A couple months ago, Geordie ran off from his New Ipswich home. When he was found, he was in pain, walking with a limp. After a veterinarian found he had no breaks or fractures, Geordie was diagnosed with a hip flexor strain.
Carolyn Dick Mayes, Geordie’s owner, thought, “what do you do when a human has a hip flexor injury?” and started looking for physical therapists for her dog.
She found fellow New Ipswich resident Kari Lowe, a traditional physical therapist who in December received her certification to treat dogs, something only a handful of people in New Hampshire have. She is also licensed in Massachusetts.
Lowe says a friend who breeds dogs told her she has an intuition with animals, which inspired her to learn more about how she can work with them. She enrolled in classes and spent a year doing case work, and is phasing in more canine clients to make them her primary business.
The transition is gradual. She plans to stick with her human clients as long as they need, not wanting to leave them in the middle of treatment. She has worked with people for 18 years, and is still learning how to communicate with dogs.
“Half the fun with canines is reading the signs,” she said. “With humans, they tell you what hurts. I try to watch the dog before I touch them. It could be 20 minutes, you watch the right paw, you watch the left paw, you have to watch it all very closely.”
Dick Mayes says in Geordie’s case, it’s working. Hip flexor injuries usually require four to six weeks of rest to heal, but Geordie, age 6, remains active.
“The proof is in the pudding,” she said. “He got better so much faster with Kari’s physical therapy.”
She said the hardest part is seeing her dog in pain. Instinctively, dogs try never to show weakness, so they will not show you what hurts.
“You don’t want to push him so it hurts but you don’t want to restrict him so he’s not having fun,” Lowe said. “It can be hard for the owners.”
Dick Mayes agreed: “I’m motivated for his health, and selfishly, too; I love hiking with him and I want to extend his active life.”
Lowe has worked with dogs of different sizes and temperaments, and says they are easier to work with than their owners in some cases. She said she has not been bitten.
Geordie is on a regiment of stretching and massage. They use treats to bribe him into staying still and trick him into stretching himself. For example, pulling the snack up the steps so he slowly extends himself up a staircase. Now, he is beginning strengthening, and Lowe is finding ways to get him to do squats and support himself on his hind legs.
Physical therapy is a safer, cheaper alternative to medication and surgery. Geordie is a therapy dog, visiting nursing homes in his spare time.
Right now Lowe does not have an office or even a website, but does outcalls to homes throughout the region and can be reached at healthwellnessnh@gmail.com.
“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “Dogs help people every day.”