Spotlight Practice
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September 2022 Spotlight Practice
Two Hands Four Paws
Los Angeles, California
AARV Member:
Leslie McMahon, CCMT, CCRT
Two Hands Four Paws is an independent physical rehabilitation clinic specializing in hydrotherapy, acupuncture and integrative medicine. We saw our first patients in 1998 and we have grown every year since. Our West Los Angeles clinic contains three water treadmills and a full-size indoor pool. We are a multi-veterinarian, multi-therapist practice.
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Our team consists of two veterinarians certified in acupuncture and rehabilitation, as well as five RVTs, four of whom are certified in rehab with one about to start rehab school. We require that every technician, PT and vet in our practice be rehab-certified. Our policy is to put every member of our team through school if they are not already certified. Our goal is to provide the highest level of service possible and we feel that we can only achieve that if every person involved in an animal's care is fully rehab-certified.
We have a licensed veterinarian at the facility six days a week. All treatment plans are formulated by the veterinarian. We re-evaluate animals every 4-6 weeks in a formal session, while the vet looks at every animal that comes through the door if there are any questions or concerns about how it is doing. Each animal has its own individualized treatment plan and the referring vet is advised of our findings within 24 hours of our initial consultation. We consistently consult with the RDVM when there are any questions or concerns. All pets are consistently checked for pain management and all veterinarians, PTs and RVTs are well-versed in pain management. Pain scoring is done on a regular basis and clients are also educated in how to recognize pain in their animals. We do nutritional counseling with all animals. We also make it a point to teach owners about proper nutrition. All our vets, PTs, and RVTs do ongoing CE each year and the practice compensates for classes taken.
We are most proud of how much our employees care about the animals. You can see the love each one of them gives on a daily basis and we hear all the time from their owners how much they appreciate it. In the future, we would like to expand our team but given the challenges facing the veterinary industry these days that is hard!
In addition to our practice, we established our own non-profit, the Two Hands Four Paws Foundation, in 2016. We also partner with several rescue groups who bring us disabled dogs. Our agreement is that we do the physical rehabilitation, the Foundation often pays for advanced diagnostics and surgery, and then the rescue group places them for us.
Preferred Contact:
Fern Decena, Marketing, 310-475-8555
Website: https://www.twohandsfourpaws.com/