Pawprint Physiotherapy

What to Expect

Chartered Veterinary Physiotherapists will obtain veterinary referral or veterinary consent before carrying out assessment and treatment. This is a legal requirement of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 in order to protect your animal.

Guidelines for your Assessment and Treatment session:

• The patient must be handled by his/her owner or a competent handler appointed by the owner
• Please ensure that the patient is clean and dry
• Please ensure that you have any tack or handling equipment readily available
• Ideally, we require a hard flat surface where we may assess the patient in standing and assess walk and trot on a straight line
• A stable or shelter with a flat dry surface is the safest environment for treatment to be performed
• The equine patient will require a minimum of 48 hours from exercise. Please check if you have any prior engagements or competitions this may affect

As part of the assessment we will:

• Take a full detailed history of your animal and the current problems
• Assess in stance for muscle balance and conformation
• Perform a full gait analysis on a hard level surface at walk and trot, on a tight circle at walk and reining back. Assessment of the horse on a lunge or under saddle may be performed if appropriate
• Perform a full palpatory assessment for changes in temperature, muscle tone, swelling and pain
• Assess the range of movement of the spine and limbs
• Agree treatment goals and a treatment and rehabilitation plan with the owner
• Perform treatment and design a patient tailored rehabilitation programme
• Liaise with any of the other members of the multi-disciplinary team if appropriate
• Arrange follow-up treatments as required
• Assessment and Treatment will take approximately 60-90 minutes

Treatments may include:

• Manual Techniques for joints and soft tissues
• Movement Rehabilitation
• Proprioceptive / balance rehabilitation
• Electrotherapy (therapeutic ultrasound, LASER therapy, Pulsed electromagnetic therapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS))
• Hydrotherapy
• Splinting
• Professional Advice and Education

Acupuncture may be offered to the human patient but equine, canine and feline clients are protected by the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 and may only have this administered by a fully qualified veterinary surgeon.

Post Treatment Advice:

• Please ensure that the patient remains quiet for 48 hours following treatment
• Your physiotherapist will advise you on how long you are recommended to avoid ridden exercise in the equine patient
• We recommend you use a mounting block when mounting your horse
• Your physiotherapist may recommend that ridden exercise should be limited to straight lines for a set period of time following treatment
• Contact your physiotherapist if you feel your animal has experienced any adverse effects as a result of their treatment
• We encourage owners to feed their animals from the ground (this avoids tugging from a hay net or hay rack which may lead to neck and back injuries)