Women’s Month: the passion of Dr Price
After graduating in veterinary science, she went on to become a certified canine rehabilitation practitioner.
Bedfordview-born and raised veterinarian Dr Tamsin Price grew up with a love and passion for animals.
She told the NEWS she was born into a family that loved animals and was only natural that she followed her passion.
She matriculated in 2004 and went on to attain her Bachelor of Veterinary Science from Onderstepoort under the University of Pretoria in 2011.
“As a child, one of my favourite books was The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. I have a passion for compromised companions, pain management and geriatric care, ‘the Velveteens’ and the patients who need more than conventional medicine.
“These are the companions that given the right support, blossom back to life,” she said.
After graduating in veterinary science, she went on to become a certified canine rehabilitation practitioner.
“I received my postgraduate diploma from the University of Tennessee in 2014. I am also a certified veterinary acupuncturist and received training through the Chi Institute at the University of Florida,” Price said.
“It was in my final year as a veterinary student that I was exposed to the power of rehabilitation. I was assigned a surgery case. His name was Tabasco, a male Doberman that had cervical spondylomyelopathy or wobbler syndrome.
“This is a condition of the cervical spine where the spinal cord and/or nerve roots are compressed, causing pain and neurological compromise. Tabasco underwent the normal paths of treatment, namely radiographs, myelography and surgical decompression.”
After the surgery, Price waited for Tabasco to wake up.
“Tabasco awoke but his body did not, he was paralysed,” she said.
She turned to the medical and surgical team but was met with uncertainty as there was not much more that could conventionally be done.
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“I was shown to a room of coloured balls, heating pads, slings and hoisting apparatus.”
For the remainder of her time on that surgical rotation, Price and other veterinary nurse students worked tirelessly on Tabasco, lifting him, turning him, massaging him and moving him.
“We never gave up and neither did he. By the time I had to leave, Tabasco was standing and even though weakly, he was walking.
“Tabasco taught me there was more to veterinary medicine than the conventional.”
Price’s career came full circle when she joined the medical team at Bedfordview Veterinary Hospital and the doctors she had always looked up to – Dr Warnes, Dr Schmidt and Dr Kilian – as a companion rehabilitation specialist.
Today, she specialises in small animal rehabilitation, similar to human physical therapy techniques, to increase function and mobility of joints and muscles in animals.
“Animal rehabilitation can reduce pain and enhance recovery from injury, surgery, degenerative disease, age-related disease and obesity.
‘The goal of physical rehabilitation in animals is to improve quality of life, decrease pain and improve functionality. I have a passion for older patients and breathing new life into them requires using far more than just medicine,” Price said.
