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Unique Assisted Therapy Animals

Therapy animals are used to support individuals with variety types of health conditions. These animals can be used to aid mental and physical disorders. Some of the mental conditions include anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dementia. While physical conditions include heart failure, epilepsy, stroke, and pain from cancer treatment.

There are a variety of types of therapy animals that each serve a specific purpose in aiding individuals through their health conditions. The most common type of therapy animal is a dog, but there is a larger range of animals that are able to help with more specific conditions. Moreover, horses are known to help individuals recovering from car accidents, surgery, or other life altering events that may inhibit an individuals ability to walk. When horses walk, they have a similar rhythm to when a human walks. Therefore, horses can ultimately help guide an injured patient to understand and adapt to the rhythm of walking. This can stimulate psychological and physical cues for an individual to gradually understand the concept of that type of movement. Another animal that is known to help with mobility are dolphins. These animals are known to help with mobility through water. Water therapy can help an injured patient build strength, when they are not stable enough to walk on land with the pull of gravity. Dolphins are nurturing animals that will help guide a patient with light body movement to build muscle. They are also known to make sounds that can help activate mental cues and stimulate a response in humans. Another unique animal that is used for therapy are llamas. Llamas are known to be more gentler and quieter than dogs, in order to specifically help elderly patients. They use their long necks in order to help guide patients to their wheelchairs. Lastly, there are many patients that suffer with allergies to animals that have fur. Therefore, snakes are a unique therapy animal that are used to aid patents without effecting their allergies. Snakes are known to help with stress and allow the patient to relieve their anxiety through tactile sensation of the snake scale texture. All in all, there are a large variety of therapy animals that can better aid a patients specific condition.