Latest / Under The Fur / How Veterinary Physiotherapy Transforms Pet Recovery — with Lucy Walsh
Transcript
- speaker-0: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Under the Fur. And I'm very fortunate to have Lucy Walsh here today from Lucy Walsh's Veterinary Physio. speaker-1: Hi, thank you so much for having me. speaker-0: You are very welcome. So I wanted to get you here because ⁓ I am super, super passionate about veterinary physiotherapy. I do a lot of orthopedics. I do a lot of work with osteoarthritic dogs and ⁓ just the difference that it's made having physiotherapy in their life and in their rehab is absolutely remarkable. And I thought that it would be lovely to get your perspective on it. for you to explain to people what you do, the differences that it can make, et cetera. Can we start by asking you how you got into it? speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, so I actually have always been like a horse girl at heart. So right from a very young age, I've always actually wanted to work with horses. ⁓ so I started my journey of my animal career at Spar Shalt College, and I was like, I love horses, just want to work with them. We had all these different demonstrations come in, like different professionals in the equine industry come in. So we like a farrier come in, do a demo, we had a dentist, we had a vet. ⁓ and then we had the vet physio, and I was like, that's cool. I was like, I want to do that one. So I looked into it and ⁓ ended up doing an integrated master's degree at Riddle University College. back in like 2016, I started that. but I I was actually never bothered about the canine side, right? I was like, I want to work with horses, I'm not that bothered about the dogs, but you had to do the dogs anyway to do the course. So I just thought I'll just do them. you know, I'll do the canine. And then I absolutely loved the canine, probably more than the horse anyway. so yeah, right now I'd say I'll probably do about seventy percent canine rehab versus thirty equine. speaker-0: Which has actually changed in the last few years because you were doing more sleigh horses. speaker-1: And you know why that was though, because of lockdown. So I was not able to go into people's houses. Right. So I was like, I had to go outside. And I thought that's the perfect way to start my business in 2020 outside it on yards and then I can start quicker and not have to wait for the lockdown to be finished. Yeah. ⁓ obviously I was working like after the 4th of July or whatever it was. Yeah. Where he lifted it slightly, but I still didn't want to go inside. So that worked well for me to be fair. speaker-0: And the integrated masters, what does that mean? speaker-1: So it basically means that ⁓ it's it's one qualification, but you end up doing a four four years and you do an undergraduate ⁓ dissertation and then in your last year you do a master's is a dissertation as well. So you actually have to do two dissertations. One is like a systematic review, and by the way, I'm talking like 10 years ago this was, ⁓ not to make me sound old, but ⁓ yeah, the the undergrad was a systematic review and then you do like a practical like experiment for your master's one as well. Okay. speaker-0: Okay, that's long time, four years. speaker-1: Yeah, it was. But I loved every second of it and honestly I had the best time there, like and made friends for life and yeah, it was just the best, best thing ever I did. speaker-0: And what did you have to do prior to that to get onto that course? speaker-1: You had to have ⁓ you had to have I'm just trying to think. You had to have A levels but or a B Tech extended level three diploma. So I had the B Tech from the Spongebob. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ and just I th I think in that summer before I went on to the course, I also did a lot of ⁓ voluntary work at like this place now where I live where they have X racing greyhounds. So like just literally cleaning out the kennels, walking the X racers. ⁓ and then a lot of like ⁓ experience at the stables as well. So I did and then I actually did a whole thing at like a mobile farm as well, a week of work experience with all animals 'cause I thought, imagine if I get referred a pig or something. And I've never had any experience with a pig. So I did that as well and that was really good fun. Yeah. speaker-0: It sounds really similar to a veterinary pathway actually, with the work experience outside with all species and things like that. So I imagine it was very anatomy heavy. Actually, I think your anatomy is better than mine. Sometimes I have to Google which muscle you mean when you your notes. speaker-1: ⁓ yes. Yeah, you're cool. It's honestly the hardest, ⁓ we'll keep that quiet. ⁓ but no, it's the hardest thing to just like get into your head. And the only way to learn it is just like repet re repetition, constant repetition. And me and my best friend Anna, who went to the same uni as me, we just literally spent our lives just talking in Latin to each other, just like just throwing muscle names at each other, sticking them on our foreheads, just like doing stupid things to make it make it go in your head. It's the only way. speaker-0: Yep. Can you now officially speak last? speaker-1: I reckon so. I reckon I probably can. Yeah. speaker-0: So what's the day in the life of a veterinary physiotherapist? speaker-1: ⁓ so it obviously depends like what animals I've got booked in. And I used to, when I first started, I was like, shall I just do a whole horse days and then whole dog days? ⁓ that made sense. But then I was like, actually, it doesn't make sense because if I'm traveling, then actually I'll just do whatever's in the area. Because if there is a dog in the horse day, then may as well stop in and do that. So yeah, I'll normally do my first patient at eight o'clock, wherever it is. I'll travel an hour up from my house, away from my house. And then I can see up to sort of seven or eight patients a day. if horses are all on the same yard, happy days, less traveling, ⁓ earlier finish. ⁓ but yeah, I think I think it's it's really important to be logical about it. When I first started, I was driving like down here, down here, back up here, down here. I had no sense of geography and actually was horrendous and I remember doing my mileage and writing it in thinking, What was I doing on that day? But no, I've got much more logical now, you just have to be 'cause it's travelling. I speaker-0: also think when you, don't know about you, but when I first started my own clinic, I was all about being amenable to people and you know, really fitting myself around them. And so if they say to you, want it on this day at this time, then you don't care if you're driving 60 miles, you do it for them. Whereas then you build up a sort of a slightly bigger client base, you're less fearful of just being a little stricter with people and saying, no, actually I can only see you on this day because I'm in the area. speaker-1: Same with any business, like you you always start like that and and you've got and at some point you've got to make things more efficient and also like have time for yourself as well because I made the huge mistake of burnout in my first three years. I just worked, worked, worked. I could because I love it so much, it's really hard not to work constantly. And then you get to a point where you actually just burn out, you can't do it and you just like you just sit in bed and you're like, ⁓ my gosh, I need yes. So now I've got a nice balance of like work home balance. speaker-0: Yes. And a very physical job. I don't know about you, but my hands very much hurt at the end of the day, my feet very much hurt. And ⁓ I would say yours is probably more physical than mine is I've seen you getting in there on a massage ⁓ and you're down on your knees all the time. You're up and down. how does, how does your body feel Lucy? speaker-1: I really need to get back into my own like treatments because I went through a really good phase of having sports massages every six weeks. I don't know why I stopped that, but I did and I think I need to get back into it. It's do you know what is the back? My back where I'm on the floor with the dogs. There's no like dogs aren't comfortable on consult tables. Consult tables are great for when you need to do a quick check or something. Yeah. But they're not relaxing. So this is why I have the treatment mat on the floor where the dogs come in, they can relax, they fall asleep. ⁓ But yeah, unfortunately my body does take a beating with the back and knees and yeah. speaker-0: So, ⁓ you, it's a funny story. ⁓ You travel a lot. And what car was it that you had when I first met you, speaker-1: Yeah, so little me, I just qualified, graduated, and I had my little Blue Fit 500. Yeah. Did you love it? I still miss that car to this day. Like I wish I could I wish I'd never had to sell it because it was the best. But ⁓ yeah, I was using that. I was obviously as I told you, I was doing a lot of horsework at the beginning. So I was driving around and it obviously didn't look very great. Like it didn't look very professional. I was just like had my blonde hair, little fit five hundred, a little sticker on the side saying my business name. And I just thought it just doesn't really fit. And then final straw. I'm going down this like lane. I'm thinking, gosh, this is actually quite like bad. It's quite a lot of potholes. It's quite a lot of mud. It'd been raining and speaker-0: lane on the way to a farm, not a farm, can't call it a farm, can we? For horses. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah, a yard. Yeah, that's where it was. It was the driveway. So the people that they can literally see me. I'm driving up and and I get stuck. And I'm like, great. Anyway, I see them all sort of like looking over like this, like, ⁓ what's she doing? And I'm like, wheels spinning and everything. Well, this is embarrassing because this is the first time I've seen these clients. They don't even know me. anyway, they all came over, bless them, with like wooden planks and got me out, which is great. Yeah. Some were pushing, some were laying down the wood. I was like, this is just so funny. ⁓ they were really lovely though. And actually they're still my clients today, which is brilliant. ⁓ but yeah, that night I went home and normally I con like always consult my dad before anything like this. I'd be like, Dad, what do you reckon about this car? Like, what do you think? Decisions, big decisions, I always take it past dad. ⁓ no. I just went on to auto trader. I was like, right, we need to Get a better car. We need a four by four. Yes. We can't be doing this in a little fit of five hundred, so yeah. And you changed your car. I did. I think it was like the next day I had like a next day delivery coming. No of a car. speaker-0: I basically Amazon'd a new car because you were so embarrassed with your fear. speaker-1: I was like you can't do this in the fear, it's not practical. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ So I wanted to get into a little bit ⁓ the value of physiotherapy. I obviously recommend it a lot. I'm very sold on it, but I'm not sure that that's the case. I don't know if it's widespread knowledge about veterinary physiotherapy. And suddenly when I started off as a vet, we did not use veterinary physiotherapists. I think one clinic I was at, we just decided to chuck a hydrotherapy pool in one day. and we had absolutely unqualified people in there just swimming dogs and that didn't seem to be very effective, if I'm honest. So what's your experience with, like the perception of it? speaker-1: Finally, finally. So like like you said, when you first qualified as a vet, it wasn't really as much of a thing. So I think a lot of it is about like education and like these old school vets probably are less likely to refer for physio because they don't understand it. They've never been taught about it and they pr probably don't see the benefits of it, ⁓ s because their patients aren't having it. So yeah, I think that the I think a lot of vets are clocking on. And certainly with my clients, ⁓ you know, so if I don't ha if I have a ⁓ a client come to me with a pet and it doesn't have a problem, so it's just they w they just want to check over, they're not sure. The dog might just be sitting funny, they say that they want me to come out. Now, in that case, I don't need to get veterinary consent because there's no diagnosed issue. So I can just go out. If I go there, find something that actually I think the vet needs to be involved with, then I need to refer back to the vet and then potentially get consent for future treatments because there is a problem I picked up. ⁓ so this is where I have managed to get my foot in the door with a lot of vets. So let's just say a Labrador, I might have picked up some hip hip stiffness. Yeah, let's say it'll probably happen a few times. speaker-0: likely. speaker-1: And then referred back to the vet. And the vet's gone, ⁓ actually, yeah, they're right. There is something here. ⁓ okay, well, carry on with the physio. We'll give you some pain meds, carry on with the physio and see how it goes. Yep. The vet is then watching the progress because I'm still working with that dog, and the vet's actually seeing the progress first hand. And that's how I have managed to get vets to understand mu my work by actually just showing them. speaker-0: Yeah. So they've seen your value. Yeah. Yeah. And then hopefully the next time they have a patient with that condition, they'll refer it back. speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. And they do. And I've got lots of vets now that actually refer to me and I I where I'm so busy now, I won't take on a referral unless it comes from a vet anyway. So it's yeah, it's a great position to be in to have so many contacts now. speaker-0: Yeah, I really like the like the whole world holistic approach that we all work together and we all pool our resources. ⁓ So I will provide. So for example, if I do a TPLL, which we do a lot of in rehab, actually a lot of my cases, ⁓ I will always ask them to see a veterinary physiotherapist. So if you're, if they're in your area for you and if not, then another one, there's the odd occasion where they've been reluctant to. And so in those, in those cases, I will provide my own. sort of physio plan for them. But it definitely doesn't hit like you getting in and doing a hands-on-hands session. And I always wonder, unfortunately being sporty, I've had multiple surgeries and if I've not had physiotherapy afterwards, then it does not get better. And I think it's, can always use that analogy with clients. Like if you had surgery, you would for sure be going for physiotherapy afterwards. And that's what would turn your muscles back on. And we know we've got a lot of pain inhibition. The muscles are gonna be atrophied. We need to get them working again. And just because it's a pet, you know, it doesn't mean that we don't need physiotherapy for that. So I certainly see a really, really good. uptake on it. ⁓ I also think the clients are more aware of more holistic approaches to things now. So acupuncture, certainly we do a lot of that in the clinic, which I never thought that we would do. ⁓ but there's a lot of scientific evidence now saying that acupuncture is quite good. Obviously we put in the pain relief as well. then physiotherapy for me is, is just, you know, it's a non-negotiable. speaker-1: ⁓ and that's the other thing with me as well. So I ⁓ I work with all of these other paraprofessionals. So if I th if I particularly in the horse world, more so, but if I think potentially there's a pelvic misalignment, I'll say, Do you know what? Let's skip physio a couple of times and I'm gonna give you my chiropractor's name. Well not my chiropractor, ⁓ the animal chiropractor's name and number and book in with them for a few sessions and then let's pick up in like three months and see where the pelvis is at. Because It's not it's definitely a complimentary therapy. It's not a fix for everything. Yeah. ⁓ and the same with you. If I if you send me one, a case, and I think, ⁓ this is like, you know, I can I can see what I can do, but I'm not a hundred percent sure but we'll see, and we're not getting the progress, then I'll just send it straight back to you. I'm like, I don't know, this is not fixing. I'm like speaker-0: This one's not for me, try something else. speaker-1: It's just like, you know, you've got to work with everybody in the team and ⁓ everyone's gotta be on the same page, including the owner. That is the biggest thing. The biggest hurdle I find is client compliance of like, you know, doing the exercises, coming to the sessions and and just making a commitment to physio. speaker-0: Yeah. And I that's a conversation in itself, isn't it? ⁓ What I like to do, not that I'm the, you know, the leader of all of this, but my preference is when I do a surgery is I actually say, let's set a date when you can dedicate your time to your pet. Because me, my part is two hours and I'm done, but actually you've got eight to 12 weeks of rehab after this. And if you cannot do it, there is no point. in doing a surgery because we're not going to get the result that we want. That's like a really, really important, but do you have any miracle cases? Do you have anything that was written off and was like, can't get anywhere. And Lucy Walsh, better physio came in and saved the day. I want to know. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, I have. So so with intervertebral disc disease, this is one I'm thinking of, i it's it's it's really difficult with that because Surgically, there's quite a high chance of recovery and that she is right, quite a good prognosis post-surgery. But as we know, they are very expensive surgeries and not all clients can can afford that, fair enough, you know. So in really in some cases they have to be dealt with conservatively. So I was referred ⁓ an 11-year-old staffy. ⁓ called Sky, she was absolutely lovely, ⁓ with IV D and they couldn't afford the surgery, so they referred for Physio instead. ⁓ and I saw her two or three times a week for six weeks. Bearing in mind the vet had actually said she won't walk again, like point blank, she's not walking again. You can try physio, but it's not gonna work, basically. And we should put her down, is what the vet was saying. ⁓ the onus was so like upset by that and really wanted to try physio and I said i I w was probably a bit negative on the first session as well because I said, Well, you know, if that's what the vet said then, you know, we can try it. ⁓ this is it. That's it, because you haven't had the surgery. So actually whatever compression is in the spinal cord is still there and we haven't taken it up taken it out and stopped it from compressing. So I said it is gonna be it's gonna be a difficult one. But I said we can try it, but I don't want you wasting your money 'cause speaker-0: That did come with a pretty poor prognosis. speaker-1: This is the other things. But we did and amazingly she was walking within six weeks. Vizio two to three times a week though. So there's a lot of sessions in there. Yes. And like these owners were just the most committed owners ever. Like I cannot understand how they just put their whole life on hold to do everything I said to a T. Yeah. speaker-0: Within six weeks. speaker-1: And yeah, no, it was such a lovely I mean in the end she did die of kidney failure, so something completely different. Like her back didn't hold her back. And don't get me wrong, she'd have like she'd have bad days where maybe they got a little bit happy about the fact she was walking so well and you know, they've done a little bit too much, and then she might drag her back legs a little bit for a few days. They call me, they say, ⁓ Lucy, she's gone backwards, you know. And I said, Right, rest her, let's do what we did before, yeah, pop her in the crate, get her back, you know, where we were. Make sure she's having all the same pain relief that she was on. Make sure you check that with your vet. and then yeah, and we build her back up from that. But yeah, no, that was a really good one. speaker-0: Yeah. I actually, now you're speaking, I think we've had a couple of those cases that have had IVDD. So they've had their discs come out to press on the spine and they've lost use of the back legs. And we've had a couple of situations where they cannot go for surgery. And I don't think we've got a hundred percent function back, but we have got continent dogs so they can urinate by themselves, defecate by themselves and they can walk. Occasionally they look like they're very drunk when they walk, but they can walk and they can. speaker-1: And don't get me wrong, be happy. Yeah. Sky was never walking 100% normally again. And that but that wasn't the goal. The goal was to get her comfortable enough to get to her water bowl and back, you know? Yes. And actually she was. And that's it. The likelihood of getting them a hundred percent without surgery, I mean, it's not I don't think that's possible. Yeah. ⁓ but yeah, they're always gonna have their drunk wovbly walk. speaker-0: Which is endearing. What do you have any top tips for people with arthritic pets, cats and dogs? Top tips, what can they do at home just to relieve some of the pain, make the pets comfortable and maybe even more mobile? speaker-1: This is true. Yeah, okay. So well the first thing is just look at your floor. If you've got tiled floors, just think about getting a massive rug. And this is exactly what the IVDD people did as well. They had the most incredible house with the most incredible tiles. And unfortunately they had to just put a massive rug over the whole thing. but yeah, so flooring, ramps as well. You can get like ⁓ little foam steps that go up to the sofa and things like that, you know, to stop jumping. 'Cause the more jumping, the more wear and tear on the joints, ⁓ stair gates across the stairs, so we limit the stair use as well. ⁓ and then in terms of like I would say this is more relevant in winter when things are when animals are colder and joints are stiffer, but using a heat pack or a hot water bottle on joints for sort of ten to fifteen minutes every four hours, that can be really helpful. speaker-0: Every day if you've got an arthritic pet or just on bad days. speaker-1: I mean you can it was not gonna that's never gonna harm them. So that's something that you can do every day if you've got time. Yeah. ⁓ I think people probably most l most commonly do it when they're bad. But yeah, I think it's definitely ⁓ prev preventatively it would be beneficial every day. Yeah. Yeah. So speaker-0: And cats are specific, aren't they? On their own. I know you love it when you have a cat because you don't get them very often. And you're a cat lover. speaker-1: Well this is the thing. So before I worked at the vet station where where you have your practice, I never had any experience with cats. Like I I've never had a cat, my family never had cats. And you started sending me post fracture repair. So ⁓ yeah, post fracture repair cases where I was building up muscle and making the the callus build again and blah blah blah. And that was I absolutely loved them. I just thought they were so like relaxing and Because they're a rule on so many drugs. That's what it was. They're not relaxing when they're not on the when you start tapering them off and then you're sending them for like their week eight follow up and they're not on the gabapentin anymore, they are difficult to treat. Let me tell you that. Everything with cats is on their terms. Like we all know that. So that's always been a really, really, really tricky. But yeah, I love them. I love them to pieces. And that's what made me get my little Simba as well. speaker-0: That's right, because you didn't have Simba when you first started. So I didn't know that. So you loved cats because when you were treating them and that's you went and got Simba. Amazing. And then ⁓ I remember when ⁓ Simba ate some lilies. speaker-1: My gosh, that was awful that morning. I remember now because that morning so that week ⁓ I just got a new partner and he was so sweet, he'd bought me some flowers. He was like, I think I was having a really bad week and he'd just literally bought me a bunch of flowers and I knew that there was lilies in the bunch. Yeah. And I thought to myself, Well, you know, it's fine. I can shut the bunch of flowers in the kitchen for the week. I'll keep the kitchen door shut because I my cat's an indoor cat. So I was like, he just needs to stay away from them. and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I was really good with the door. Friday. And then I'm just making my coffee. Maybe I'm just like a little bit tired from the week, so I'm not thinking straight. I've left the door open, making my coffee with the kettle, turn around, and he's on the kitchen side licking the inside pollen of the lily. ⁓ my gosh. Well, I so obviously I knew they were toxic. Yeah. ⁓ I just thought they were just, you know, toxic. Yeah. speaker-0: extremely toxic. speaker-1: I phoned you, I just said, ⁓ Simba's just been licking a lily. Like, do you think and you said, Lucy, get him down here right now And I was like, Really? I was like, is it that urgent? Like it's really toxic. She was like, Yeah, she was like you well, not she. You said, you said get over here now is before before ⁓ before it's no, you what did you say? You said they show symptoms and then they're dead within like a minute. speaker-0: We want Simba before he's symptomatic. Basically what I'm saying to you is if you come now, I can prevent the damage, but if he's symptomatic, I might not be able to get him back. Yeah. Yes. speaker-1: I couldn't believe it. I literally drove so fast down that motorway to get him to you. I was like, please help him and then ⁓ yeah, he was he never did show symptoms, but it's just that like prevention, isn't it? And yeah. speaker-0: You got to act quick. ⁓ it's basically it'll cause an acute kidney injury and ⁓ we did get him in and we treated him really quickly and thank God. yeah. Literally. speaker-1: Thank you so much. Running It's a running running joke with my boyfriend now. It's like if he's annoyed with the cat, he'll be like, I'm gonna get a bunch of lilies. ⁓ my god. You don't he's joking, but yeah. speaker-0: Take out! I want to ask you, what is the funniest thing that's ever happened when you're working? Because you have to work with people as well as animals. speaker-1: ⁓ there are so many stories. I feel like people don't realise that you are also, yeah, you're working with owners as much as you are working with animals. I feel like it's acceptable when an animal farts. Like we sort we just laugh about it. We could just sort of like, ⁓ well, you know, what's that? speaker-0: just see where this story is going. Dogs fart a lot. know that. speaker-1: Well, I think Horses' farts are so loud as well. Like they are so loud. ⁓ so ⁓ yeah, I have actually had an owner. I'm sure I know it was the owner farter. I know that she farted and she blamed the dog during a treatment. And I was like, Yeah, ⁓ great, okay. Definitely is not a dog fart. I know a human fart when I hear one. speaker-0: And it probably smells differently. does. speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ hilarious. But no, she did a speaker-0: She never owned it. She thinks she got away with blaming the dog until she listens to this podcast. speaker-1: That she's gonna hear that some thing. ⁓ my god. speaker-0: she's gonna know that she's been outed. It's actually one of those things we say in veterinary medicine that we can probably get away with farting. Whereas you can't in other professions because we can just blame a dog. There's always one around. What's that smell? I don't know, little Freddy. speaker-1: He can't speak for himself. speaker-0: Yeah. And I also remember one particularly bad day you had in the clinic. I don't think there was a body fluid that you weren't covered in. speaker-1: Honestly, thank God they have washing machines at your clinic which have spare clothes in the car because I think I had about six patients back to back. Yes. And each one I was like P blood from like a post op wound. I was like, and then anal gland juice, which is just ⁓ my gosh, I can't think of anything that's worse than anal gland juice. Yeah. speaker-0: We had to wash Such a glamorous job. speaker-1: vomit, like the whole lot. I had five different bodily fluids on me. speaker-0: Yeah, is this the day that you also covered yourself with coffee twice? speaker-1: Probably speaker-0: or something. speaker-1: ⁓ it literally slid off the top of my car because it was icy. Yeah. And it didn't just fall off the car and just like onto the floor. It just it spun round and started spraying me in the face. And I was like, I don't have time to get changed. I'm gonna have to go like this. Turned up to work, stinking of coffee. All of my hair ⁓ God, that was Thank you so much for letting me use that. speaker-0: Thankfully we have a washing machine there. At least you were coming to me and not to a client's house. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it always seems to happen on those days, which is great. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. We just know you as the lady covered in juices. Yeah. And then you also have a personal experience of sort of looking after more elderly animals. How old is Scooby your horse? speaker-1: Any kind of Jews. ⁓ Scooby's twenty two. That's it. speaker-0: ⁓ he's so lovely. ⁓ I have written Scooby and you very kindly let me bring my friend's daughter on her birthday because she's obsessed with horses and you let me bring her over and you led all of the kids around the yard on him and he was so good and so lovely and I don't think any of them had been on a horse before. was such an angel. Yeah, he was lovely. ⁓ But you don't ride him anymore, do you? speaker-1: I think you've ridden Scooby. He is a little angel. No, sadly I retired him like two and a half years ago. He has arthritis. Right. he's basically got navicular, so the best way I can describe it is his navicular bone, which is right at the back of ⁓ the bulbs of the hill, right in deep in the foot, instead of being like a smooth pebble, it's become like a pumice stone basically. ⁓ and every time the deep digital flexor tendons like goes over that bone, it's obviously rubbing and causing friction. So ⁓ yeah, you get pain in the deep digital flexatendon, you get arthritic pain in the navicular joint, the the coffin joint. He's got hock arthritis as well. so he's just like and I and I just I just you know, I tried everything. I tried ⁓ steroid injections and remedial shoeing. So ⁓ my farrier put on some wedge shoes to like lift the bulbs of the hills off of the ground to allow for more blood flow and a more correct foot balance. ⁓ and he'd be okay for like a month. ⁓ and then he'd suddenly go lame again, we'd be back to square one. And it went on like that for about I don't know, maybe six months of just like Sound lame, sound lame. Like and I just thought, well hang on a sec. He is, you know, he's older. I've I'm he doesn't owe me anything. Like he's been such an angel, like with your kids and everything. and he's taught me so much, I just thought he can retire. So yeah. He now lives out in this giant field with his friends and he just is a big field ornament. Expensive field ornament. But I love him dearly, so speaker-0: Yeah, I love it because I think and I say this to a lot of my clients, the dogs get older and because they're pets, people start to consider. you know, euthanasia. I actually, I'm like, we could, they're okay. As long as we're control pain and we give them the things they need, they've given us their entire life and ⁓ we get to look after them when they're old. And I think that's a gift as well. And I know they might pee on the floor sometimes. They might not make it out to the toilet, but they've literally given you their entire life and they've loved you that whole time. And they've brought so much enrichment to you. And it's so nice then to just let them chill when they're old and look after them. and just make sure they have everything that they need when they're older. so Scooby's living out his last year's Field ornamenting. speaker-1: He is happy. He is. I feel like that's one part that maybe ⁓ people don't think about when you get like a bouncy puppy, like a really happy bouncy puppy, you they don't always think about actually like the later life and I feel like that is a big thing I see a lot and yeah, it is really sad. We've got to we've got to give them what they deserve. speaker-0: Yeah. Absolutely. And the, the he or she is just old. We always say, ⁓ and my nurses always, always yell old is not the disease. Like, ⁓ it's not a disease. ⁓ and just walking around stiff, that's not okay. They are old, but that is arthritis and that is something we can relieve and we can make better. So they're just old. Doesn't mean they don't get looked after. ⁓ and yes, they will need more things as they get older, but that is okay. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. speaker-0: we should be able to provide it. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: Hundred percent, hundred percent. And the other thing that I think is quite relevant to that is ⁓ the regenerative therapies that you offer at the vest as well. So things like platelet rich plasma and stem cell therapy, because that works really well with physio as well, and with arthr w particularly for arthritis. So I absolutely love working alongside people like yourself doing things like that. speaker-0: Yeah, there's a few places. also the STEM Salvat. They do, I think they were quite pioneering in the stuff that they did. Hopefully I get them on the podcast to talk about it. Actually, that's a great idea. STEM Salvat, are you listening? Get on the podcast. Yes, I really like it. I think the issue is there's not that much scientific evidence at this point that proves that it works, but we anecdotally have found great results with it. And particularly with the PRP, it's so minimally invasive and so low risk. I'm almost like, why not try? Like we could be relieving something. We could be improving the situation. So why not try? speaker-1: Hundred percent. Yeah, I completely agree. And I've seen great results with it. Yeah, like you say, I think I've definitely seen my clients' patience improving. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ thank you so much for coming on Lucy. And I've got news for you. The under the fur merch is launched and you are the first guest to receive. Under the fur merch. speaker-1: The official Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ my God. speaker-1: I love this. Let me see what's happening inside. Love that. I am always dehydrated by the way. So this is perfect. speaker-0: Yeah. We're all the same. I don't know if you're the same as me, but I'll have a drink of something in the morning and then about seven liters of water in the night because I haven't drunk. speaker-1: Day that happens to me. And then up in the night for a wee as well. So I'm like Didn't that was stupid. Perfect, because I am literally note queen. There you go. Yeah. So did you out speaker-0: You're welcome. Thank you so much for coming on Lucy. It's a pleasure having you. speaker-1: So much.