Describe your business to our readers
I offer tailored animal physiotherapy to dogs and cats with ageing mobility issues, had injuries/surgery, spinal or neurological diseases.
Do you have your own dog(s)?
I have grown up with a menagerie of animals all my life and dogs have always been an important part of my life. I currently have Henry, a 12yr old Golden retriever who has lots of free physio due to osteoarthritis and other previous surgeries, Megan a 10yr old Lab x Goldie and Molly a 3yr old Golden retriever.
It was actually my previous dog, Tia who was a Rottweiler x Staffordshire Bull Terrier who got me into rehabilitation after needing physio/hydro and later on Accupuncture in her twilight years - i fell in love with rehabilitation due to her and so she was my inspiration for training to become a physiotherapist!
How do you start your day?
We get up at 6.30am to walk our own dogs before my day starts.
How does a typical business day look for you?
I offer appointments on a Tuesday, Wednesday 10-6pm, Thursday 2pm-8pm and Friday 12-3pm from my treatment room based in a log cabin in my garden. Appointments are made up of new patient initial assessments which are 1hr 30–2hrs long and follow up appointment which are 45mins-1hr long.
Initial Assessments consist of assessing patients (mostly dogs) in a gait assessment, stance analysis, hands on palpation followed by a treatment which includes massage, LASER and PEMF. I also have ultrasound and TENS if needed too.
I then devise a home treatment plan for the owners to do at home. I then make a plan how many treatments to do before reassessing and write a report for the referring vet. Follow up appointments consist of a quick palpation and joint assessment and treatment. I work with veterinary surgeons and other rehabilitation professionals such as hydrotherapists and chiropractors as well as behaviourists and trainers if needed too.
The rest of my week is spent writing up reports to send to vets, answering enquiries and giving support to clients as well as the not so fun accounts side of having your own business!
How do you finish your day?
After I have made sure all my notes are written up, I love to sit down with a G&T and once I have had dinner, I love nothing more than cuddles with Molly my cuddly Goldie!
What do you most love about running your own business?
Being my own boss and the flexibility that brings both practically and decisions I can make as to how I run my business. I love working with owners to help their pets be at their optimum and love it when owners are so pleased and surprised in the improvement physiotherapy can make!
And your least favourite thing?
I find it really hard to switch off and I am a people pleaser so will often put client/patients before my own health-I just cant say no! I find it hard when owners dont do their homework and the patients doesnt do as well as they could if they did do their bit.
What would you like to say to dog owners reading this?
If you see any behavioural changes in your pets - assume pain first and rule this out first before moving to other causes- it is thought that around 80% of behavioural cases are caused by pain!
Chronic pain is often subtle so look for changes in your pet, the number of times I hear “they can't be painful because they still want to go for a walk..”..dogs want to please us and they have to be in agony to actually refuse a walk so will walk with a substantial amount of pain.
Please don't just think pain relief medication is enough for arthritic pain-its not! A multimodal approach is the best consisting of environment, exercise and weight management.
As with us, animals compensate so catching them early to manage this is a massive benefit..so if your dog has a diagnosis of hip dysplasia for example, start early with rehabilitation as they WILL weight shift forward and get sore shoulders. If you can do some strengthening and flexibility targeted exercises for the hindlimbs early then you can prevent the compensation issues becoming such an issue and the weakness on the hindlimbs being an uphill struggle- EARLY PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT is the most important message I guess and in a perfect world, all dogs would have a twice yearly check over (as should we!)
If you liked reading this then click here to read some more Days in the Life of our Doggy Directory Businesses >>