Physiotherapy

We believe that we are advocates for our animal patients, who may be unable to express their pain, discomfort or inability to perform.

We love being able to apply our experienced and comprehensive physiotherapy assessment skills and clinical reasoning to provide a detailed problem plan for your animal which in turn, enables us to develop a specific and individualised treatment, management and rehabilitation program. We love to work with our mulitidisciplinary team of Veterinarians, Veterinary Specialists, Hydrotherapists, Farriers, saddle fitters, allied health professionals, behaviourists, trainers, coaches and massage therapists so that your animal receives the best and most complete care possible.

Physiotherapy is an evidence based profession and Veterinary Physiotherapy is a growing profession world wide. We are fully insured, board registered (in NZ & the UK), FEI permitted Equine Therapists and adhere to all professional guidelines and codes of conduct. 

We keep up to date with the latest in clinical practice and research, and apply this to our practice on a daily basis. We strive to provide the highest quality service and cutting edge equipment and innovative equipment and modalities within our practice.

More recently, we have been the first practice globally outside of the USA and Canada to incorporate exciting new technology to objectively measure pain with a novel system called PainTrace. This revolutionary new technology objectively measures pain and provides real time feedback during the assessment and treatment process, ensuring accurate assessment of pain levels in our non-verbal patients and providing accurate data on how our physiotherapy interventions and treatments are affecting these pain levels.

As physiotherapists a great deal of what we do is palpation and observation, but we aim to quantify our assessment in order to assess your animals response to treatment and interventions as much as possible

We integrate high resolution video gait assessments (often with reflective markers), use of technology such as the pressure algometer and the revolutionary PainTrace system to quantify pain levels, case referral to Veterinarians and Veterinary Specialists for further diagnostics and advanced imaging, and other objective measures wherever possible. Our treatment always includes hands-on treatments such as soft tissue mobilisation, myofascial mobilisation, joint mobilisations, traction techniques, trigger point deactivation and neural mobilisations. Treatment may also include dry needling, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMT/PEMF), laser therapy, laser acupuncture, TENS, neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and pain relieving modalities. Your animal’s physiotherapy consult will always include advice on home management and a tailored home exercise program specific to your animals pathology, level of function and clinical status. This individualised exercise program may include equipment such as ground poles, cavaletti, proprioceptive exercise and balance equipment, use of a jangle or proprioceptive device, the evidence based core training Equiband system, slopes, theraband or proprioceptive taping to activate specific muscles or movements or hydrotherapy. And as physiotherapists we will provide specific advice regarding the specificity, intensity, frequency and duration of the exercise program, and we will modify and change this in response to changes in strength, range of motion, movement quality and cardiovascular fitness. We may also refer back to your Veterinarian for further clinical assessment. 

As physiotherapists our focus is on FUNCTION – what can the animal do, what do they need to do, what can they not do, and how can we improve this?

We are the New Zealand distributors for a number of products to assist with rehabilitation including the Equiband System and the Photizo Vetcare light therapy unit. We also stock theraband, kinesiotape, rocktape, proprioceptive devices (jangles), proprioceptive and balance equipment, TENS and NMES units to assist our clients to rehabilitate their animals effectively and provide ongoing management for chronic conditions. We can also provide rental Photizo units, TENS & NMES for short term use to our clients.