odd jobs

‘Pawsitive’ Therapy

After a strange request

from a patient,
physiotherapist Shelly
Beazley took on a whole
new breed of clients.
by Mandy Savoie
photos by Alyssa Feir
s Shelly Beazley is sitting in her client’s living room in Bedford, N.S. His name is
Sebastian, and he is sitting across from her, panting.
Sebastian is, of course, a dog.
He is a beautiful, 10-year-old, large collie, and Beazley is here to help him with an
injury.
Beazley is stroking him, trying to prepare him for his treatment. Sebastian had a
stroke about three years ago, and, as a result, has spinal cord damage. His brain has
difficulty receiving messages from his hind end, which makes him unaware of where
his feet are sometimes.
Without his brain telling him if or when his foot is stepping down, Sebastian
sometimes stumbles or falls, although his owner, Joanna O’Brien, says he’s always
been clumsy.
That’s where Beazley comes in.

Giving animals what they need

She’s a physiotherapist who started her own business in 2002 when she was only

21
27. Pawsitive Action is a service that provides rehabilitation for animals who can’t
move quite like they used to because of surgery or advanced age.

| myne | APRIL 2009 |

 Beazley performs many of the same
procedures she would on a human with
much smaller machines, and also does
massage and acupuncture.
For Sebastian, she starts by rubbing his
lumbar vertebrae — the lower part of the
spine — with an ultrasound machine, just
like doctors who perform an ultrasound
on a pregnant woman or someone with a
ligament injury. On Sebastian, it’s used to
increase his blood flow and to flush out any
inflammation. It increases healing and gets
rid of any stiffness he has. Sebastian sits
patiently while Beazley moves the device in
circular motions on his spine.
When Beazley is done with the
ultrasound, she proceeds to his second
treatment. She hooks up Sebastian to a
neuromuscular electrical muscle stimulator
(NEMS). She places electrode pads on his
hip to stimulate his muscles underneath.
It is used to jump-start his neurological
system, so his muscles can send stronger
signals to his brain. Sebastian is flopped on
his side with his head on O’Brien’s lap. She
stays with him throughout the 40-minute
process. He appears completely relaxed,
except for when O’Brien’s cat comes in to
see what’s going on. Then he sits up and
barks until he is the centre of attention
again.
Beazley has always loved animals,
and has more than 10 years of experience
performing physiotherapy on humans.
She graduated from Dalhousie Univer-
sity’s physiotherapy program in 1992 and
worked for various physiotherapy clinics
ever since. She has also received a World
Championship gold medal for her work as a
physiotherapist for the National Women’s
Hockey Team. But it was a client at the
Dalhousie clinic who gave her the idea to
start working on animals.
How it all started
Beazley was working on a woman in
2002 who had just had a knee surgery,
which requires roughly five months of
physiotherapy.
“She came in one day, probably a month
into her rehab, and she said ‘my Burnese
Mountain dog just had the exact same
surgery - what do I do for him?’ and I was
like ‘I have no idea,’” says Beazley.
“And so, I started to research it a
little bit and I found out that (animal
rehabilitation) did exist and decided that I
would try to take some courses and stuff.
But even before I had taken any courses,
one of my other clients came in and said
that he was friends with a vet surgeon who
was looking for a physiotherapist. So, he set
me up to meet (the physiotherapist) and
22
she took me in to watch some surgeries and
see some of her clients and that’s how it all
started.” you get other problems as well.”
Beazley had recently become a dog Beazley says vets began to understand
owner herself. In fact, Kali, her mixed-breed animals should be moving instead of
Golden Shepherd, was the reason she had staying stationary when healing.
been talking about dogs in the first place. “Then it came to ‘well, maybe they
Beazley had a family dog growing up, but it should move, but maybe they should
wasn’t until Kali that she realized what a have a purpose to that movement and do
dog can bring to its owner’s life. exercises,” she says. “So it kind of
So she began training. She received expanded them realizing that, just like
certification in canine rehabilitation from humans, we can offer this kind of thing to
the Animal Rehab Institute in Florida animals and that it’s beneficial and it makes
and joined the Animal Divisions of the better success for their surgeries and a
Canadian Physiotherapy Association, of better life for the animals.
which she is now chairperson. She began
Pawsitive Action Physiotherapy because it Animals need rights too
was necessary.
“
Beazley is the only pet physiotherapist
who works with animals in the Halifax
area, but she says the field is continually
Animals are evolving and people’s attitudes to the
part of people’s practice are also changing.
families ... why
wouldn’t there be
physiotherapy?
“ “Animals are part of people’s families
and anyone who’s had physiotherapy
themselves and has an animal with an
injury kind of gets the whole idea that
maybe their animal could benefit,” she says.
“Once they understand what physiotherapy
is and what their animals’ injuries are they
think ‘why wouldn’t there be physio?’”
- Shelly Beazley “Generally, physiotherapy (aims to
help) people with their mobility. When you
Physiotherapist and
think of a physiotherapist or if you have a
mobility problem, then you should think
Animal Rehabilitator
physiotherapist. It’s
getting there for the
“There wasn’t anyone else so there was vets, but at this
no where to do the business but it was, point they’re not
from what I found, it was a niche that hadn’t all educated on
been done before and I had an interest in that but we’re
doing it,” she says. “It was a working on it.”
service that was required in this area.”
Before Beazley started
Pawsitive Action in 2002 there
weren’t many options for
animals recovering from
surgeries. Until recently,
vets thought crate rest —
confining dogs to their
steel crates — was best for
animals recovering from a
surgery.
“What they would
do is they’d do the
surgery and then they’d
put them in a crate
because they thought
that resting was
better than letting them
kind of jump around
and move,” she says.
“It’s the same with a
person in the hospital if
you were to have them
have surgery and then
just lay in bed: you get
muscle wasting, you
get other joint stiffness,
| myne | APRIL 2009 |
 Dr. Francis Arsenault, who practices at the Riverview
Animal Hospital, says he recommends rehabilitation
for animals with injuries and that insurance companies
are starting to cover the costs for animals because of its
obvious benefits.
“It’s the same as in a person. It benefits (animals), not
only physically but also mentally.”
While the field is growing, it’s still unregulated, which
means anyone can practice it without standards from the
Canadian Physiotherapy Association. Beazley says this
means people without training often see improvements
in their patients because any rehabilitation is better than
none.
But she believes animals should have the same rights
and standards as people.
Beazley works only with vet referrals; going through
a vet is the only way to ensure the treatment is covered
by animal insurance. She works out of two clinics, and
also does house calls. One day, she hopes to expand her
business to both animals and humans because she says it
keeps her skills sharp.
“My ideal (future) would be someday to have a place
that has two doors: a door that the people go in and get
their treatment, and another door that the animals go in
so a person can come with their dog and have some tea
and we can treat them and treat their dog, preferably
somewhere in the country where you could also take your
dog for a nice walk, too.”
Sebastian’s NEMS is done. To end their session,
Beazley picks up a teacup filled with dog treats and leads
Sebastian around the room in circles.
First, she steers him to the left, on his good side, then
right towards his bad side. Sebastian is smart, though: as
soon as he realizes one way is easier than the other, he tries
to stay on that side to get to the treat faster.
While Sebastian still can’t run anymore, his owner is
glad her vet recommended Beazley.
“He wouldn’t be walking at all if it wasn’t for Shelly,” says O’Brien. “We were having such a hard time.” Beazley has treated
Beazley is excited about the progress Sebastian has made, even just from this treatment. She says this Sebastian since the
is the best part of her job. fall.
“Making a difference is pretty exciting,” she says. “When you actually see a difference it’s like ‘wow.’ Very
often we can see some good changes and you know that you’ve kind of made that animal’s life better.”