Arnold Said:

Has animal therapy or alone time with animals helped you?

We Answered:

When I worked at a horse stable we had many mentally challenged children come in and ride.
They were assisted but were always so happy to come to the stable and even see the horses. I feel like they were one of the most non-judgmental things in their lives. They would just smile and laugh the entire time.
I myself have Aggravated Depression and have found my own horses the one part of my life that is constant. They are always there to calm my life down and just to give me something to focus on.

Sasha

Francis Said:

Physical therapy or veterinarian?

We Answered:

Although paperwork is involved, I do not agree with the statement that PT is more about paperwork...90% of my day is still spent on direct patient contact.

The suggestions to visit the APTA website is a good one. Not only will you find information about the career, you can find a list of accredited programs by state.

To become a PT, it requires at least a master's degree education, although more than 50% of the programs are now doctorate level programs. MS programs are typically completed in 6 years and DPT is typically 7 years. Your undergraduate major can be anything you want, as long as you meet the prerequisite requirements, but most typically people choose something like kinesiology, movement sciences,etc...whatever your school offers.

There is a physical therapy certification you can obtain for canine physical therapy...the only program I know of is in Tennesee...it's a post-entry level program. This means you would become a PT first, then return for a certification for the canine physical therapy.

You could also consider hippotherapy which is physical therapy for children with movement disorders where they use horseback riding to strenthen appropriate muscle groups or increase/decrease tone.

Good luck

Constance Said:

Anyone here have experience with animal-assisted therapy?

We Answered:

I wish I had more experience, its so rewarding! Sadly the most I can share with you is my experience volunteering for special olympics. It was amazing seeing the improvement in the kid's social and physical well being over the weeks they spent riding. They became more outgoing and stronger. I also once gave lessons to a girl who had a mild form of autism, and while she was definitely the toughest student I've ever had, I am so proud of her.

As a career I'm not sure if you can make enough money to live off of. I say this because I wanted to go this route but after doing research discovered its rarely livable. I am looking at becoming an equine rehabilitation therapist. You should consider it, because you are already fulfilling the education requirements! ERTs work use alternative medicine (like magnetic therapy, heat therapy, treadmills, ect...) to either fix horse injuries or prevent them. It is recently becoming more popular with performance horses, and the average salary is around 60,000 a year.

I suppose you could start a non profit if you really wanted to pursue animal assisted therapy though. It would be a lot of hard work, and non profits can't be run on a whim, its more like a calling. But if you really feel like thats what you're supposed to do, I would consider it!

I hope I helped at least a little! Good Luck!


*EDIT* dang, I thought I was in the horse section. Well, no matter, everything I mentioned applies to small animals as well. Although I'm not sure about the salaries for general animal rehabilitation therapists. But I know that is basically the same thing as an ERT.