Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
E44: Rehabilitating Our Four-Legged Friends: Inside Walking Paws Rehab
Ever wondered what happens when your beloved pet faces mobility challenges? Meet Cassie Swafford, founder of Walking Paws Rehab, who's revolutionizing pet healthcare through specialized veterinary rehabilitation.
When dogs tear their CCL (the canine equivalent of a human ACL) or develop arthritis, many pet parents feel helpless. Walking Paws Rehab offers hope through comprehensive physical therapy tailored specifically for animals. Contrary to popular belief, pet rehabilitation extends far beyond underwater treadmills. Cassie and her team provide manual therapy, massage, stretching, custom orthotics, prosthetics, and targeted exercise programs—all designed to keep pets moving comfortably throughout their lives.
The practice serves two primary groups of patients: those recovering from acute injuries or surgeries, and aging pets experiencing declining mobility. For some patients, rehabilitation becomes an alternative to surgery; for others, it's crucial post-operative care. Most touchingly, Cassie's work with senior pets focuses on maintaining quality of life and comfort during their golden years. "We're really focused on keeping them comfortable and pain-free and moving as well as they can for as long as they can," shares Cassie, whose background as a human physical therapist uniquely positions her to understand both the technical and emotional aspects of rehabilitation.
What drives Cassie's passion? The profound desire to help animals continue doing what they love while strengthening the bond between pets and their humans. Whether you're referred by your veterinarian or seeking alternatives for your pet's mobility challenges, Walking Paws Rehab welcomes you. Check out their website or Instagram to see how they're transforming lives, one paw at a time!
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a specialty veterinary practice with a focus on injuries and mobility ailments? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, cassie Swofford, with Walking Paws. Rehab, cassie, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Good, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Excellent. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your practice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are a specialty veterinary practice where we focus on treating dogs and some cats and sometimes bunnies or goats, but mostly dogs and cats that have various injuries, so like if a dog tears their CCL, which is the dog ACL, or if they have arthritis, we are helping kind of keep them moving and keep them strong throughout their life.
Speaker 2:How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:So I'm a physical therapist, and either you get into the field by being a physical therapist or by being a veterinarian, or we have a lot of techs as well that are in the rehab field, and I think for me I kind of knew I wanted to do rehab but also wanted to be treating animals, and so it was kind of a natural progression for me to join this field.
Speaker 2:What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think some myths or misconceptions are that we are just underwater treadmill or we are just laser therapy, whereas really there's so many treatments that we can do that, different kinds of treatments that help with keeping dogs mobile, so things like working with their hands, doing massage, manual therapy, stretching range of motion. We'll do exercises, we put dogs in orthotics and prosthetics if they're needed, and so there's so much more to the field than just throwing a dog in an underwater treadmill.
Speaker 2:Can you save a horse that's legs broken?
Speaker 3:we are not. We aren't actually doing any equine therapy and so we're a completely separate field. A lot of canine rehab did start and originate from equine, because that's where a lot of people were willing to put the money into the field initially. But yeah, we, we're completely separate and actually too, I can't even treat a horse. As a physical therapist certified in canine rehab I'd have to get a full other certification to treat horses, but I assume you probably could.
Speaker 2:Who are your target customers, since it's not horses, and how?
Speaker 3:do you?
Speaker 2:attract them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think any of our customers are people whose dogs have been injured and they are either looking for rehab after surgery or if they are told that surgery is not an option, or they don of bracing and sometimes just rehab alone works instead of surgery. And then the other kind of group of our patients that we often see are just older dogs that are kind of slowly starting to decline in their strength and mobility and comfort and we're really focused on keeping them comfortable and pain as pain free as possible and moving as well as they can for as long as they can.
Speaker 2:Do you think that people are already educated about what you guys do, or have you ever thought about doing your own podcast to try to reach people that way?
Speaker 3:Oh, we have not thought about doing our own podcast? I do not know where we would have the time. Honestly, I mean, it would be amazing.
Speaker 3:but yeah, I think that there are a lot of people that are aware of what we do but a lot of people that have never heard of anything like this until they experience something with their dog that prompts them to seek out therapy, or their specialty clinic or their primary vet recommends that they come see us, and I think even within the vet field some vets have a very good understanding of what we do in rehab and others are still kind of new to knowing what we do as well.
Speaker 2:So a lot of people come to you through referrals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we get a mix. We get a mix of people coming from referrals from different specialty hospitals or from surgeons that we work with in the area or just from their primary care vets. But a lot of people end up looking for alternatives and kind of searching the Internet for alternatives or know a friend of a friend whose dog went to PT for something, and so they end up finding us that way. So we don't need to have a referral, but we do end up getting a mix of both.
Speaker 2:Outside of work. What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:I play ultimate frisbee competitively, and so that's a big part of my life. I coach the college, the CU team as well. That's where I've spent a lot of my time is playing Ultimate Frisbee, and then I'm always hiking, skiing, spending time in the mountains with my family and my dogs.
Speaker 2:Nice, let's switch gears.
Speaker 3:Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind, um, and so I think, like for me, something that draws me to rehab in general, like whether that's treating people or animals is keeping people doing the things they love for as long as possible. And, uh, I you know I used to treat people as a human PT, um, and that was a big goal, and now it's nice to kind of apply it to dogs, to keeping them doing everything they love for as long as possible.
Speaker 2:Perfect, that's awesome. Cassie. Please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about walking paws rehab.
Speaker 3:I think we're just here to help and try to give your help you give your dog the best life possible and try to help you give your dog the best life possible. Everybody's goals are different for what they want from rehab for their dogs and we are there to kind of meet you at whatever your goals are and try to strengthen the bond as well between you and your dog.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more about Walking Paws?
Speaker 3:Rehab how can our listeners learn more about walking pause rehab? You can go to our website to learn more um and or to our instagram. I think it's just walking pause rehab and we have a lot of different information about different conditions or some examples of dogs getting therapy or in braces and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Well, Cassie, I really appreciate you being on our show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPfortCollinscom. That's GNPfortCollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.