JW Physiotherapy

21/01/2026

Tuesday 27th Jan morning. Availability in the Ramsbottom clinic for physio, fitness and conditioning, massage or electrotherapy.
Message to book or ask for a call back if you’re unsure vet physio is suitable for your animal

19/01/2026

There are a few gremlins in the updated accounting system so if you have something that isn’t right please let us know. Jo is manually going through every automated transaction to double check things.

26/12/2025

23/12/2025

Catching up with lovely dogs and owners on the lead up to Christmas. Having the new Ramsbottom clinic has meant that I can get to see more and more animals and help them and their guardians. What this also does is enables me to continue to see dogs in their own home environment when needed such as post surgery, severe flare ups or disability, animals with behavioural issues that need to be seen at home and also for owners who have no way to travel with their animals.

16/12/2025

Fully booked over the Christmas and new year period
Limited urgent emergency slots available WC 29 Dec

13/12/2025

‼️ Do you want to know what the latest evidence is on cruciate injuries in dogs and why your dog should be referred to physiotherapy early? Carr, Levine and marcellin-Little 2025 have written “best practice in physical rehabilitation after cranial cruciate ligament injury in dogs”

And here is what they found:

🐾 Rehab should be tailored to the patients needs and constantly reassessed and adapted as they progress

🐾 Early rehabilitation in humans and dogs improves patient outcomes

🐾 Acute phase rehabilitation (up to 72 hours post op) aims to reduce pain, swelling and disuse.

🐾 Manual therapy including soft tissue techniques should begin immediately after surgery (some specialist centres have in patient physiotherapy but not all and others send you home with some instructions)

🐾 Therapeutic exercise is the hallmark of cruciate rehabilitation and if included improves outcomes, this includes a home exercise program! This also includes but is not limited to hydrotherapy.

🐾 Return to sport/activity/work requires specific conditioning exercises that replicate the movement and function required for the task. This must be relevant and specific and replicate the task

So how does this impact JW physiotherapy practise?

👉 Well mostly I now have some literature to send to a vet when the owner is enquiring about physiotherapy post surgery or when the vet is delaying physiotherapy intervention.

👉 early referrals can always be made to support you and your dog with this after they return home and it’s never too early. This won’t be exercise based at first but will be aimed at reducing pain, swelling and minimising muscle loss.

👉 I do not use protocols for rehab, I am guided by the healing process, the surgery and the dog infront of me and the outcomes that are expected at each stage of the healing process. This enables me to design a suitable and specific and relevant program for your animal. This also enables me to identify if something is not going well earlier and I can speak to your surgeon to address these concerns.

👉 I use objective measures in my assessment and monitoring process these functional measures can be used as a guide to return to sport/activity/work.

29/11/2025

When you qualify as a human physiotherapist you used to have to work in a hospital and rotate around every department to learn your profession inside and out, then you move from being a junior physio to a senior 2 (back in the day) where you continue to rotate round but can start to narrow you rotations to start to specialise if you knew which aspect of physio you wanted to work in. This allowed me to learn my skills as a physiotherapist in MSK, orthopaedics, neurology, intensive care, rheumatology, hydrotherapy, medical ward, surgical wards, geriatric wards, paediatrics, respiratory, cardiac and pulmonary rehab. Physiotherapy isn’t a treatment or complementary therapy it is an allied health profession. Most GP surgeries now have physios coming once a week. All professional sport clubs have a physiotherapist. I loved moving from human physiotherapy into veterinary physiotherapy but it has also been a very strange move with regards physio involvement and how little some know what physios actually do and how crucial it is in animal health. The difference may be if we didn’t function correctly or were in pain we can’t cope, animals cope better and we don’t recognise pain in them very well at all but this shouldn’t mean we deny them their right for the best quality of life

🐾 Why Every Veterinary Practice Needs a Rehabilitation Therapist

Here’s a question worth sitting with:
If physiotherapy is considered essential in every human hospital - from orthopaedics to neurology, ICU to geriatrics - why is it still considered optional in veterinary practice?

More and more clinics are starting to ask this, and the answer is transforming patient outcomes.

Adding an in-house veterinary rehabilitation therapist doesn’t just mean “more services.” It means better pain control, faster recoveries, happier clients, and a healthier practice - in every sense of the word.

Think about what happens when rehab becomes part of the daily workflow:

⚡️ Pain is managed proactively, not reactively.
🦴 Degenerative conditions are supported long-term, improving both quality and length of life.
🔪 Post-op recoveries are smoother and more complete.
🏋️‍♀️ Sporting and working animals receive ongoing, preventive care.
👀 Clients feel seen, supported, and empowered.

And your team becomes a truly multidisciplinary force 👉 not a collection of individuals working in parallel, but a group solving complex cases together.

When rehabilitation is integrated into a veterinary team, the practice begins to see patients differently 👉 not as “cases,” but as dynamic, adaptable bodies capable of recovery, strength, and longevity when given the right tools and time.

And yes, it’s good business too. Clinics offering in-house rehab report improved client retention, greater continuity of care, and new avenues for growth.

So perhaps the real question isn’t “Can we afford to hire a rehabilitation therapist?”
It’s “Can we afford not to?”

💬 Let’s open this up:
If you’re a vetrehabber working within a veterinary practice, what difference has it made - for your patients, your team, or your clients?
And if you’re not yet part of a practice team, what do you think still stands in the way of integration?

Read more on this topic in this weeks blog. Comment BLOG and we will send you the link 🔗