Alice Hodgson Physiotherapy- ACPAT

23/12/2024

Wishing a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my two and four-legged clients! 🐶🐴 I am now finished for 2024 apart from a few clients before New Year. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2025 💫🐶🐴

I will be starting back on Tuesday 7th Jan and still have a few appointments in January for dog and horse appointments 🐕🐎

Get in touch today to book an appointment for your dog or horse:

☎️ 07534 496020
✉️ [email protected]
📱 www.alicehodgsonphysiotherapy.co.uk
📍 Bristol, Bath and surrounding areas

21/12/2024

Catching up on some CPD a few weeks ago from the Seminar 2024, some really interesting speakers on both equine and canine topics 🐴🐶 It’s so important that there is a collaborative MDT for optimum management of animals, particularly in regards to pain relief 🏥 💊

05/11/2024

🐴 Why have your horse seen by a physiotherapist? 🐴

🌟 Ensure your equine friend is in their best possible condition
🌟 Early detection of injuries and problems
🌟 Maintain optimal performance
🌟 Maintenance of their muscular and skeletal systems when in regular work/competition
🌟 Keeping them comfortable in their later years/retirement
🌟 Rehabilitation post injury or surgery

Get in touch today to book an appointment for your horse:
☎️ 07534 496020
✉️ [email protected]
📍 Bristol, Bath and surrounding areas

29/10/2024

🐶 Could your dog benefit from seeing a physiotherapist? 🐶

🌟 Have you noticed a change in your dog’s physical state- do they struggle to get up from lying, do they look slow or stiff? Are they unhappy to be groomed or touched?

🌟 Has your dog recently seen your vet for a pain related issue, or been diagnosed with an injury or orthopaedic disease?

🌟 Would you like to find out how you can keep your dog, young or old, at their optimal physical state for life and help precent injury and disease?

ALL dogs can benefit from seeing a physiotherapist.

Get in touch today to book an appointment for your dog:
☎️ 07534 496020
✉️ [email protected]
📍 Bristol, Bath and surrounding areas

27/10/2024

🐎 What to expect at your physiotherapy appointment 🐕

🌟 Veterinary consent is required for physiotherapy assessment and treatment of animals (except in maintenance cases). This is a legal requirement under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966

🌟 I will gather a full assessment from the owner of the animal’s history, the problem (where necessary), the nature of symptoms, behaviour, exercise, diet, and environment

🌟 I will undertake a thorough physical assessment of your animal, at various paces, straight lines, circles, transitions between stances (in dogs), on different surfaces (where necessary), on the lunge (in horses), spinal and limb range of movement, palpation of joints and musculature, and neurological tests if required

🌟 I will summarise these findings to you as the owner, and discuss a treatment plan, and carry out treatments accordingly. This may include, joint mobilisations, soft tissue and myofascial massage, electrotherapy and exercises.

🌟 In some cases it may be necessary for me to liaise with your vet to ensure optimum management of your animal. It is important that all professionals involved with your animal are working collaboratively

27/10/2024

🐎 What is physiotherapy? 🐕

🌟 Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function, when injury, illness or disability are present (CSP, 2024)

🌟 It dates back as far as 460 B.C. when the Ancient Greek Physician Hippocrates was a practitioner of physiotherapy and advocated massage, manual therapy and hydrotherapy to treat people

🌟 These days, it is an evidence-based profession, with physiotherapists specialising in many areas, including neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, elderly care, education, research, and many more

🌟 Physiotherapists take a holistic approach, meaning that the whole patient is taken into account. For an animal patient, this includes looking at their environment, their diet, their exercise levels, their psychological state and emotional well-being

🌟 Owners should be involved in their animal’s treatment, to be empowered and educated to maximise the potential for their animal

26/03/2024

Did you know that dogs are very good at hiding signs of pain and discomfort? They don’t need to be limping to have pain.

Please seek advice from your vet first if you suspect there is something wrong 🐶 🐕 🏥

‘My dog is naughty/bad/untrainable/dominant/stupid’

I hear this most weeks on intake forms. Usually I get pretty excited to see these cos I know I’m gonna get to change a dog and owners life!

So often we write our dogs off as any adjective that fits the above and honestly, I’m yet to meet a dog who fits any of those adjectives (and I have worked with 10k plus dogs over the ten years I’ve been doing this!). I do however week in week out meet dogs with health issues that contribute to their slow progress in terms of training. Did you know dogs don’t show pain or discomfort how we do? We often think ‘oh he isn’t limping or yelping so he is fine’.

Please read the examples below ⬇️

🐾 A huntaway cross who I work with who bit his owner. Reluctant to have his feet cleaned, got spicy over any intense handling, had periods of seeming insanity and relentless barking and being unable to calm down. Huntaways are vocal dogs… but…

Turns out he had hip dysplasia. This dog didn’t limp. He wasn’t lame in any way. He chased his ball and sprinted and jumped and had no issues physically on the surface however under that behaviour was pain.

🐾 A French bulldog. Resource guarding to the extreme. Bit his owners while resource guarding the knot pattern in their wooden floor. Also bombed around without a worry in the world and had no outward signs of pain.

Turns out he had a severe spinal condition causing intermittent excruciating pain.

🐾 A young spaniel owned by a very good friend who was having confidence issues. She would ‘tap out’ of training on the regular and my friend went from ‘this is my ticket dog who will represent my country’ to ‘is this even possible?’

Dog had hormonal issues and likely spikes of hormones left right and centre. A carefully timed spay and she is now grade 6 in agility.

🐾 A friends Border Collie. Owned by a very experienced and talented agility handler and trainer. Regularly ‘checked out’ of training sessions, seemed to not be able to learn things that were moderately straightforward. Described by other trainers as ‘oh she is just a border collie it’s what they are like’.

Turns out she is mostly deaf.

🐾 A black Labrador. Always social and friendly and attended brilliant puppy classes and adolescent classes. Had the best start training wise you can imagine. He started showing some intermittent aggression to his owners in the home and aggression to other dogs out and about.

Turns out he had bilateral elbow dysplasia.

🐾 Young German Shepherd. Always energetic and silly in her behaviour but suddenly got worse. Excessive zoomies, inability to settle, increased reactivity to other dogs, reluctant to get in the car, obsessive destruction at home.

Turns out she had an infection in her va**na that was causing discomfort and exacerbating all those teenage behaviours to the point of being unmanageable.

🐾 My own dog! My NSDTR started missing his dog walk contact early last year. I was tearing my hair out trying to fix it.

Turns out he had a minor iliopsoas strain and some physio fixed the issue for us.

———————————

All these dogs have one thing in common. They are not stupid or untrainable or naughty or dominant. They are uncomfortable and that is triggering extreme behaviour fallout.

None of the above issues would be resolveable with training. All of the issues will be resolveable with training ONLY when the pain is resolved. Some of them will have drastic improvement from the moment the pain or discomfort is managed!

If your behaviourist or trainer doesn’t immediately advise a veterinary visit if any aggression, excessive ‘naughtiness’ or strange behaviour is present, walk away immediately. Even if you think your dog is fine, visit the vets. Ask for a thorough examination and push for a proper evaluation of your dog from nose to tail and potentially blood tests too. If you’re still not sure, get a second opinion.

You cannot train the pain or discomfort out of your dog. Address THIS first and foremost.

13/02/2024

🌟🌟 Why chose an ACPAT Physiotherapist? 🌟🌟

➡️ ACPAT is the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy 🐾

➡️ An ACPAT physiotherapist has completed a minimum of 3 years studying (BSc) to become a human physiotherapist, followed by at least 1 year of clinical experience, and a further PGDip and/or MSc in Veterinary Physiotherapy 📚📖

➡️ We complete at least 1000 hours’ of clinical experience to become human physiotherapists, and then a further 10 weeks of residentials and placements with vets and veterinary physiotherapists 🩺 🏥

➡️ We have specialist knowledge in anatomy, biomechanics, physiology and pathology 🧠 🦵🏻🦶🏻🐎🐕

➡️ There is no governing or regulatory body for the profession of ‘veterinary physiotherapists’, however steps are being made to ensure adequate training has been completed 🎓🌟

➡️ Ensure your veterinary physiotherapist is either ACPAT or RAMP registered 🌟🐾🐕🐎

03/01/2024

🌟 Hello, and welcome to Alice Hodgson Physiotherapy 🌟

🐎 A little bit about me: I am a Chartered Physiotherapist Specialising in Veterinary Physiotherapy in the Bristol and Bath area. I qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy from Sheffield Hallam University in 2016. I have 7 years experience of NHS, private practice and sports injury work. I completed a PgDip in Veterinary Physiotherapy in 2021 and an MSc in Veterinary Physiotherapy looking at equine back posture in 2023, both at the University of Liverpool.

I have ridden horses since the age of 9 and previously competed at unaffiliated events throughout my teens and twenties.

I now live in Bristol with my husband and our dog Buddy.

We look forward to meeting you soon! 🐶 🐾

☎️ Please get in touch for more information or to book an appointment