JW Physiotherapy

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 🔗

26/11/2025

I had the most beautiful young visitor yesterday morning. Watching her big brothers come for check ups and treatments. She was so well behaved 😍

25/11/2025

If you’d like to book your animal in before the festive period please get in touch as I do not have many spaces left. I am almost full until 8th and 9th January 2026. Best availability is Tuesday 16th December.

24/11/2025

Christmas & New year availability:
Monday 22nd December
Monday 29th December
Thursday 8th and Friday 9th January

22/11/2025

Today was a jam packed day learning more about orthotics, casting as well as fitting and making custom splints and assistive devices with the amazing Di Messum

18/11/2025

11/11/2025

At the weekend I attended the Vet Rehab summit for 12 hours of equine and small animal training.
The theme this year was dynamic by design

Thank you Onlinepethealth

10/11/2025

ℹ️ Did you know that it is documented that up to 40% of postoperative dogs experience chronic pain (Williams Pownall et all, 2021). Chronic pain is pain that continues beyond the healing process and recovery period?

❓Pre operative and post operative physiotherapy is not routine for our animals but why?

❗️It is NOT because physiotherapy isn’t effective, it is.

‼️It is NOT because animals do not need it, they do.

✅ It is probably because veterinary rehabilitation is newer than its human equivalent. It is probably because vets may not know a qualified physiotherapist. There is also less literature supporting animal physiotherapy than there is in human medicine and there is a cost to treatment as there is no pet NHS.

👨‍⚕️Referral to physiotherapy post surgery appears to be dependent on the type of surgery, the result of the surgery, the level of disability the animal has, the surgeons experience working with physiotherapists, the surgeons view on success post surgery.

🐾 Physiotherapy plays a vital role in animal rehabilitation, a role that is generally unappreciated in veterinary medicine. Appropriate physiotherapy can start as soon as the animal is comfortable enough, in many cases within the first week. Early intervention often helps with pain relief and improving circulation, helps with enrichment and mental stimulation during rest periods, helps prevent joint stiffness and muscle atrophy, provides support and education for the owner, and starting movement in the correct way and improving function with normal movement helps prevent compensatory movements and abnormal movement patterns which long term can contribute to lasting pain and dysfunction.

🫵 what can you do? You can request physio referral for your animal. If you’re not sure if it’s appropriate speak to your local qualified veterinary physiotherapist. Feel free to contact me to discuss the suitability for your animal there is obligation to book an appointment.

🤔 what can I do? I can liaise with your vet and discuss the suitability of physiotherapy. I also have offered all veterinary surgeries in my local area a free info session/presentation to discuss how physiotherapy plays an important role in our pets health and fitness.

09/11/2025

A few months ago I was asked if I could only choose 1 mode of physiotherapy treatment what would it be?

Firstly I hope I never have to make this choice. With some animals I do have to miss out parts of an assessment or treatment if the animal is aggressive and cannot be touched. Or certain dynamic exercises with equipment with a blind animal. Or certain electrotherapies with animals with a history of cancer.

Secondly to get the most out of physiotherapy assessment and treatment you really need all the different elements in order to gain as much information about an animals presentation, to inform about what the issues are and then target the different elements that have an impact that the issue upon the body (and mind).

So then to answer the question a physios greatest tool is what we can assess and treat with our hands. I’ve spent all my years as a human physio using my hands and gaining verbal feedback from the patient in what affect it has on them. This is hugely helpful moving into the animal field having this learning history of the effect of my hands on techniques as now I don’t have any verbal feedback (although animals give great body language feedback).

What can I treat/influence/change with my hands? Pretty much everything. And then in order to maintain those changes occurring in the physio session it’s over to you the owner to then perform exercises that have been prescribed!

08/11/2025

November Appointment availability
WC 10 Nov full including urgent appts
WC 17 Nov: Friday 21st 1pm or 2pm and urgents
WC 24 Nov urgents only