Services
The Vier Animal Physiotherapy Service
Vier is here to assist in the rehabilitation treatment or long-term management of musculoskeletal/orthopaedic or neurological injuries and conditions. Working along side your veterinary care, Vier offers complimentary therapies to ensure that your animal gets the best treatment, recovering sooner and reducing the risk of reoccurring and/or further injury.
Vier also assists in the development of fitness and performance in working and sporting animals. This ensures that the occurrence of injuries are reduced by maintaining fitness levels. It ensures that the animal athlete is working to its optimal abilities by helping to maximise performance and reduce recovery time.
Veterinary Physiotherapy at Vier, is also used to maintain your pets health. This can help to prevent injuries and keep your pet physically fit throughout their normal day to day life. Have you noticed your pet "slowing down"? This could be a sign of discomfort due to aging and Veterinary Physiotherapy can help.
What Makes Our Service Unique
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The treatment sessions are entirely mobile taking place in the animals home or stable. This helps to avoid unnecessary stresses such as travelling or unfamiliar environments, which can help to increase the welfare and wellbeing of your animal.
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To ensure that your pet gets the best care, therapy sessions are tailored to their individual needs therefore enhancing their recovery. Clinical reasoning is used to determine the short, mid and long term goals of the treatment, meaning treatment varies from animal to animal depending on their medical issues, personalities and the owners time availability and goals.
See below for the different methods of treatment available. These can be given depending on the outcome of the initial assessment and Veterinary recommendation.
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Once a Veterinary Referral form has been obtained, the first session includes an initial assessment and treatment to enable a specific treatment plan to be formed, this is 90 minutes. Following this session, reports will be written up for both the owner and veterinarian.
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Throughout the treatment sessions, a range of physiotherapy techniques such as: soft tissue massage, passive joint exercises, phototherapy (red and blue light), pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, therapeutic long wave ultrasound and active stretches and therapeutic exercises can be used. These methods are used to achieve the desired aims listed below, depending on your pets needs.
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You may want an Animal Physiotherapy consultation online. This means you can get the professional opinion of a Veterinary Physiotherapist in the safety and comfort of your own home.
This includes:
• 1:1 experience where you can ask as many questions as you like
• Recommendations and a suitable plan you can put in place to help your pet
• You will gain a detailed movement analysis
• Body Condition Score
• Detailed report, highlighting key points of the discussion
• Lifestyle management tips.
Additional Services
Maintenance and Fitness Packages
Not all animals require Veterinary Physiotherapy as a rehabilitation tool. You may want to use physiotherapy as a method to keep your pets fit and healthy, to prevent the likelihood of injuries occurring and to help slow down the aging process.
If this is the case then you may be interested in one of the maintenance and fitness packages. This includes a monthly maintenance or fitness treatment session and a maintenance/fitness programme for you to follow at home.
Canine Exercise Fitness and Maintenance plans
Therapeutic exercises can be a great way of keeping your dog fit and healthy as well as increasing their fitness and reducing the likelihood of them developing an injury. The exercise plans can be tailored to you and your dogs needs, depending on what you want to achieve. These plans are a great way of developing your dogs muscle and joint health as well as building that bond between pet and owner, by training and having fun!
Each plan come's with a variety of exercises, that aim to develop strength, balance and coordination, resulting in an increase in fitness and injury prevention. Each plan is laid out clearly with the name of each exercise, a written description and the benefit of each exercise. You will also have access to training videos, that demonstrate how to carry out each of the exercises. All exercises can be performed with or without equipment therefore suiting all fitness and training levels.
If you think your animal may benefit from physiotherapy treatment or are unsure as to whether your animal will benefit from treatment, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Treatments
Treatments are tailored to your pets needs, based on the veterinary diagnosis, findings from the initial assessment and overall goals.
Treatment techniques include:
✓ Manual therapies
Massage
Myofascial release
Passive range of motion exercises
Passive stretches
✓ Active exercises
Active range of motion exercises
Active stretches
Core strength and stability work
Proprioceptive work
✓ Electrotherapies
Therapeutic ultrasound
Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy
Photobiomodulation Therapy (Laser therapy)
✓ Thermotherapies
Heat
Cold
A post treatment home program is provided to help support and continue your animal or pets rehabilitation.
A post treatment home program is provided to help support and continue your animal or pets rehabilitation.
If you think your animal may benefit from physiotherapy treatment or are unsure as to whether your animal will benefit from treatment, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
What are the benefits?
Animal physiotherapy offers numerous advantages for the health and well-being of pets and working animals. The sooner we can start rehabilitation after an operation of injury the more successful the benefits are. Physiotherapy is a holistic approach, which treats the whole animal and not just the specific issue.
Key benefits include:
✓ Pain Relief:
Through techniques such as manual therapy, electrotherapy, and hydrotherapy, physiotherapy helps alleviate pain associated with injuries, arthritis, and other chronic conditions.
✓ Improved Mobility:
Physiotherapy enhances joint flexibility, muscle strength, and overall mobility, which is particularly beneficial for animals recovering from surgery or those with mobility impairments.
✓ Enhanced Recovery:
Tailored rehabilitation programs accelerate the healing process following surgery or injury, reducing recovery time and helping animals return to their normal activities sooner.
✓ Chronic Condition Management:
For animals with chronic conditions like arthritis or hip dysplasia, regular physiotherapy sessions can manage symptoms, improve quality of life, and prevent the progression of the disease.
✓ Injury Prevention:
By improving strength, balance, and coordination, physiotherapy can help prevent future injuries, particularly in active or working animals.
✓ Behavioral Improvements:
Regular physiotherapy can reduce stress and anxiety in animals, leading to improved behavior and a calmer demeanor.
✓ Customized Care:
Each physiotherapy plan is tailored to the individual needs of the animal, ensuring that treatments are specific and effective for their particular condition and lifestyle.
✓ Weight Management:
Physiotherapy, combined with proper diet and exercise, supports weight loss and management, which is crucial for overall health and reducing strain on joints and muscles.
Through these benefits, animal physiotherapy plays a crucial role in enhancing the health, comfort, and longevity of animals.
Conditions Physiotherapy can help dogs with
Animal physiotherapy can address a wide range of conditions in dogs, contributing to their recovery and overall well-being.
Common conditions that physiotherapy can help with include:
Osteoarthritis:
Physiotherapy helps manage pain, reduce inflammation, and improve joint mobility for dogs suffering from arthritis.
Hip and Elbow Dysplasia:
Through targeted exercises and therapies, physiotherapy can strengthen the muscles around the hip joint, alleviating pain and improving function.
Cruciate Ligament Injuries:
Post-surgery rehabilitation or conservative management through physiotherapy can enhance recovery, restore mobility, and strengthen the affected leg.
Spinal Injuries and Conditions:
Conditions such as intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) can benefit from physiotherapy to improve mobility, reduce pain, and enhance neurological function.
Post-Surgical Recovery:
Physiotherapy accelerates healing and restores function after surgeries like orthopedic repairs, spinal surgeries, and other invasive procedures.
Tendon, Ligament and Muscle Strains and Sprains:
Therapeutic exercises and manual therapy can help heal muscle injuries, reducing pain and preventing future issues.
Neurological Disorders:
Dogs with conditions like degenerative myelopathy or nerve injuries can benefit from physiotherapy to maintain muscle mass, improve coordination, and enhance overall quality of life.
Age-Related Conditions:
Older dogs can benefit from physiotherapy to maintain mobility, manage pain from chronic conditions, and improve their quality of life.
Sports Injuries:
Active and working dogs with injuries from high-impact activities can recover more effectively through targeted physiotherapy.
Fracture Rehabilitation:
Physiotherapy aids in the recovery of fractured bones by improving strength and mobility in the affected area.
As well as:
Pain/discomfort, lameness and gait abnormalities