4 Legged Physio - Sophie McSharry

30/06/2025

☀️🐶☀️🐶☀️🐶☀️

We should all be aware that these tropical temperatures are not safe for walking our four legged friends… but have no fear - your pooch need not go crazy with boredom!

There are SO many ways to provide enrichment at home so here’s a few!

Here’s some tips for home enrichment:

🐾 Use your dog’s food allowance or remember to reduce their meals if you’re using treats

🐾 Do any physical activity on a non slip surface in a cool room

🐾 You don’t need to spend lots of money for enrichment - get creative with your
cardboard boxes, broom handles for poles, couch cushions instead of wobble cushions. I’ve even seen a cool food puzzle with a muffin tin and some tennis balls!

🐾 A great opportunity to do those physio exercises 😜

🐾 Beat the heat by freezing something yummy into big cubes, on a licky mat or a kong - Alfs favourite is banana and peanut butter 🍌

🐾 Use toys, treats or humans for a game of “find it”

🐾 If your pooch is due a (cool) bath, groom or nail trim it’s a great time to do so

☀️ Remember to always have fresh clean water available

☀️Use cool mats/fans and keep the curtains closed when it’s too hot

☀️ Consider clipping your furry dogs - long coats DO NOT keep them cool!

If you need some indoor conditioning exercise inspo specific to your dog ask your physio! 🐶

30/06/2025

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Saturday 5th July 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Some availability on Saturday 5th July in Fife/Perth area 😁

🐴 🐶 🐴 🐶

26/06/2025

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 3-6th July 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Thursday - Falkirk/Edinburgh
Friday - Fife/Perth
Saturday - Fife
Sunday - Falkrik/Edinburgh

Let me know if you’d like booking in 🐴 🐶

Never miss a date announcement:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/HFYavvdi9Tq131YsPL85DH

22/06/2025

Very important post with the amount of misinformation circulating!

🐕HEATSTROKE IN DOGS🐕

We've been banging on about this for years! HEATSTROKE is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY! Fortunately, now more and more professionals are communicating the same message!

Whilst the need for rapid cooling with COLD water (1-15°C) has been recognised for decades in equestrian and human medicine, the dog world has lagged behind, and very poor information still circulates. e.g. "cool the paws", "cover with wet towels", "avoid cold water as it will cause shock"

THE KEY MESSAGES ARE............

💦"WET THEN VET"💦

💦"COLD WATER IMMERSION" (1-15°C)💦
(If you can't immerse, keep pouring ANYTHING COLD over the dog - hose, soft drinks, milk, etc)

💦Dogs die of heatstroke because they were NOT COOLED QUICKLY ENOUGH, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE COOLED!

♨️RISK FACTORS FOR HEATSTROKE IN HOT WEATHER♨️

♨️Large dogs
♨️DOUBLE-COATED breeds
♨️Brachycephalic breeds
♨️June, July, August (UK)
♨️Exercise, being outdoors, left in cars

EDIT: - If a dog is PANTING, it's struggling to control its body TEMPERATURE! 💦HOSE IT TO COOL IT DOWN!💦

❤️PLEASE SHARE - Spread accurate information; potentially save a dogs life!❤️

CHECK OUT FREE RESOURCES HERE: https://askanimalweb.com/managing-dogs-in-hot-weather/

Welfare in the Heat: https://askanimalweb.com/heat-welfare/

If you don't believe me, look at the research: Beard S, Hall EJ, Bradbury J, Carter AJ, Gilbert S, O'Neill DG. Epidemiology of heat-related illness in dogs under UK emergency veterinary care in 2022. Vet Rec. 2024;e4153. https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.4153

11/06/2025

I’m on holiday until Monday and will have no signal for the majority of it!

I’ll catch up with messages when I return so don’t worry if you haven’t had a reply yet 🙂

04/06/2025

If you get regular physio but not regular saddle checks by a qualified saddler your saddle may be working against all the good work we are trying to do with physio and exercise.

Prevention is always better than cure!

Why should saddle fitting be part of your horses regular maintenance? 🧐

Put simply, to stop a small problem - becoming a BIG problem.

Saddle related soreness can have a seriously detrimental effect for your horse, they move in a hollow manner away from the pain, which over the long term can contribute to the development of Kissing Spine.
If you leave it 12 months between fits, you may be one of those lucky ones whose horse never changes and needs no adjustment. Or you might be looking at extensive Physiotherapy at best, or a Vet at worst!
It is much easier (and cheaper!) to remedy a small change often than to go digging around to find the root cause of an issue.

If you’re due (or overdue!) a check up then drop me a message to get booked in!

31/05/2025

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Availability Saturday 7th June 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

All other days are full but I have some rare availability on Saturday!

Perfect timing for a pre Royal Highland Show tune up 👌🏻

25/05/2025

Next 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Visit

5-8th June!

Thursday - Biggar/Falkirk/Edinburgh
Friday - Perth/Flexible
Saturday - Fife
Sunday - West Fife/Falkirk/Edinburgh

Let me know if you’d like a spot 🐴 🐶

12/05/2025

Reunited with my pal Alfie!

It’s always sad when my 4 legged clients move on to pastures new but Alf’s lovely new family asked me to come and give him a wee check over after his move! It was great to see him so happy in his new home and he definitely remembered the trust we built in his previous home 🥰

09/05/2025

I had the pleasure of working on this celebrity this morning in the sunshine ☀️ do you recognise him? 👀

I know his face says otherwise but he did do a lot of releasing and peep the resting back leg 😆😴

Ex-racehorses benefit from physio to help them adjust to ridden life. They have very different muscular balance to your average ridden horse - Comparable to your long distance runner vs a heptathlete, so they inevitably gain some niggles along the way.

Looking forward to watching Humphrey enjoy his racing retirement, he’s in fabulous hands! 🙌🏻