We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauryn Harker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauryn, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
My clinic is making a huge impact in the veterinary community of SoCal. We help on average 30 different pets daily and since Veterinary Physical Rehabilitation is all about restoring physical loss to veterinary patients, we are helping a lot of families. By helping pets regain or retain their physical abilities, we keep pets alive and living their best lives. The average physical therapy patient lives on average 2 years longer than their non-rehabbed counterparts. That means helping families keep their pets healthier and around for a lot longer.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I started Canine Rehabilitation of OC after years and years of working in veterinary general practice and veterinary emergency medicine. After so many years I really struggled with the harsh realities of the veterinary field and the devastating loss of each pet for its family. I longed to make a more personal impact with my patients and my clients. I wanted to see more healing in each case and be able to spend more time with each pet. I wanted to play more of a healing role and I wanted to be able to give more one-on-one time to each case. Being a former athlete, I was familiar with the pillars of physical therapy and felt the veterinary version would be a great fit. The process of even more veterinary school to become certified was well worth it.

My proudest achievement is the ability to improve the lives and happiness of so many veterinary patients. I love that my clinic is frequently the place turned to when other rehab attempts have failed. We see a lot of cases that have tried rehab services elsewhere with no results, and then we get to step in and really shine. One reason we’re so successful is that everyone on staff is a licensed medical professional that has had actual veterinary schooling. I think its wonderful to love animals and want wellness for them, but it takes more than that to have the knowledge and skill set to heal them and passion alone cannot make you successful in vet med.

Our staff is well versed in any disease, injury, or health issue you can think of so treating our patients becomes second nature and man have we seen some stuff! Collectively our team has over 150 years of clinic experience and ten medical licenses, with more licenses on the way.

One “life lesson” we learned along the way is that even though we are experienced, qualified, and ready to help every pet that walks, crawls, or is carried in through our door, not every pet owner is willing to put in the work to help their pet. When it comes to regaining strength, fighting off disease, or making changes necessary for the health and wellbeing of a pet, its not always up to us and we can only “guide” an owner into making the changes for their pet if they will accept our help.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love to take out of town friends to the beach and of course there is always sushi. I like to rent Duffy boats and toodle around the harbor. And my favorite park to sight-see is the Irvine Regional Park off Chapman. The local zoo there is absolutely charming.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Canine Rehabilitation of Orange County wouldn’t be the successful medical practice that it is without the help of some very smart and determined hardworking professionals. There are countless veterinary practices, veterinarians, RVT’s, and rescues that refer to us exclusively and have helped us grow our outreach and impact. In addition to our referral base, our own clinics media manager Tiffany Downing RVT has helped expand our impact and increase our visibility exponentially. Tiffany has helped CROC from the ground up and is very passionate about ensuring we are doing everything possible to be the absolute top of our skill set.

Website: www.caninerehaboc.com

Instagram: @caninerehaboc

Facebook: Facebook.com/caninerehaboc

Youtube: caninerehabilitationoc

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.