Physiotherapy.
Hands-on rehabilitation for dogs, cats, rabbits, and small animals. Manual therapy, therapeutic exercises, and progressive loading combine to restore strength, range, and confidence. It is the foundation most rehabilitation plans build on.
What physiotherapy is
Physiotherapy at AURA combines manual therapy, therapeutic exercises, and progressive loading to restore strength, range of motion, and confidence in animals recovering from injury, surgery, or chronic conditions.
It is the foundation of most rehabilitation plans. Other modalities (hydrotherapy, laser, massage, pain management) add their own benefits on top, but physiotherapy is usually the one we open with at the first visit. It is where we find what is actually wrong, what is compensating, and what needs work before we layer anything else in.
The benefits of physiotherapy
The work covers seven core jobs. Most cases need a mix of them, applied in the right order.
Targeted to the exact tissue that needs work
Manual palpation finds the tight band, the painful insertion, the joint that is not gliding properly. From there, the therapy is specific: this muscle, this tendon, this joint capsule. Not a generic session applied to every dog.
Restores joint glide and range of motion
Joints stiffen after injury, surgery, or disuse. Manual mobilization restores the glide between joint surfaces. Stretching elongates shortened tissue. Range of motion returns gradually, never forced.
Rebuilds load tolerance through progressive exercise
After injury, the body protects itself. Muscles and tendons lose load tolerance. Therapeutic exercises rebuild that capacity step by step, in increments small enough not to flare the injury back up.
Re-educates neuromuscular patterns
Animals “forget” how to walk after weeks of compensation. Proprioceptive exercises retrain the body’s sense of itself in space, so the dog stops favouring the surgical limb long after it has healed.
Pain management through manual tissue release
Soft tissue work releases the chronic muscle tension and trigger points that build up around an injury. Pain comes down without a single pill.
Maintains function in chronic cases
For animals with conditions that will not fully resolve (arthritis, degenerative myelopathy, spondylosis), regular physiotherapy maintains the function they have. Quality of life stays steady for longer than it would without intervention.
Bridges acute care to active recovery
Right after surgery, the surgeon manages. Once the incision heals, physiotherapy takes over and brings the animal back to function. The transition is where most owners lose pace; physiotherapy is what closes that gap.
How physiotherapy actually works
Physiotherapy is not generic exercise. Each technique targets a specific physiological response, and the choice of technique depends on what the therapist finds during the assessment.
Joint mobilization and capsule glide
Joints have a fluid-filled capsule that allows the bones to glide past each other. After injury or surgery, that capsule tightens. Manual mobilization, applied at the right grade and direction, restores the glide. Without it, range of motion plateaus no matter how much the animal walks.
Progressive loading and tissue adaptation
Tendons, ligaments, and muscles adapt to the load placed on them, but slowly and within a narrow window. Too little load and they stay weak. Too much and they re-injure. Progressive loading nudges that window forward week by week.
Proprioceptive retraining
The brain knows where the limbs are based on signals from muscle spindles, joint receptors, and skin. Injury, surgery, or chronic pain dampens those signals, and the animal develops a compensatory gait that persists long after the original problem heals. Proprioceptive exercises (weight-shifting, balance work, surface variation) restart the conversation between brain and body.
PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation)
A specific technique pairing manual resistance with movement patterns. We use it to recruit weak muscle groups in neurological cases (IVDD recovery, post-decompression rehabilitation) where the dog has the muscle but cannot reach it.
Why exercises have to be specific
Generic “walking is good for them” advice misses what actually rebuilds the body. A dog with patella luxation needs medial-side strengthening, not random fetch. A post-cruciate dog needs eccentric loading of the quadriceps, not flat-ground trotting. The exercise prescription is where physiotherapy earns its keep.
Tissue recovery timelines
Different tissues heal at different rates. Muscle: weeks. Tendon: 3 to 12 months. Ligament: 6 to 18 months. Nerve: months to years, sometimes incomplete. We pace the work to the slowest tissue in the case, which is usually not the obvious one.
Common misconceptions about physiotherapy
Owners often arrive with one or more of these beliefs. Each is partly true, which is why they stick, but none tells the whole story.
“Resting it out is enough.”
Rest preserves what is there. It does not rebuild. After two weeks of cage rest a dog has lost measurable muscle mass and neuromuscular coordination. Rest plus structured physiotherapy is what returns full function. Rest alone leaves a permanent shortfall.
“Physiotherapy is just gentle walking.”
Walking is one tool in the toolkit, and not the most important one. Manual mobilization, specific exercise prescription, proprioceptive retraining, and progressive loading all happen before or alongside walking. The walk itself is barely the work.
“Once they’re walking again, the work is done.”
Walking returns first. Strength, proprioception, and load tolerance return last. Owners who stop physiotherapy at the “walking” milestone often see compensation patterns set in, which then cause a second injury six to twelve months later. The honest answer is that recovery is not over when the limp goes away.
“All physiotherapists are the same.”
A human physiotherapist trains for human anatomy and human biomechanics. An animal physiotherapist trains for quadruped biomechanics, species-specific palpation, animal pain signalling, and the conditions that occur in dogs, cats, and rabbits. The overlap is real but the training is not interchangeable.
“Surgery is the only fix.”
For some injuries, surgery is non-negotiable. For others, including partial cruciate tears in smaller breeds, mild patella luxation, and certain spinal cases, conservative management with structured physiotherapy can deliver comparable outcomes without anaesthesia, scar tissue, or recovery from the procedure itself. The right call is case by case, made with your vet.
What a physiotherapy session looks like
A typical session at AURA runs 20 to 30 minutes of active work, plus check-in, observation, and notes on either side. Each stage is listed below.
Arrival and check-in
You arrive. We greet your animal and ask about anything that has changed since the last visit: pain at home, gait quality, energy, what worked and what did not from the home program.
History and observation
We watch your animal walk, stand, and shift weight. Their posture and gait tell us where the work needs to go today.
Static palpation
The therapist runs hands over your animal head to tail. Muscle tone, temperature, swelling, areas of guarding. The body tells the therapist what hurts before the dog does.
Functional movement assessment
Specific tests: range of motion in each joint, weight-bearing symmetry, response to specific loading. The findings shape the next twenty minutes.
Manual therapy
Joint mobilization, soft tissue release, fascial work. Hands-on, animal-paced, with constant adjustment based on what the body is telling the therapist.
Therapeutic exercises
Specific exercises matched to the case: balance discs for proprioception, cavaletti rails for stride length, sit-to-stand for hindlimb strength, dynamic loading for cruciate recovery. Each one targeted, each one progressed in small increments.
Neuromuscular re-education
Weight-shifting, surface variation, slow transitions. Retrains the body’s sense of itself. This is what catches up last, and what owners notice last.
Cool-down and home program briefing
Light stretching to settle the tissue, then we walk through the home exercises with you. Two or three specific things, written down, paced realistically for your week.
Notes after every session
We write a structured note after every session: what we did, what the gait looked like, what changed, and what comes next. If your vet asks for the report at any point, we can share it.
Next session booked
Date and goals for next time. Recovery is a series of incremental gains, not a single big push.
Conditions we treat with physiotherapy
Physiotherapy works across a wide range of conditions. It is most often the right starting point for animals in the following situations.
- Post-surgical recovery Orthopaedic surgeries (cruciate, patella, hip), spinal surgeries (IVDD decompression), fracture repair, soft tissue surgery.
- Spinal cord conditions IVDD recovery, post-decompression rehabilitation, partial paralysis, neurological gait issues, FCE (spinal stroke).
- Joint disease Arthritis, hip and elbow dysplasia, degenerative joint disease, chronic stiffness, joint capsular tightness.
- Muscle and tendon issues Strains, tears, atrophy, weakness on one side, gait imbalance, conditioning after extended rest, iliopsoas strain.
- Senior support Age-related mobility decline, sarcopenia, balance and coordination issues, gentle exercise within joint tolerance.
- Neurological cases Vestibular disease, post-stroke rehabilitation, peripheral nerve injuries, brachial plexus injuries, degenerative myelopathy maintenance.
If your animal does not fit the categories above and you are not sure whether physiotherapy is right, message us with the details. We will tell you straight if it is not a fit.
Why choose AURA for physiotherapy
A handful of options for physiotherapy exist in Singapore. Seven things separate AURA from them.
- Hands-on, not machine-driven We do not strap your animal to a TENS unit and call it physiotherapy. The work is manual: palpation, mobilization, soft tissue release, exercise prescription. Machines have a place as adjuncts, not as substitutes for skilled hands.
- Reports ready for your vet For post-operative cases we require written clearance from the operating vet before we begin. We keep detailed session reports available to your vet on request, so they always have the latest picture when they ask.
- More than a decade of practice Our therapists have more than a decade of experience in specialised animal rehabilitation. Every case is overseen by senior clinicians who have spent their careers building expertise in physiotherapy for animals.
- Multi-modal, not single-tool The right tool, not the same tool every time. If hydrotherapy or laser is what your animal needs, that is what we recommend, even if you came in asking for physiotherapy. Each modality earns its place in the plan based on what your animal actually needs.
- Cooperative-care handling Animals are not forced into positions or held against their will. Gradual introduction, consent-based handling, food rewards where appropriate. Anxious animals settle into the work and the session becomes possible.
- Calm, home-like environment The centre is built to feel like home, not a clinic. Animals heal better when they are not stressed. Stress slows tissue repair; calm speeds it.
- Dogs, cats, rabbits, and pocket animals Each species has different anatomy, different pain signalling, and different tolerance for handling. The team trains for each.
What the numbers usually look like
These are reference points, not promises. Every animal is unique. The actual duration depends on their condition, tolerance, age and disposition, surgical results, and how well the at-home routine goes between visits. Honest pace beats false promises every time.
Safety, and who should not come
Physiotherapy is one of the safest rehabilitation modalities. There is no equipment your animal can fall off, no water to inhale, no anaesthesia. That said, there are situations where we defer or modify the work until medical clearance:
- Open wounds or recent incisions that the surgeon has not cleared
- Active skin or ear infections
- Acute unstable fractures (until surgical clearance)
- Severe cardiac or respiratory disease
- Conditions where specific movements are contraindicated by the surgeon
- Pregnancy in the late stages
- Active diarrhoea, vomiting, or contagious conditions
If your animal falls into any of the above, we will defer physiotherapy and use other modalities (laser, gentle massage) where appropriate while we coordinate with your vet.
Not sure if physiotherapy is right for your animal right now? Message us. We will tell you straight whether you should come in, defer, or check with your vet first.
We strongly recommend checking in with your vet before starting any therapy. Your vet knows your animal’s full medical picture and is the best person to confirm whether the conditions are right for rehabilitation. For post-operative cases, we require written clearance from the operating surgeon before physiotherapy begins, plus the referral letter and any imaging where appropriate.
Frequently asked questions about physiotherapy
Is physiotherapy safe for my animal?
Is animal physiotherapy different from human physiotherapy?
How many physiotherapy sessions will my dog need?
Do I need a vet referral for physiotherapy?
Can cats and rabbits benefit from physiotherapy?
Will physiotherapy replace surgery for IVDD or cruciate injury?
How long is each physiotherapy session?
What if my dog will not cooperate during physio?
What home exercises will you prescribe?
How much does physiotherapy cost in Singapore at AURA?
Connect with us
The fastest way to know if physiotherapy is right for your animal is to talk to us or come down. Both are easy.