Interview with Marina Gonzalo (Spain)

At INDIBA Animal Health we love to see our users grow and succeed. This is the case with Marina Gonzalo, a veterinary specialist in rehabilitation and founder of Centre de Rehabilitació Animal de Referència (CRAR), who a year ago decided to open her center and venture into a little-known but much-needed area called  Animal Rehabilitation.

On the occasion of its anniversary, we did a small interview where she told us that with great courage, perseverance and a positive attitude, she has not only managed to cope with such a complicated year like the one we are having, but also how her business has been growing more and more everyday. Read it for yourselves!

How did you find out about INDIBA Animal Health?

I was introduced to INDIBA Animal Health through a veterinary colleague at a conference. My contact was passed to the salesperson and that’s how this journey began!

In which cases do you use INDIBA?

I use it almost for everything! Especially in tendon and muscle injuries (compensatory pain overloads) as well as in any injury where I want to improve the range of joint mobility and improve the flexibility of the tissues.

What is the most relevant effect that you have obtained in your treatments? In which patients/pathologies have the results of the treatments been most relevant/significant?

I have had a very good experience in cervicalgia and chronic thoracic disc protrusions. Patients leave walking and feeling good as new!

I had a very interesting patient that had a post-vaccination reaction that had been encysted for more than 2 weeks, and through regional treatment of both trapezius muscles it was absorbed in a few minutes.

This month of October marks a year since the opening of the center. What led you to decide to open a reference center in veterinary rehabilitation?

Before opening CRAR, I worked in a small rehabilitation room in Sant Cugat. Clients came to me because they wanted more options for their pets, since their head veterinarians did not know of professionals to refer them to. Barcelona is a city in which there are so many hospitals with many specialties, and I was surprised to find that there were no specialized centers in this field. When I finished the second year of the Master’s degree, the path was clear to me. The opportunity came and I couldn’t let it slip away.

Tell us about that experience of being an entrepreneur in a relatively new field of veterinary medicine.

The beginnings are hard, as in any project. Stumbling with all the bureaucracy and business filigree is not easy, but I think the key is to seek good professional advice.

Luckily, I wasn’t starting from scratch, because during my time as a mobile veterinarian, I was able to build good relationships with other colleagues, and clients came from day one.

On the other hand, when you are a professional in such a new field, it is easy to have insecurities and many doubts. You must fight for your recognition and you often meet other professionals who have been in the profession for years and can belittle all your work.

Also, the “impostor syndrome” is always there lurking, making you feel small and it makes you think that you are not worthy of such achievements.

Taking away all these moments of fragility, I couldn’t be happier. Without fainting, we are going to be one year old and the agenda is full everyday!

In your center you offer cutting-edge technologies, such as INDIBA Animal Health. What are the benefits of including them in your treatment protocols?

Patients tolerate the manual therapy much better, since the thermal and electrical effects produced creates a feeling of well-being and relaxation that would have been difficult for me to achieve with other therapies. INDIBA also allows me to treat large areas and go deep. In the end, I get a triple therapeutic effect – manual, thermal and electrical – all in one!

Once the animal already knows what the therapy consists of, many of them sit down and are ready to relax, and that is a plus that the owner or guardian of the animal values ​​very much.

I have patients who have already been discharged and their owners/guardians continue to request sessions, since the well-being effect is such that they want to continue to see their pets do that well.

Finally, what message can you give to those who are embarking on their path to rehabilitation?

Maintaining the illusion is essential, and this is how great successes are achieved, so we must not forget that we are people and we must also take care of ourselves. Reinventing yourself so as not to fall into the “burning out” syndrome and spending a little time every day thinking about how to improve and work at ease, I think, is very important.

We have a very powerful job and very visual, so social media are always great tools for us.

We greatly appreciate Marina for spending part of her valuable time with us and for telling us a little about this year of adventure. From INDIBA Animal Health, we wish her happy anniversary and many more years of success!

Related content:

INDIBA® Animal Health: a differential service for your practice