Jenny Costello Animal Physiotherapy

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Jenny Costello Animal Physiotherapy

Covering the Leinster and Munster area.

Jenny Costello animal physiotherapy provides physiotherapy for all your animals needs - from regular maintenance to rehabilitation and recovery post surgery/injury, to performance related issues.

13/04/2023

Box rest and rehabilitation
This is something I come across a lot. Horses that have an injury - these can range from a tendon/ligament injury to bone bruising and fractures. In some of these cases, it requires strict box rest for fractures, etc, in others, it requires a period of rest and followed by controlled exercise. The majority of these happen in horses that are in work and can be at peak fitness. They literally go from 60 to 0 overnight. All over these horses result in having contralateral compensation throughout their bodies and will benefit from bodywork and physical therapy.
The take-home message here is that regardless of the stage of the injury and rehabilitation, if the horse has any compensatory issues, then they will benefit from regular maintenance bodywork and physical therapy.
If you went from being fit enough to run a marathon, compete in a 5* event, showjump to 1.50, complete grand prix dressage, compete in the grand national, and were suddenly restricted to only being able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, as a rider you would be stiff and sore and the result would be a longer recovery. Just imagine how the horse feels. Just because they are not in work doesn't mean that they don't need maintenance.

22/10/2022

Baited stretches on balance pads to help build postural muscles and stability after 16 weeks of box rest in a full limb cast. This dude is such a good boy for his rehabilitation
With a combination of laser therapy, manual therapy, mobilisation, estim, heat therapy, baited stretches and controlled exercise he is on the right track and doing well and it's looking good for a return to his previous career

08/09/2022

Sitting in Zurich airport after a truly amazing week with CERP . Had a blast. Learned so much from everyone. Have so so many things I want to put into practice and develop. But first home and sleep 😴

30/07/2022

Lovely way to end the week today with two horses that totally relaxed into their treatments today. Its been a long road with this guy and kudos to his owners for doing absolutely everything they could to get him back after two long years of rehabilitation. He's looking and feeling better than ever. It just goes to show where there's a will there's a way!

16/05/2022

This picture sums up some of what I see in horses I treat. They are so sore through their latts and pecs partially from poor girth fitting - too short, too tight, sitting in too close to the elbow etc. Thank you for this picture that explains it so well. We all want to do the best for our horses, it doesn't mean spending a fortune on specific girths (although I do have a tendency to recommend one for some cases), but it does mean we have to look at our saddle position on our horses and think about how they can move unrestricted for optimum comfort and performance. You wouldn't be comfortable exercising with a we**ie so neither will they be 🙈

24/04/2022

Sharing is caring! Breakfast pitstop on the way to treat more lovely horses. What a fab day for it. Have a lovely Sunday whatever you are up to.

20/03/2022

It has been a busy couple weeks so Izzy catches up on sleep while I have a catch up on the diary, admin and cpd day with - fab series on Degenerative myelopathy 🙂

06/02/2022

Heat therapy - superficial heat therapy is used in rehabilitation to reduce pain, increase blood flow, improve connective tissue extensibility and joint mobility, and promote muscle relaxation. Superficial heating modalities are used to increase tissue temperature up to 3cm below the skins surface, although the greatest effects are in the first 1-2cms. Depending on the treatment goal, the target tissue needs to be increased by 1-4°C to result in therapeutic effects. A tissue temperature rise of 1°C leads to an increase in metabolic rate, a 2-3°C increase helps to alleviate muscle spasm, pain and chronic inflammation. And an increase of 4°C promotes collagen extensibility (stretching).
Using it here alongside other modalities in a horse with kissing spines thats in rehabilitation.

05/02/2022

Had the best session with these two beauties this afternoon. Lovely Bonnie is rehabbing post CCL (cranial cruciate ligament) surgery. With E-stim, laser therapy, manual therapy, stretches, improving range of motion, and prescription exercise we can get her back to doing zoomies and living her best life.
Lovely girl Ellie has arthritic elbows and benefits from physiotherapy and laser therapy to help reduce pain, inhibit inflammation and aid in reducing stiffness.
I truly am blessed to work with these gorgeous babies and hopefully make a difference.

08/01/2022

Repost from and its so true. Totally blessed with the wonderful people I meet every day and their faith in recommending me to others. So grateful 🙏

05/01/2022

I came across this slide on a webinar from and it really struck a chord with me. As well as being an animal physio I'm also an equine vet nurse and I see so many horses (this can be applied to any animal) that are "off", "not right", "hanging", "can't maintain a lead", and all the rest of the usual issues that come with injury and the subsequent compensation that we are all capable of but horses in particular are masters of compensation. So whatever treatment is recommended by the vet is implimented (joint injections, further diagnostics, rest etc) but rarely is physio with a corrective exercise plan recommended. Rest alone with not fix the problem because the animal has adapted to moving a certain way and so even with 6 months out in the field as soon as they come back into work then they will continue to move in the same way because of muscle memory. That's where corrective exercises come into play. By retraining the body to move in a new way we create new muscle memory, but it's important to do this in a way that doesn't completely take away the compensatory mechanisms. It's a gradual change.
If you would like to know more or book an appointment pop me a DM or call or text me on 0870530478.
Sorry for the long post 🙂

31/12/2021

2021... what can I say except its been an experience and I've loved every minute of it. The highs, the lows, the laughter, the tears, the celebrations and the heartbreak. From meeting new people and being privileged to work on some fabulous horses, making new friends, seeing the dedication of riders and grooms for their beloved horses, seeing some amazing transformations in horses through sheer grit, determination and dedication to the prescribed exercises that although can be tedious do actually work, the late nights, early mornings, long days travelling the country showjumping with and exceeding all expectations with the mighty Drama Queen (special mare 🦄) and finally Saying sad goodbyes to some special animals in my life both professionally and personally but welcoming new ones too.
Roll on 2022...... 🥂🍾🥳🌟🦄🐶

25/12/2021

Happy Christmas to my wonderful friends, clients and family. I hope Santa was good to you all 🎅 and left lots of pressies under the tree 🌲. I have spent my day on call in but got some lovely dinner with my work family. Thank you all for your continued support and trusting me with your precious animals ❤.

🏨🎄

06/12/2021

Izzy....My new sidekick getting her first experience of sheep and the curragh. Her little head is about to fall off from the excitement. She's 3yrs old, has only come out of training in the last month, is with me 24 hrs and has already figured out that sleeping in a nice cosy dog bed is nowhere near as good as the human bed 😂she's a smart one!!! It's taken me a while to let myself have another dog after losing bailey earlier this year and Jill the year before but I think this lady has won me over.

27/11/2021

Paddy chilling after his session today. The poor boy can get a little worried when he is feeling sore and I have found that placing a towel or blanket over him during the session allows him to relax into the treatment meaning we get more relaxed releases and potentially more prolonged effects from the treatment.

04/11/2021

Finally getting to watch the kinesiology taping series on . Every day is a school day!!!

04/11/2021

The handsome Paddy showing off his kinesiology taping post physio session. He's such a dote! ❤🐕🐶

🐴🐎

05/10/2021

I've been asked why would bother coming to Achill on my own..... think this explains it.

26/06/2021

The animal therapist business planner arrived yesterday and I looking forward to using it to try find my mojo again. Its been a tough week mentally of wondering is the constant uphill battle to better myself actually worth it. I know why I do it. So I can offer a better service and level of care to my patients. So I can fulfill my dreams and goals and so much more. I love what I do and I love seeing patients achieve their goals, there's so much satisfaction in being able to be part of the journey. This profession can be a very judgemental one and a very lonely one too when you are a solo therapist. It's easy to get lost and bogged down. We all need help with direction and motivation sometimes. Thank you to and for making that help available.

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