Animal Body Care - Massage and Rehabilitation Townsville

27/03/2024

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Easter! 🐣

Animal Body Care will be away from Friday 29/3/24 and reopening Tuesday 2/4/24

25/12/2023

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my wonderful clients. Thanks for an awesome year and all your support for my business. Can’t wait to help all new and existing clients in 2024. Enjoy the holidays with your loved ones!

26/08/2022

Happy International Dog Day 🐾❤️

18/03/2022

Ever wonder why I always treat the whole dog when they have a specific area of discomfort/ diagnosed problem? This awesome article may help you understand a little more ❤️

05/01/2022

•• THE CRATE DEBATE ••

There is a mixed bag of opinions out there regarding the idea of crating a dog. Do you love it? OR do you feel uncomfortable with the idea?
Instead of judging a book by its cover, (a dog in a cage), let’s give it some more thought.
What is the purpose of a cot for a baby or toddler? One of the main reasons is safety, to prevent a young child from crawling around the room in the night and getting into danger, but it’s also providing a secure, familiar and comfortable place for a child to rest their head and switch off for the night.
It’s much the same for why we crate train puppies.
Here’s 10 reasons why we advocate crate training your dog:
* It provides them with a secure and comfortable place to sleep
* Allows them to practice ‘mindfulness’. Just like humans, the world can be an overstimulating place. If we teach them that the crate is a place of relaxation, there is no ‘job’ to do, they begin to switch off as soon as they enter. Once a dog learns how to relax in one environment like a crate, it is possible to transfer that into other locations which can be a game changer for anxious dogs.
* Puppies need to sleep 16-20 hours a day and can struggle to settle without a designated area with low stimulation.
* If they have to go to the vets or groomers they will be crated. If they are crate trained from a young age, this can help to reduce stress during these times.
* If you need to travel on a plane your dog must be crate trained.
* If you move house, there will be next to no settling in period for the dog at night, because their ‘bed’ (the crate) remains the same.
* If you go camping, the dog/s can be safely secured in the crates in the ute/tent.
* It’s the safest form of travel in a car.
* Your friend will enjoy dog sitting if the dog is crate trained. A lot of great dog sitters will only take your dog if it’s crate trained.
* Helps with toilet training a puppy

Let’s remove the stigma surrounding crating dogs! If you have any questions, feel free to ask... 👇👇👇

16/06/2021

Another great article from Antinol on dog vs human pain and why it’s important to be proactive about wellness

🧐𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗗𝗢𝗚𝗦 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗖𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗟 𝗜𝗧’𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗘.

“𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁.” 𝗬𝗘𝗦, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗.
"𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴". 𝗗𝗢𝗚'𝗦 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 𝗖𝗥𝗬.

🔎𝗗𝗢𝗚 𝗩 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗘
Undiagnosed pain is common in many dogs especially active working and sporting dogs and larger breeds (that’s another post in itself).

𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗿𝗲-𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗴𝘀.

🩺As humans we get to rate how we feel on a scale of 1-10.
Our dogs have an instinct to hide pain with the majority only showing clear signs from 6-10.

👉They are hard wired to act like nothing is wrong in those early stages even when something most definitely is, suppressing the signals of pain and injury as their survival advantage and to protect themselves and their social standing.

🧐Many painful conditions such as partial ligament tears, back and neck pain and muscular strains such as the iliopsoas can have super subtle or even absent clinical signs.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡
👉We all love our dogs on such an intense level. They are family. This sometimes leads us to interpret their emotions and behaviours as if they were human and expect them to communicate signs of pain in the same way we do – that is cry, snivel, whine and complain.

🔎Pain signals in dogs are not always obvious and very often are silent. There is often no classic limp, no major gait issues, no compensation and no vocalisation.

🐕Behaviour patterns change ever so subtly that it is often just accepted as the “new normal”. Indicators in stoic dogs can be as hidden as a very slight sitting/position change to as masked as breathing and blinking at different rates.

🙈And then there is perception bias – where we tend as dog owners to apply our own desire for our dogs to be well and happy that we are too close to the relationship and only look for and see the good signs and make impartial judgements based on this.

🔎Pain looks different in each and every dog in its initial stages. It can be a “one-off” to start, a slight shift in behaviour that becomes the normal, or just a sense you may have that something isn’t right but because there are no clear symptoms the sense is dismissed.

🛑Not only does adrenalin mask the perception of pain (both at the vet clinic and during the activity they love whether that be chasing a ball or competing in a sporting trial) the research literature is very clear that if it’s experienced over and over again without detection it will lead to far more serious consequences than if detected early.

𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗜𝗦 𝗔 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗢𝗥
🙀In response to stress the body begins to release a set of stress-related hormones.
👉These affect virtually every system in the body, altering the rate of metabolism, causing neurological responses, causing the heart, thymus glands, adrenal glands and the immune system to go into a high state of activity.
😫If this situation continues long enough these organs may actually become dysfunctional, cause muscle fatigue and tissue breakdown.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗢?
✅Be proactive as early as possible via taking advantage of wellness checks available at your veterinary clinic.

🐕Regular video capture to assess objectively

✅Don’t ignore a shift or change in behaviour patterns no matter how slight and no matter what the reason you may have to justify it.

🐕Don’t accept slowing down with age is just to be accepted.

✅Utilise the wealth of knowledge allied veterinary therapists have when it comes to spotting the hidden signs.

🐕Learn as much as you can about the importance of nutrition/weight management and the impact it has on health.

✅Try incorporating a supplement such as Antinol and if it makes a difference you have your answer.

𝗜𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮 “𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 “𝗱𝗼𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 - 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.

19/05/2021

I’m having trouble with messages on Facebook sending responses... if you have sent a message to me and not had a response within a reasonable timeframe, please try again or better still text me on 0402028683. Thank you 😊

25/04/2021

For everyone scared of trimming black nails! Also remember to have kwik stop or your chosen styptic powder on hand just in case, I find having it handy reduces the anxiety of trimming nails in humans- making it a much nicer experience for dogs too. Remember little by little and your chance of hitting the quick is minimal!

12/02/2021

🐶 Puppies can be rambunctious and a little pesty at times, it’s important to balance out mental stimulation and exercise as the puppy grows.

It can be so tempting to try physically tire them out, but the consequences of overdoing things on immature joints and growth plates can cause a life time of pain and poor mobility 🐾 🐾

🦴 Mental stimulation including enrichment toys and training tricks or other useful behaviours are a great option in addition to age appropriate exercise to tire them out.

As a general rule you can walk a 6 month old puppy safely for 30 minutes. Increasing this by 5 minutes each month.

I’ll post a great poster that gives further information on what activities are age appropriate in the comments 🙂

Let’s aim to have them for a good time and a long time ❤️

𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 are found in young dog's bones. They are a place where bone cells grow, mature and calcify. Their main job is growing the length and width of the bone. Closed growth plate (solidifies into bone) means that the bone is done growing. It is the weakest part of the growing bone and can be damaged (fractures, stress injuries), resulting in possible growth deformities.

𝐃𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, so doing too much of the same thing is not good with them. It's better to strive for less repetitions/time and more diversity in exercise or training. This does not refer to not exercise pups at all, they need and benefit from various activities and exercises, but there are certainly some things we as dog owners can put some limits to in order to avoid putting excessive stress on their growing structures.

𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓𝐬
❌ Long walks or hikes, where your pup is not able to take some rest or go at his own pace
❌ Repetitive starts and stops like running after and stopping for a ball
❌ Jumping off objects (such as from the sofa, or down the higher objects in the environment), repetitive running up and down the steep hills
❌ Repetitive tight turns around the objects, sudden stops (landing after jumps, or to pick up a toy), fast changes of direction

𝐃𝐎𝐬
✅ Instead of doing a 5km walk do two half an hour walks where your goal is not the distance but rather the different experiences your puppy can get exploring different terrains, sniffing, playing, etc.
✅ Find flat or slightly varied terrain to prevent running up/ down the hill, jumping off things
✅ Playing gentle tug, food games; nose work games such as searching for a toy or a treat in the grass
✅ Working on puppy manners and useful behaviours you will need when the puppy grows up (recall, leash walking, settling...)

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: healthy puppies aren't made of glass, and shouldn't be kept on exercise restriction, but we should use a common sense when it comes to encouraged activities - for example instead of exploiting their natural instincts of chasing, by having them chase a toy until they drop down dead tired, spend rather some quality time with your pups with a variety of different lower-impact activities where you let your pup dictate his pace. This will help your dog grow in a confident, capable and fit young adult. ;)

26/01/2021

After a some lovely time off I’m excited to be back to work tomorrow. I’ll be responding to all enquires first thing.

My dogs enjoyed my time off too... we had lots of adventures and trained some fun new skills. To make sure they get plenty of stimulation while I’m really busy and absent in the next few days breakfast will be served as I leave frozen in an enrichment toy.

These are a regular feature for my guys, but make a huge difference especially when stimulation levels change quickly.

01/01/2021

17/11/2020

Cats can have treatments! Cat type 1 you get in and out ASAP after doing what you need to help. Cat type 2 is much easier 😂