VetRehab Services
Dr Debbie Prattley
Vet rehab services help animals with a variety of health issues. I have a broad range of skills to offer and years of experience, and will work with you to provide the best care for you and your pets.
Veterinary rehabilitation
Veterinary rehabilitation is a broad term that encompasses the many ways we help animals to have less pain and better movement. Vet rehab services take animals from injuries or illnesses right through the whole recovery period. For senior pets, we help you to give them their best senior years. At VetRehab I use a variety of tools and techniques – you’ll find more about these throughout the website.
care after injury or surgery
Veterinary rehab helps your pet to make their best possible recovery after injuries or surgery. Rehabilitation helps to manage pain, speed up recovery, build muscle strength, increase joint flexibility, improve balance, and reduce the risk of further injury. I work with animals that have had nerve or spinal injuries as well as broken bones, tendon, ligament or muscle damage.
Caring for senior pets
As your pet enters their senior years, you might notice changes in their mobility and exercise tolerance, along with other health issues that limit their ability to enjoy activities they once loved. Thankfully, there are many ways we can help keep them active and engaged in life, and lots of things you can do at home to help them. While I most often see senior dogs, similar concepts apply for cats, horses and other animals. Hands-on treatments, helpful exercises and advice to help you at home are all included in my vet rehab services.
help for horses
Horses work very hard for us when we ride, and there are many factors that affect their physical and mental wellbeing. When working with horses, I consider saddle fit, nutrition, training (training principles are a favourite of mine!), soundness, paddock antics and any underlying health conditions, including dental and hoof care. Pain is a really common underlying reason for problems that horse owners are having. There are many contributors to pain, and horses are like a 17 dimensional puzzle that we’re trying to solve. Don’t compete? That’s ok, I don’t either. If you have ‘friend horses’ like I do, I can help care for them, too.
veterinary osteopathy
Veterinary osteopathy is a wholistic approach to health, and offers a broad range of hands-on treatment techniques. We think about the whole body, not just an individual part. For example, if you have a sore knee, you’ll often end up with a sore back because you’re walking weirdly trying to make your knee not hurt. Animals do that, too, and osteopathy is a great way to help them. Having lots of tools in the toolbox means I can choose the ones that I think will work best for your pet, as well as being able to adjust for their preferences. I’m also qualified in animal chiropractic, and use a variety of myofascial and physiotherapy techniques.
behaviour and training
Most of the animals I’m asked to see have changed their behaviour – of course, that’s how they let us know that something is wrong in their world! Sometimes, in addition to the hands-on treatments, pain relief and other therapies, we also need to help our pets and horses overcome boredom, fears, anxiety and confusion. Including behaviour and training in vet rehab services is an essential part of ensuring your animals are mentally and emotionally comfortable.