My clinic fits in a van

A home-visit vet on chronic pain, acupuncture and laser therapy

Photo by the author: some of my patients waiting for their laser therapy session, during which they wear protective goggles to shield their eyes from the laser light.

I’m Ángela, a veterinarian. My clinic fits in a vann

After four years working in Norway I came home and started Ahimsa Cuidados Veterinarios, a home-visit practice in Cantabria, Spain. Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word that means doing no harm. I chose it because it describes how I want to work. A cat who hides under the bed at the sight of the carrier shouldn’t have to spend an hour in a waiting room.

I work mostly with cats, older animals and chronic pain. In people’s homes I do ultrasound, lab work and preventive care, and I combine internal medicine with acupuncture, therapeutic laser and magnetotherapy. I bring it all into one plan, because a good diagnosis decides which therapy makes sense, and each animal’s progress decides how it changes.

Pain is the part of veterinary medicine I care about most, and the part that gets missed most often.

Animals are very good at hiding it, and cats are even better. A cat who no longer jumps onto the sofa, or a dog who takes a while to get up in the morning, usually gets the same explanation. “He’s just getting old.” Very often, what’s behind it is pain that can be treated. This happens in Cantabria, in Oslo, and anywhere an older animal is asleep in someone’s home.

Many families don’t know that veterinary pain clinics exist, or that there are options beyond anti-inflammatories. If your animal has arthritis, an old injury, or has simply changed the way it moves, ask your vet about pain management. It’s a conversation worth having early.

If you like what I do, you can follow me on Instagram at @ahimsa.veterinaria. There I share how these therapies work, which signs of pain to watch for, and what a day looks like in a practice that goes to people’s homes. If it helps you, like and share. Every interaction carries the information a little further, and somewhere there’s someone who will finally understand why their cat stopped jumping up to the window.

If you live in Cantabria and travelling is hard for your animal, or for you, I can come to you.

Thank you for reading to the end. Every time you share @ahimsa.veterinaria, another family learns that their animal’s pain has more treatments than they thought.