brooke's blog

As part of our ongoing professional development we had a great afternoon on Saturday working with Horses.  The Animal Physio Group (APG) is a subgroup of our association the APA (Australian Physiotherapy association).  We aim to meet at least 4 times a year in Qld to gather Physios - animal and human for ongoing learning opportunities.

Sandy organised an afternoon on the sunshine coast with the help of Nicky  to present on the topic of Equine Spinal mobilisation.  These sessions are a great chance for us to learn and network and further enhance our skills.  I look forward to more throughout the year.

Thanks!

We had a fantastic weekend in Melbourne. On saturday I was fortunate to spend the day in the Laboratories revising Anatomy with dissections.  Not the nicest thing to do but the best way to learn anatomy for sure. 

On Sunday Dr Helen Nicholson and I presented the first APA Accredited course to Physiotherapists on Canine conformation and Gait.

I trust the day was enjoyed by all and would like to thank Paula and all the lovely owners and dogs for giving up their sunday for such a great day of learning.

I have just completed another fantastic week of learning. Over the last year I have been working through my Advanced Diploma of equine acupuncture.  I love combining eastern and western techniques into my treatments.

Eastern Medicine is so extremely complicated it seems the more you know the more you know you don't know! I know I won't ever stop learning.

Thanks to Tom for being such a fantastic teacher and allowing me to start the day with Qi Gong to set up for great days of learning and treating the horses. I look forward to more next year.

It has been such an action packed exciting year for me professionally. To be full time Animal Physiotherapist certainly makes me satisfied to be finishing the year with more knowledge to help me be more effective at treating all those beautiful animals

Cheers

We had a fantastic 3 days at the APA conference with the Animal Physiotherapy Group. This was held at the Brisbane Convention centre. What a great experience to organise such an event. I am totally exhausted but I trust that all enjoyed.  As we are a new profession it is such a great opportunity to come together, combined with animal physios from US, NZ and Australia wide to learn from such a high callibre of speakers (including Dr Bergh from Sweeden).  We managed to get 12 dogs into the Convention centre for our canine workshop (and no-one peed which was my main concern) and 13 horses on the monday at the Burpengary Equestrian centre.  Breakfast sponsored by Regeneus and our international speaker by Merial made our program complete.

I would like to thank the committee who helped me throughout the year make this possible. It only comes every 2 years so I soaked up all days we had on offer.

Some pictures of our days....

Cheers

I have been working hard this year planning for the Animal Physiotherapy section of the APA (Australian Physiotherapy Association) conference.  It is finally coming around and is being held this weekend at the Brisbane Convention Centre.  This process has been a great experience (whilst very time consuming) and I am grateful to have been given this opportunity.

I am very excited with the program which incorporates a breakfast (sponsored by Regeneus for Stem Cell Therapy); Advanced Canine and Equine workshops with our international Invited Speaker Dr Anna Bergh (Sponsored by Merial) and 2 day program of lectures including invited speakers (Vets and Animal Physiotherapists).

To have such a high callibre of speakers over these days I hope it will be enjoyed by all.  As we are part of such a new profession we all enjoy getting together to share experiences working with animals and continue to develop our profession with the APA.

Thanks to the committee who have helped me throughout the year to put this event together. I hope it goes well!

If you would like more information about this event visit: www.physiotherapy.asn.au

Cheers

I finished off my last presentation to the UQ Japanese students this week.  My Missie stole the show again. She has co-presented with me for the last few years. Now that she has had her spinal injury this year, she was a good case to show her unusual gait pattern, posture and stability to the students.  We educated them about Animal Physiotherapy, safe handling, the basics of gentle massage and stretches. I reinforced the importance to observe the body language of the dogs to ensure they don't get bitten, whilst ensuring the dog gains the most benefit out of treatment.

I am not sure I enjoy the drive to Brisbane any more but I really enjoyed presenting to these groups again this year.  Hopefully Missie will be able to join me again next year!

Cheers

I had another fabulous week continuing my Advanced Diploma of Equine acupuncture.  I love learning more and more about traditional chinese medicine.  It is certainly a privilege working with these large beasts and such a great way to spend the week.  We start the day with Tom leading some Tai Chi and Qi Gong.  It is amazing how any animal picks up the energy of who is treating them so this is very important to incorporate into our training.  This lovely old horse was a rescue animal who had been ridden for years barrel racing.  Probably the worst neck I have felt in a horse.  She certainly relaxed nicely with treatment and lapped up all the treatment from us all.
Thanks to Tom for another great week of jam packed learning.  I look forward to the next instalment of brain food.  

The more you know the more you know you don't know..... you know!!

I have embarked on a very exciting journey this year.  The timing is great and I have decided to do my Advanced Diploma of Equine Acupuncture.  So I have been surrounding myself with this large beast this week for a full prac week and will plod my way through overwhelming amounts of information to add to my bag of tricks
I really have missed this incredible beast and look forward to continuing to find a balance with the East and the West with my animal Treatments.  Fortunately the Horse and Dog are very similar (and human for that matter) so this will cross over to all species.
This was my horse I worked on today (The 'relaxed' was painted on by a boy who was there for equine assisted learning - a behaviour he aspired to having..... hmmm well i think this was working on both of us or vice versa....!)

I look forward to more of this!
Cheers

I have had a great end to the year for my brain. This year I have enjoyed focussing on my path of providing holistic treatment for my 2 and 4 legged friends.  I have completed another course on Remedial therapies for zen thai Shiatsu.  I am gaining a greater understanding of Chinese medicine and hope to continue on this path next year combining the East with the West.
The more you know the more you know you don't know..... you know!
Thanks Gwyn for your inspirational teachings once again!
Brooke