Amicus Animal Rehabilitation

07/19/2022

Part 1, Cat #1

Stay tuned for part 2 😹

07/18/2022

Crawling is such a great exercise for your pets!

Here are some reasons as to why we prescribe this one so often:
- helps your cat or dog actively extend every part of their spine when they have to crawl through
- strengthens their quads/hips when they have to pull their back leg up to help push
- strengthens their glutes & hamstrings when they have to push off their back legs
- strengthens their shoulders and triceps when they need to use their front limbs to pull themselves through

06/27/2022

4th of July weekend is right around the corner and there’s no time to waste!

This is one of the most terrifying & dangerous holidays for our pets. Fireworks, bonfires, potentially poisonous foods on the potluck table.. all of these could set your pet off, lead to your pet getting sick, or worst of all, causing your pet to run away from being scared. Please share these tips with all of your pet parent friends! Our pets deserve to feel safe 🧡

06/21/2022

We're thrilled to share some very exciting news 🎉

Please join us in giving Athena a warm welcome 🥰
Starting today, Athena will be taking over most administrative, scheduling, & client-facing roles. In order to get to know her a bit better, we've put together a little Q&A ⬇️

↠𝔸 𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝕓𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝔸𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕒:
Athena is a country mom who works from home as a DVM running her own online veterinary consultation for farm services in addition to now being part of team Amicus! She graduated from veterinary school in 2011 & has since gained experience in many veterinary specialty areas (research, small animal practice, food animal practice, pet insurance, technical sales)

↠𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕞𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕘𝕠 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕣𝕪 𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕?
I grew up in a small town and pets/farm animals were a part of daily life. My grandmother had about 10 cats growing up and we also raised pigs, chickens, and ducks in the backyard. We also had a childhood dog named Bully! I knew that I had a calling to not only in help animals who cannot help themselves but also to play a vital role in food security.

↠𝔻𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕪 𝕡𝕖𝕥𝕤? 𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕪 & 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕚𝕣 𝕟𝕒𝕞𝕖𝕤?
Yes! We have Katherine (cat), Brownie (dog), and Christian and Simba (rabbits). In the backyard, we have Abraham, Dishie, Margie, and Georgie (goats). My son also picked two hens from the flock and named them Dippy (the girl), and Chikie.

↠𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥'𝕤 𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕥𝕠𝕡 𝕠𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕓𝕦𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦'𝕕 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕖 𝕓𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟚?
Get a new car and go on a road trip with my son! The pandemic has made me realize the healing potential of nature

↠𝕃𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕝𝕪, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕪 𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕚𝕞𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪… 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕡𝕚𝕔𝕜 𝕠𝕟𝕖: 𝕒 𝕕𝕠𝕘 𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕡 𝕠𝕣 𝕔𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕟𝕤?
This is hard! If not both, then dog boop

We are so incredibly grateful to have Athena on our team!

06/14/2022

💡Did You Know💡

That our pets can also develop stiffness, especially in their spine?

This could be due to a multitude of reasons, some of which include: arthritis, muscle tightness, and/or
age-related degeneration of their spine (disc, cartilage, etc.)

Because of this, they will start to show decrease in their normal range of motion especially with turning to either side or looking up/down. As you can imagine, this can significantly impact their safety as well as overall mobility and functioning.

Our sweet Mr.Ross here is demonstrating cookie stretches to help with neck extension as well as spinal side bending and spinal rotation 🍪

06/06/2022

Never not covered in hair 😹

06/06/2022

Amicus just turned 1! 🥹🎉

To our incredible, animal loving community - words can’t even begin to describe how grateful & thankful we are for each and every one of you 🧡 Thank you for supporting us and most importantly for trusting us with the care of your beloved 🐱&🐶.

To celebrate, here’s a short lil’ recap of the past 12 months. We can’t wait to see what year 2 brings 🙏🏼

PS - we tried so hard to include every single one of our amazing patients, however if we did miss anyone please know that we are just as grateful for you!!

05/13/2022

It is the FINAL DAY of our Doggie Dash fundraiser! From now until midnight, we will be matching ALL donations to our campaign‼️

If you have the means, please consider contributing any amount, whether it be $1 or $100 🙏🏼

All of your funds will go to both cats & dogs in desperate need of care and love. If not, please please please share this to your amazing community so that we are able to help as many animals as we can 🧡
Link is in our bio!

And to our Portland buddies, see ya tomorrow! 🤗

05/13/2022

Only ✌🏼 days left until Doggie Dash event!! If for some reason you haven’t seen any of our previous posts, see below for our checklist:

🔸Have you marked your calendars for OHS’ Doggie Dash event this Sat, May 14th @ the Tom McCall Waterfront Park?
🔸Have you donated to our fundraiser to help alllllll the cattos & doggos?
🔸Have you shared our fundraising link (in our bio✨) with all your awesome friends?
🔸Have you signed up for OHS’ Doggie Dash fun-run?
🔸Have you petted your cat(s)/dog(s) today?
🔸And most importantly, have you kissed your cat(s)/dog(s) yet? Regardless, do it anyway!

05/11/2022

❸ days left to go until Doggie Dash event!
Please help us reach our fundraising goal of $750 to support OHS and all their efforts to rescuing & saving animals in need of the care & love they all deserve 💛
As always, link is in our bio!

05/10/2022

𝟒 days left to go until Doggie Dash event!
Please help us reach our fundraising goal of $750 to support OHS and all their efforts to rescuing & saving animals in need of the care & love they all deserve💛
As always, link is in our bio!

05/09/2022

The countdown to Doggie Dash begins!

We have once again teamed up with OHS this year to help fundraise for all their hard work & dedication to caring for and rescuing both cats & dogs in need. Please support us by contributing to and sharing our fundraising link in our bio!

PDX friends❗️Remember to register for OHS’ Doggie Dash fun-run! For our non-runner friends, come on by our booth to say hi & get a chance to win some pretty awesome prizes
We can’t wait to see you there 😺

05/09/2022

Doggie Dash is finally BACK & better than ever!

From now until Saturday, May 14th, please support us in helping fundraise OHS’ efforts to rescue & provide critical care to in need 🐱s & 🐶s from all walks of life 🧡
Use our unique link in our bio to help, contribute, and share!

For our local friends, mark your calendars! Swing on by our booth @ the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to say hi 👋🏼 & enjoy a day filled with tons of doggos, snacks, prizes, and ridiculously fun festivities!

04/28/2022

04/26/2022

How to engage 🐱 cats 🐱 in PT

Everyone knows that cats are quite a bit different than our dog friends, and rehab is no exception! Although it does take a little finesse, cats can absolutely be wonderful patients.

Here are some of our secrets when rehabbing kitties:

🐈‍⬛ Treats of varying levels (low-reward treats such as kibble, high-reward treats such as cheese or tuna, and everything in between)
🐈 Using unconventional items to incorporate into rehab like boxes, tunnels, scratchers, rugs
🐈‍⬛ Using lasers or cat wands/dancers in lieu of treats if your kitty isn't food-motivated
🐈 Always have a plethora of catnip at your disposal 🍃
🐈‍⬛ Utilizing calming pheromones such as or
🐈 Patience, patience, patience!

04/22/2022

Is your pet acting out or seem to have endless amounts of energy? Try some brain stimulation 🧠

Watch to see some benefits of brain games!
If you're wondering what to buy ➡️ check out our Amazon list linked in our "Education" highlights; however, some of our favorites include:
🧠 Snuffle Mats
🧠 Licki Mats or Bowls
🧠 Puzzle Feeders
🧠 Treat/Kibble Dispensing Ball (feat in video)

# portlandcats

04/19/2022

Happy 8th birthday (😭) to our one & only Chalupa Batman 🌮🦇
# portlandcats

04/15/2022

Did you know circles can be a great tool to add on to your pet's current exercise routine?

Circling ⭕️ requires tight pivoting around a central point. This not only helps with coordination, balance, & overall body awareness, but also encourages putting more weight through the inside limb. Additionally, circles could also be useful for maintaining active range of motion/flexibility of the spine, something crucial for grooming especially as your pet ages!

04/12/2022

Squirrel graduated PT! 🎓👏🏼🎉⁠
⁠

Squirrel 🐿 underwent a TPLO procedure for a CCL tear back in December and has done swimmingly ever since she first started rehab. 4 months later and she's back & stronger than ever 💪🏼⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

04/07/2022

Therapeutic exercise of the week: Backwards Walking

One of the most common findings we discover during our evaluation, cat and dog alike, is weak glutes 🍑

Your gluteal muscles are super important for many reasons, some being: stabilizing your pelvis, weight shifting between legs, and overall power for push off/propulsion during walking, trotting, & running. If weakness is present, this can not only increase the chances of injury, but it can also exacerbate any existing hip, knee, or low back issues.

Since the gluteal muscles promote hip extension, backwards walking is one of the best exercises to help target this area of weakness!

Also - should we make a thing? Let me know in the comments below!

04/04/2022

🔴 Laser Therapy & Senior Pets

Over the past several years, laser therapy has become a very sought-after treatment, and for good reason!

For context, cold laser therapy is a non-invasive procedure that uses light (photobiomodulation) to help stimulate the body's natural healing process. Although lesser utilized in human PT, research has consistently provided evidence of its beneficial effects on animals, especially for healing incision sites post surgery and/or inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

Arthritis is prevalent in our senior pet community which brings a multitude of negative effects such as: increased pain, difficulty with mobility, increased stiffness.. all of which decreases their quality of life. Cold laser therapy is a great adjunct to rehab especially for pets who are already on a lot of medications. To learn more, check out our "Education" highlights!

04/01/2022

‼️PSA ‼️
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Amicus will no longer be treating dogs or cats. Starting today, Amicus will STRICTLY be rehabbing sloths

We feel that this population is severely underserved & want to focus our all of our energy to bringing more awareness to sloth PT!

03/30/2022

Initial evaluations are a critical first step to physical therapy‼️

During our evaluations, we not only assess the specific reason why pet owners reach out in the first place, but we also take the whole body into consideration as pets can develop [many] compensatory issues indirectly caused by the main injury. After a thorough assessment we come together with the pawrent to discuss all of our findings. From there, we come up with a personalized treatment plan as well as important/relevant goals because each & every dog or cat is special in its own way 🥰

03/26/2022

Happy FRIYAY 🙌🏼 time to pull out that catnip!
Clearly, Chalupa Batman already got a head start 😹

PS - we spy with our little eyes… the cutest, littlest brown tabby!)

03/14/2022

Happy Monday! Anyone else have a rough start this morning from the time change? We sure did 🙋🏻‍♀️

To motivate you for the rest of the week, here’s a little peak into one of our more chaotic sessions when the siblings can’t help but get involved 😼😹

03/09/2022

How boopable is Bella’s nose?!

100000%. The answer is 100000%.

02/26/2022

Help us help our furry friends in Ukraine 💙

If you are in a position where you are able to donate any proceeds, please consider these shelters/rescues in critical need of supplies, food, and water.

Additionally, for the remainder of the month we will be matching all donations to any of these organizations. Please kindly send us a DM with a screenshot of your donation for confirmation.

‼️ If we have missed any potential resources or organizations, please comment below so that we can continually update this post as needed‼️

shelter

02/21/2022

Monday Feels 😴

02/15/2022

One of favorite techniques to teach pet parents is soft tissue work

Muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints can either be the direct source of injury (such as a muscle strain from jumping and landing awkwardly during fetch), or it could develop due to compensation from an injury elsewhere in the body (i.e. a pre-existing, chronic CCL tear can cause the tarsus (ankle) joint to stiffen and lose range of motion due to compensating with toe-touch weight bearing on the injured limb).

Although soft tissue work encompasses many different techniques, here is an example of both petrissage (kneading) and trigger point release, specifically targeting the paraspinal/epaxial muscle group that run along and aid in stability of the spine. Because this muscle group spans along the majority of an animal’s spine, they’re prone to forming trigger points and muscle knots. We are able to teach these techniques easily to owners as this is something they can do throughout the day and with confidence and ease in order to help their pet maintain healthy, happy muscles 💆🏻‍♀️

01/27/2022

Wahoooo, Baloo graduated from PT! 🎓🥳

Now he can go back to his favorite activity - hiking through the Gorge with his awesome pawrent 🙌🏼

01/24/2022

✨FERAL CAT SHELTERS✨

A small group of us got together this morning to build 7 feral cat shelters to disperse throughout PDX 🐱

These cat shelters are critical for the feral community especially as temperatures drop during winter. These serve as a place of safety and warmth for cats and depending on the material(s) used, can typically last around 2-3 years!

If you are looking to build one on your own, has a great How-To on materials needed as well as instructions.

If you’d like to mimic what we did, here’s a list of all the supplies we used:
▸ Greenmade Storage Tote (27 gal)
▸ R-Tech Foam Board Insulation
▸ Gorilla Tape
▸ Duct Tape
▸ Straw

Please share with friends & family so that we can keep the feral community safe & warm everywhere 🙌🏼

🌲Portland friends - if you or someone you know would love to volunteer or donate, we will definitely be holding more building events in the future, so spread the word so we can keep our Portland cats cozy🧡

01/04/2022

🧡🦖💛

12/28/2021

For week 4️⃣ of our Holiday Giveaways…

We want you to meet one of our very good friends, ! 😸

For all you 🦆 fans & pet lovers 🐱🐶, this one is definitely for you!
 
Prizes include:
* A signed football by one & only Dennis Dixon
* A free animal physical therapy evaluation with Amicus Animal Rehab
* An Amicus swag bag
 
To enter:
* Follow
* Follow
* Tag as many friends as you’d like; the more entries the more you’re likely to win!
* Comment your favorite game day emoji
 
Giveaway ends at halftime of the Alamo Bowl between the Ducks and Sooners this Wed, 12/29, so hurry and get your entries in!
Winner will be notified by Amicus shortly after the end of the game

12/21/2021

Week 3️⃣of our Holiday Giveaways features Booyah Pet Wipes]]!

These 🌎 friendly bamboo wipes are not only good for our environment, but also for our little 🐶&🐱 as they’re free of all the nasty and harsh chemicals such as alcohol, chlorine, parabens, and BPA.

What you get-
🐱 2 canisters + 2 packs of Booyah Pet Wipes]]
🐱 1 free PT evaluation from us (for your dog or cat!)
🐱 Amicus swag bag

Rules-
🐶 must follow Booyah Pet Wipes]]
🐶 must follow
🐶 comment your fave animal emoji
🐶 tag at least 1 friend (1 tag = 1 entry; unlimited entries!)

This giveaway runs through Christmas Day, 12/25. We will announce the winner the following day. Giveaway open to anyone within the US!

12/16/2021

Announcing week 2️⃣ of our Holiday Giveaways🎄

For this week's giveaway, we've partnered up with
the amazing people at GingerLead Dog Support & Rehabilitation Harness!
For
those who don't already know, A GingerLead Sling is a leash with an attached sling to help pets who need a little bit of extra help getting around - whether it's due to old age, a neurological condition, or pre or post-op.

Our giveaway will run from today through Friday,
12/17 with 1 winner receiving the following 🎁:
•1 free pet Physical Therapy initial evaluation (🐱 or 🐶)
•1 Amicus tote bag w/ goodies
•1 sling of choice

In order to enter, all you have to do is:
- Follow us
- Follow GingerLead
- Comment why/how you'd use the sling
- Tag a friend who you think has a pet that would
benefit from one!

✨ For additional entries, you can tag as many friends as you'd like, with unlimited number of entries allowed! 1 tag = 1 entry.

We will randomly pick a winner and announce it
through our Stories Friday evening @ 6pm PST

12/10/2021

Wishing you guys a happy holiday season!
What better way to show our appreciation than to do some awesome giveaways 🎁

Week 1 of our December Giveaways features The amazing people at & .bighearts 💛

To enter & win a $100 gift card towards any service we offer (initial evaluation, treatment package, etc.) you must:

✔️ Follow
✔️ Follow .bighearts
✔️ Follow
✔️ Like & save this post on all accounts
✔️ Tag 2 pet lovers! 🥰

For bonus entries:
🐶 In a separate comment, let us know what kind of pet you have
🐱Tag additional friends in separate comments; unlimited entries!
🐶 Like + comment on our 3 latest posts

One winner will be randomly selected on Monday, Dec. 13th
Good luck 🙌🏼

12/07/2021

K-doe is one of our newest patients who just underwent a TPLO surgery due to a chronic CCL tear. Since he’s still pretty acute and only a week out from surgery, we are mainly focusing on pain management + controlling swelling❗️

One of our favorite methods to do this is using an electrical stimulation (e-stim) unit. Depending on what mode or parameters you put in, this can be used for either addressing pain/inflammation or strengthening.

In this particular case, we are using the unit to help with reducing pain as well as helping with the inflammation around his surgical site. Since this was his first session, we started out with only 2 electrodes & a shorter treatment time to build his tolerance and comfort 👍🏼

11/25/2021

Wishing you all a 🍂

So grateful & thankful for this amazing, animal lovin’ community🧡

11/22/2021

Happy Monday

Wanted to start off the week featuring how awesome Yoshi has been doing in PT.

Yoshi has bilateral grade II medial patellar laxations in both of his back legs, which just means that his knee caps are not sitting where they should normally be and thus can cause a ton of hip and knee issues later down the road.

Side-stepping is a great exercise since it emphasizes strengthening his lateral leg muscles in order to help pull his kneecap back to its normal, anatomical position

Here’s a breakdown of all the benefits of this specific exercise setup:
- elevating his front limbs causes him to put more weight through his back legs
- nudging him to side step builds his glute strength in order to help pull his kneecap back in place
- using the foam pad creates extra instability, which challenges his core strength!