A Look Back at 2015
At the beginning of the year I knew that it was time to build the program up, so I put down my blowtorch and danced myself right into the hearts of those stuffy admission judges. Wait…I think that I just mixed up my life with the film Flashdance. Anyway, I do remember being ready to jump out of the starting blocks and run toward everything I wanted our then-small program to become. Go big or go home! With that, let’s recap the long, strange journey that was 2015.
More Options for More Pets
First, we added seven new providers. We began with hydrotherapy only, then added laser therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, and therapeutic massage (all donated by providers). This allowed us to open our program to all OHS animals in need. When you only have hydrotherapy, the average cat isn’t going to be too jazzed about going. “I have to go where?! Oh, forget that noise! Just amputate! Meow!” (I picture that cat walking with a fancy cane and top hat, showing you that even though he lost a leg he is still successful).
With all these super cool new therapies, there would be no limitations for the program. Our first cat, DeNiro, received laser therapy after having all the rotten teeth inside his mouth roto-rootered, and our first rabbit, Snow White, received acupuncture and laser therapy after having an eyeball removed.
In case you are curious, we have had zero scratches and zero bites from any of these new patients. I was a little nervous with the cats and their claws and teeth, but it was all gravy. In fact, the only grief we ever got from the cats was them not holding still enough for the treatments because they were rolling around with their purr motors fueled by all the attention they were getting. If only my doctor visits were that much fun. If the animals were super good they would even get Starbucks drive-thru! Relax, you party poopers, it’s just whipped cream in a cup!
We also got an article in the OHS magazine (Spring 2015), which featured an aspect of all this development that none of us anticipated: how the physical therapy helped with emotional/behavioral rehabilitation. We had only considered the physical side of things. I mean, physical is in the name. Laser and chiropractic treatments didn’t help with the mental side of things, but hydrotherapy, acupuncture, and therapeutic massage did.
Jake Learns to Swim (and Relax)
Originally we would send stressed animals to hydrotherapy only when there wasn’t a medically-needy candidate. Then we sent One-Eyed Jake. Jake was a Mexican street dog who somehow ended up in the U.S. Then he made his way to Oregon. Then he made his way to OHS. He traveled light, because the only thing he packed was a lot of fear and rage…and an infected eyeball. The obvious solution was to nix said painful eyeball. Check. But that didn’t help. Then I thought he might only speak Spanish. ¿Quieres dar un paseo, un Ojo Jake? Nope, this was also no bueno. In fact, he kept deteriorating to the point that there might not be any light at the end of the tunnel.
At last, I decided to send him to hydrotherapy. Jake started swimming twice a week, and the improvement was immediate! He used the pool exercise as a way to release all of that stress. The therapist was very good about letting Jake dictate his own pace, which was probably a new experience for him. Jake, you do you, bro! He responded immediately to this freedom and began to relax and enjoy being a dog, rather than being nervous and stressed all the time.
Jake could still be stubborn, like the time he indicated he was done by leaping out of the therapy pool, jumping over the gate, running through the lobby to the front door, and barking his head off until our volunteer retrieved him and loaded him into the van. But with time, Jake made steady progress and was eventually adopted by a loving family. There is no doubt that he would not be with us today if our physical therapy program didn’t put the first cracks in that seemingly unscalable wall he had up.
Helping the Little Guys, Too
Impressed yet? Well, here is my coup de grâce: we sent a mouse to acupuncture. That’s right. We had a mouse named Mort who had been rescued by the superheroes in the Investigations department from a hoarding situation.
Unfortunately, Mort was suffering from multiple serious infections to the point that all of his skin was inflamed head to toe. Every movement must have felt miserable to the little guy. Most rescues would have already 86’ed him, but we are not most rescues. Just because Mort was a small rodent and not a dog or cat didn’t mean that his life was any less valuable and didn’t deserve the best we could give him.
I figured that I had the means, so it was time to go to work. I called Thrive Acupuncture and asked our provider Becca if she had ever treated a mouse. She said that she hadn’t but was game if we were. It took some finesse, but Becca has that in spades and placed those little needles in that little body just right. Mort was great and relaxed right away. As always, we delivered and his little body no longer looked like it was going to pop, and everything got a lot more comfortable and a lot more bearable for little Mort. Not bad after one treatment. Mic drop!
Thank You
2015 was a successful year for the OHS Animal Physical Therapy Program. The growth was due to a LOT of people. There are gracious providers who give so much and ask for nothing. Volunteer drivers show up, appointment after appointment, and get it done. Quimby, the coordinator for the volunteers is a volunteer herself. She’s also a provider, as she does double duty as a Certified Small Animal Massage Practitioner. The only other person in the program that is an employee besides myself is Tara, my assistant, and she doesn’t get paid nearly enough to put up with my demands (read: tantrums).
In 2015, the OHS Animal Physical Therapy Program went from swimming two dogs a week to providing all major forms of top-quality veterinary physical therapy to 178 individual animals until they were either healed or adopted into their forever home, thereby improving their quality of life exponentially, if not saving it altogether.
In 2016, we plan to continue with in-house massage therapy, TTouch, and more at OHS. There are many more changes afoot, and the future is still in the planning stages, but we thank everyone who has helped make this program a success.
-Contributed by Tyler Norby, Oregon Humane Society Animal Physical Therapy Specialist
The Oregon Humane Society would like to thank the following partners for their support:
- Dr. Isabel Wyss and Acuvet PDX
- Jennifer Fish and Dogs Gone Swimming
- Dr. Rachel Austin & Brian Austin and Irvington Veterinary Clinic
- Dr. Kristen Livingston and Livingston Chiropractic
- Dr. Nell Ostermeier & Dr. Preston Turano and Lombard Animal Hospital
- Dr. Amy Tongue and Oswego Veterinary Hospital
- Quimby Lombardozzi (CSAMP) and ResQ Animal Massage
- Becca Seitz (MAcOM LAc) and Thrive Acupuncture
