This Physiotherapist Quit Her Job to Help Paralysed Animals Walk Again!

.“After taking an X-Ray of the injured pup’s spine, the vet told me that her spine was broken and that I should put her to sleep. I was shocked at the casualness in her voice. In no case was I going to euthanize the poor pup simply because she couldn’t walk!”

Aaditi Badam recalls the incident that turned her life around 180 degrees. Physiotherapist by profession, Aaditi had always had a soft corner for all four-legged creatures.

She would participate in awareness drives, bring injured and sick stray animals to the vet and feed the strays on a regular basis. But the incident with Julie, the-now-happy-and-healthy-pup, made her aware of an entirely new way of caring for animals.

Aaditi came across Julie, a 1-year-old pup that had been in a road accident with serious injuries to her spine. After the vet’s diagnosis, Aaditi brought Julie home and started taking care of her. Being a physiotherapist, she decided to try some treatments on Julie and to her delight, observed that Julie was responding to the therapy.

“And sure enough, within a period of 6 months, Julie was back on her feet. It turned out that her spine wasn’t broken, only compressed. That’s when I realised that this can be a life-saving option for so many paralysed dogs. Due to lack of facilities here in our state, 90% of paralysed dogs are either put to sleep or they diedue to bed sores and lack of care. When I found out that it was possible for many such dogs to be able to walk again with physiotherapy, I decided to take it upon myself to make this happen,” says Aaditi.

Also read: From Cats to Monkeys – This Bareilly Resident Has 46 Animals Living in Her Two-Bedroom Flat

Aaditi has been using physiotherapy on injured animals at her NGO POSH Foundation and the results have been incredible.

She has noticed that physiotherapy induces positive changes like decrease in pain; increase in the overall strength; joint flexibility & mobility and improvement in balance.

POSH Foundation works in different areas like rescuing dogs and other stray animals, creating awareness among people as well as fighting for animal rights. The NGO facilitates adoption of stray dogs, provides sterilization, and offers first aid and treatment to sick and injured animals.

“Our canine rescue and recovery unit Nirvana has been taking care of several animals like rabbits, dogs, cats, goats, deer that get into road accidents and birds like kites that get injured because of electricity wires. However, working with paralysed animals has been difficult since we don’t have enough equipment to treat them,” says Aaditi.

Aaditi plans to set up a physiotherapy unit at POSH, where she and her team would be able to care for paralysed animals in a proper manner, combining the professional expertise of physiotherapists and the aid of the equipment. The NGO, therefore, has taken the route of crowdfunding.

“We want to have a canine treadmill, ultrasound therapy, a TENS unit for electrical nerve stimulation, a balance board, a BOSU board, a fitness ball, a small elevated pool for paralyzed and old dogs and a 15×30 room with exercise station. I hope we are able to achieve our target,” says Aaditi.

Also read: Heartwarming Highlights: 12 Times India Came Together to Help its Animals in 2016

POSH Foundation has set up a crowdfunding campaign on Milaap for its animal physiotherapy centre. To donate for the cause, click here. To know more about POSH Foundation, visit its website here and Facebook page here.

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