Our Services

For the Love of Paws utilizes a variety of treatment modalities and techniques to facilitate recovery and healing. These include hydrotherapy, therapeutic exercise, acupuncture, modalities (laser, shockwave, PEMF) and manual therapy techniques.

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy utilizes the principles of buoyancy and resistance of water to exercise your pet safely while recovering from an injury or surgery. The buoyancy of water reduces impacts on joints allowing for a safe mode of exercise, while the water relaxes muscles and assists in reducing swelling through the compressive effects of the water. The resistance of the water as your pet moves, allows the muscles to strengthen and stretch more effectively as a safe and efficient non-weight bearing exercise. This is more tolerable following surgery and helps expedite recovery by reducing muscle atrophy and recovery time after surgery. Hydrotherapy has also revolutionized the ability to rehabilitate dogs with spinal injuries and paralysis by increasing mobility and improving balance, stability, strength, conditioning and gait. We currently utilize a pool for swimming and an underwater treadmill for ambulation activities.

Therapeutic Exercise

Therapeutic exercise utilizes a variety of tools including inclined treadmill, stairs, cavalettis, inflatable balls, physiorolls, Fitbones, Fitpaws donut, rocker boards and Airex balance pads. All combined they create a fun obstacle course workout that enhances limb use, builds muscle, retrains gait, and improves strength and flexibility. This is especially useful for post-surgical recoveries that have progressed to higher impact exercise and for strength building to provide conditioning and injury prevention in athletic dogs. Depending on your pet’s needs, we will tailor an exercise routine and teach you how to implement it at home. We utilize Canine Exercise Solutions, a web-based tool for you to access your home exercise program.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is one of the four pillars of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) and it is a technique that relies on the use of inserting needles into the body at specific points (called acupoints) where blood vessels, nerves and muscle fibers meet. The needles guide our life force, qi (pronounced “chee”), along the meridians to enhance blood circulation, activate the nervous system, reduce inflammation and increase the release of pain relieving substances. Acupuncture is used to help restore balance and stimulate the body’s natural healing ability.

It can help with injury recovery particularly in post-operative orthopedic procedures and neurological conditions such as Wobbler’s, intervertebral disc disease and fibrocartilaginous embolism. It is also useful for treatment of gastrointestinal issues, cancer, skin allergies, anxiety and weight loss.

TCVM Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine is a complete body of thought that disease is an imbalance in the body and diagnosis is found through identifying underlying patterns of disharmony through the body systems, yin and yang and the five elements.

There are four pillars of TCVM which include acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, food therapy and tui-na, which is a form of Chinese medical massage. Dr. Richie uses a combination of these pillars with modern western medications to treat your pet and return balance and harmony to your pet’s body and improving quality of life.

Laser Therapy

We utilize the Cutting Edge MLS and Companion Animal therapeutic lasers, which are excellent devices to treat inflammation, reduce pain, accelerate healing time and restore mobility. Commonly called photobiomodulation (PBM), it utilizes specific wavelengths of light to target damaged cells, stimulate cellular activity and help them to regenerate faster. The benefits of laser therapy include relief of chronic pain such as arthritis, relief of acute pain such as trauma or injury, strong anti-inflammatory effect, stimulates healing of damaged tissue, speeds recovery of the structural integrity of injured region, improves local blood circulation, and provides postoperative pain relief and faster wound healing.

Most patients see positive results in one to three treatments. Acute conditions can subside with as few as one set of treatments, while chronic conditions can be managed with regular monthly treatments. Conditions commonly treated include arthritis pain, post-op orthopedic surgeries, wound healing, sprain/strain tendonitis, hip dysplasia, intervertebral disc disease, degenerative joint disease, degenerative myelopathy and fibrocartilaginous embolism. It is a drug free option that can be incorporated into your pet’s treatment plan.

Shockwave Therapy

We utilize the PulseVet Shockwave™ system which uses focused, sound wave healing technology to speed healing, resolve lameness and reduce pain with long-term results and no side effects. Indications include bone healing (non-unions and delayed), tendon/ligament healing, osteoarthritis and chronic wounds. We are proud to be the exclusive provider of this technology in Southwest Florida.

Manual Therapy

Manual therapy includes techniques such as massage, myofascial release, soft-tissue mobilization, and joint mobilization. Each method serves a unique purpose—providing pain relief, reducing stiffness, improving mobility, supporting tissue repair and speeding recovery to help maintain healthy function and activity. Pain from surgery, arthritis, or other degenerative conditions can suppress the immune system, slowing healing and compromising recovery. Manual therapy helps counteract this by increasing circulation, delivering essential nutrients and removing waste products from tissues. This supports the healing process, promotes relaxation and allows the immune system to function at its best.

Harness & Cart Fittings

For the Love of Paws is proud to carry and recommend Help Em Up Harnesses (www.helpemup.com) which have proven to be one of the best devices for helping post-op, injured or geriatric dogs get around. It helps you help them!

Wheelchairs can also be very intimidating. We are a proud endorser of Walkin’ Wheels (www.walkinpets.com) which allow pets with mobility issues from neurological conditions (degenerative myelopathy, IVDD), osteoarthritis or progressive age-related weakness the opportunity to enjoy a good quality of life. We would be happy to help you with evaluation, measurements and fitting.

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