Before I get started with my newfound blogging enthusiasm, let me introduce myself! My name is Karen Kennedy and I am a Veterinary Physiotherapist situated in Limerick City. I have been working with animals for almost 20 years now, first as a veterinary nurse, before combining this work with canine rehabilitation. I have a Post-Graduate Diploma in Veterinary Physiotherapy and a Certificate in Small Animal Hydrotherapy. I live on the outskirts of Limerick City with my family and my two dogs- Toby and Ted, who could probably do with benefiting from having a Vet Physio in the house more than they do! I have spent the last few years travelling between Galway, Limerick and Cork offering physiotherapy clinics, but you can now find me at Treaty Veterinary Clinic in Limerick.

We’ve all seen the memes and jokes going around about how happy our pets are now we are in lockdown and suddenly spending all of our time at home with them. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure my dog is dying for us to go back to work and mainly childcare. He was very happy at the beginning, but now I can see his face every morning eyeing up our two year old, wondering if today is the day he’ll be taking his little bag and leaving for the childminder so that he can get a few hours to himself on the sofa in peace (I hear ya Ted!!). On top of this, my second dog chose the first week of lockdown to injure himself and he has been on crate rest, watching us all through the bars being home all day and wanting to be a part of it all. An empty and quiet house would have been far more suitable for him! All of a sudden, we are living in very different and strange times, and I think we are at a stage where everyone is struggling, dogs included. For me, I was getting excited to be returning to work after maternity leave number 2, getting a bit of freedom back and returning to the job I love. Instead I’m solo parenting in lockdown with 2 children under 2 while my husband is away at work for 6 weeks. It’s testing! So, if I can’t get back to work I need to start using my brain in another way.

For many months now (ok years!) I’ve been humming and hawing about starting a blog. Many clients and super techy friends have been suggesting I get with the times, but I’ve been putting it on the long finger. I’m not techy myself, and being honest I just haven’t had the time to think about it let alone sit down and actually put pen to paper. I probably still don’t have the time, but I need to try to reconnect with work somehow. I did consider online consults, but given the nature of my job I didn’t feel that I could provide enough of a service this way.

Another issue I had that put me off writing a blog was trying to decide what to write about. I wasn’t sure if I should write something professional, serious, personal, entertaining…. so I had a think about what exactly I was trying to achieve. I think my main aim is to provide information to pet owners who are faced with issues affecting their pets’ mobility, help them to get a better understanding of whatever it is affecting their mobility and what they can do to help it. I also want to promote the benefits of veterinary physiotherapy for small animals. I have spent years travelling around Ireland working in rehabilitation and have found that in Limerick particularly, people seem to be unaware of the availability of small animal physiotherapy. I worry that pet owners here are not informed on the amazing benefits that physiotherapy can have for their pets. So I want to raise awareness, show you the difference it can make and really just improve the quality of life for the many dogs of limerick and surrounding areas!

I’m going to start with specific topics like common injuries and diseases that I am presented with most in practice, explain how they affect our pets and what we can do to help them. And over time I’ll try to introduce some case studies and anything else I think might be relevant or interesting. I’ll try to keep it simple and that’s not because I’m undermining anyone’s ability to understand anything too technical, but because I know most people out there have a million other things on the go and I want to keep everything to the point to make it easy and accessible for everyone.

Please do drop me an email if there’s any particular topic you’d like discussed or any other suggestions or tips (criticism included!) are always welcome.
So, hopefully my first post will be live soon! Watch this space!
For anyone struggling with their pet at home at the moment, there are always lots of ways to alleviate pain and improve mobility, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and I’ll do my best to help.