work (with or without active exercises). These sessions include 45-minutes of treatment time, with an extra 15-minutes built-in for obtaining feedback from owners at the start & providing treatment feedback at the end of each session. At the beginning of a patients’ rehabilitation journey, treatment sessions are booked as needed until the patient’s pain-level & mobility is optimal. At this point, many patients progress into underwater treadmill and/or home hydro strengthening programmes (if indicated). Additional Physiotherapy Treatment sessions will be scheduled as necessary during the course of a patients’ strengthening programme, but in most cases, treatment sessions occur after six UWTs to ensure that the patient’s progress is sufficiently monitored.

If clients take a short break from their pet’s UWT programmes, they should be able to resume without the need for a physiotherapy treatment session, but if eight weeks or more elapses where we do not see a patient for any sessions, we will need to book a physiotherapy appointment in order to review and treat patients before they resume any form of strengthening exercise. Also, patients who undergo surgery during their physiotherapy programmes will need to receive post-op therapy (see below) or full physiotherapy treatments in order that their lead therapist can determine if/when hydrotherapy is appropriate again.

Functional Assessments for new patients or returning patients with new conditions are booked at our practices & follow-up treatments can be done at client’s homes if required – please contact us for more information.

If your horse is in need of physiotherapy treatment, please contact Animal Physical Rehab directly for information & bookings.