What Happens To People While Animals Have Hydrotherapy?
Last Monday, I came across a video of a paralysed cat having hydrotherapy. On Tuesday, I posted it on my blog, hoping to make some readers smile as London recovered from the previous day’s heatwave. I’m a cat owner and cat lover, so I didn’t think much of it. Until yesterday, when I saw this video of a fox also having hydrotherapy.
As a charity worker and disability blogger, I’ve heard countless stories of children waiting so long for wheelchairs that by the time the chairs arrive, they no longer meet the children’s needs. One story stays with me, of a man who slept in his wheelchair for years because he wasn’t provided with physiotherapy as an adult and became too stiff to get into his bed.
I’ve heard stories of disabled children being provided with a limited amount of nappies per day for free from their local authority. Nappies. Would anyone dream of asking an able bodied child to limit the number of nappies they fill in a day?
I’ve heard stories of wheelchair users having to prove they are disabled to get the support they desperately need. Stories of loving families almost torn apart by a lack of funding for respite care for severely disabled children.
Most recently, as the Government plans spending cuts and welfare reforms that will directly affect disabled people, I’ve heard stories of real worry and fear about what will happen when disabled people fail assessments for benefits they need to survive. Yet cats and foxes are receiving hydrotherapy, and all we can do is smile. I’ve admitted to smiling as much as anyone, but when the smile faded I stopped, remembered everything I’ve written above, and wondered, am I the only one who sees something wrong here?
If that cat and fox had been children or young people, would they have received the support they needed to heal their broken paws? I hope so, but I have my doubts. Would their owners and rescuers have considered funding hydrotherapy sessions for two disabled children at the same time? I wonder if this thought ever even crossed their minds.
Animal lovers- I love my pet just as much as you love yours. One day, I hope we’ll all be free to treat animals like people. But first, I, for one, think we really should stop treating people like animals.
Same Difference 
Of course, cats and foxes aren’t getting their therapies on the NHS, you have to pay for veterinary bills.
Disabled people who can afford therapies (e.g. the Cameron family) get those therapies.
Though I will concede that veterinary care is cheaper than human private healthcare. I had to wait 9 months to get a sideways wisdom tooth extracted under a general anaesthetic. After the vet spotted that one of my cat’s teeth had gone rotten she had is out a couple of days later, under a general, and it cost me £90. If my tooth extraction had cost £90 I’d have had it done private straight away.
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“I’ve heard stories of wheelchair users having to prove they are disabled to get the support they desperately need.”
There are plenty of stories of disabled users not being able to get wheelchairs they can actually use because local PCT Wheelchair Services organisations won’t prescribe a powerchair if you can walk even a handful of feet – no matter if you lack the upper body strength to propel a manual chair, or if they consider your house too small.
As for hydrotherapy, I’ve had it in the past, but it was a specialist referral to a limited asset, not something I could access regularly, no matter how useful it might have been.
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I suggest you dig into your pockets then and set up a charity yourself then.
People are always very quick to criticise how other people spend their money. You’ve obviously done no research, and are just having a pointless whinge about things you know nothing about, and for that reason, I’m out.
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Dave the first part of your comment doesn’t surprise me- I was expecting to get it many more times!
But why do you say I’ve done no research, when my ‘research’ or the ‘proof’ of my point has been listed in the post?
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samedifference1 – Firstly apologies if I came across as rude, insulting strangers makes me feel like a big strong man, but with you having replied so eloquently I feel compelled to do the same. (hopefully)
My issue is this – You are comparing government cuts to healthcare with people privately funding treatment for animals. I cannot understand it as they are completly different things.
It’s like bemoaning someone rescuing a cat from a burning building, because due to cuts to the fire service someone elsewhere at a different time burnt to death.
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>> My issue is this – You are comparing government cuts to healthcare with people privately funding treatment for animals. I cannot understand it as they are completly different things. <<
From your perspective, perhaps, but look at it this way: society exists to provide collectively for the individual in a way that the individual cannot, economies of scale if you like. One of the functions of society is to provide medical care to those who need it, but if the care provided to animals is routinely better than that provided to people, then doesn't that indicate that society is failing to reach the necessary grade?
It's my experience that society has an incredibly naive view of the level of support provided to those who need it — an assumption that if you need hydrotherapy or the like it will automatically be provided; or that someone who needs one will automatically be given a wheelchair suitable to their needs; that all disabled people are routinely given free cars. Common assumptions, all false.
Not only is society failing to make the grade, but it's lying to itself about it, and isn't that something worthy of discussion?
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–but if the care provided to animals is routinely better than that provided to people, then doesn’t that indicate that society is failing to reach the necessary grade?
That’s hit the nail on the head there David, Animal care isn’t routinely better.
–Not only is society failing to make the grade, but it’s lying to itself about it, and isn’t that something worthy of discussion?
Certainly, Im in full agreement, but this is a totally seperate issue to the
original post.
Are you sugesting no animals should be treated until every disabled person is given hydrotherapy?
Also, a giant leap of faith has been made here, because to me there is no correlation between a person giving money to help animals and a person giving money to help disabled.
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Dave: “Animal care isn’t routinely better.”
So why, after having hydrotherapy, or acupuncture, or a variety of other treatments am I routinely told that ideally I need it on a continuing basis, but the facilities simply aren’t there? Why have I been waiting for the appointment to see whether I am experiencing ongoing nerve damage (with the appropriate treatment predicated on and waiting for the results) for three months, with no sign yet of even an appointment date?
“Are you sugesting no animals should be treated until every disabled person is given hydrotherapy?”
No, I’m suggesting that if animals can get a treatment that is routinely not available to people, or is rationed in the way that I have experienced, then there is a problem with how we are treating people, not with how we are treating animals.
“a giant leap of faith has been made here, because to me there is no correlation between a person giving money to help animals and a person giving money to help disabled”
It’s not a leap of faith, you’ve missed _my_ point entirely (I can’t speak for the OP) which is not that people should give money to help disabled people, but that society should make charity unnecessary by recognising its responsibility to provide that care both freely and promptly at the point of need.
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PS – re the research comment, a few questions:
Who paid for the treatment for the animals?
Do these same people donate any time/money to help disabled people?
How much money is donated to help animals?
How much money is spent to help disabled people?
How many cats as a percentage are given hydrotherapy treatment against those that are put to sleep?
Although your cause is good to me this is the same tatcic as the daily mail used when reporting that the girl died due to the teachers striking when a branch fell on her head.
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