PetMD has a great article today on physical therapy for pets.
When Penny damaged her cruciate ligament, I searched for reliable information about what to do, and I would have loved to have read this article.
Eventually we settled on a traditional repair of her cruciate ligament damage, and were happy with the surgery, but the vets did not emphasise the necessity for follow-up therapy. However, from research on the Net we decided it would be helpful.
I'm glad we did, because I don't believe Penny would have recovered as well as she did, without the underwater treadmill, swimming and canine physiotherapy. We followed it up with a long period of home therapy, using exercises given to us by the canine physiotherapist, from Dogs in Motion. (And I'm excited to see that Dogs in Motion now has a blog!)
Dr. James St. Clair's home therapy booklet was a godsend also, and it became our bible for more than a year.
Penny still swims regularly, but looking back through my blog to compose this post has alerted me to the fact that perhaps we should also be doing ongoing home therapy. I'm going over right now to check out the Dogs in Motion blog.
Showing posts with label dogs in motion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogs in motion. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Saturday, 1 January 2011
a dog swims to start the new year
It was a wonderful way for Penny to start the new year - she swam at her old favorite spot in the Yarra river. We were a bit nervous about her first free swim since her cruciate surgery, but she seemed to take it in her stride - hmm...mixed metaphor there!
We are following the advice of our canine physiotherapist regarding Penny's recovery, and only introduce one new activity at a time, so that if she suffers a setback we will know what caused it.
However, this evening she seems fine after her swim.
For the last month we've been swimming twice weekly at Dogs in Motion, and Penny has built up to swimming for thirty minutes, so I felt fairly confident she would cope with a short swim in the river, but it was still a bit scary seeing her go out there. Thank goodness we didn't have to jump in and rescue her.
We are following the advice of our canine physiotherapist regarding Penny's recovery, and only introduce one new activity at a time, so that if she suffers a setback we will know what caused it.
However, this evening she seems fine after her swim.
For the last month we've been swimming twice weekly at Dogs in Motion, and Penny has built up to swimming for thirty minutes, so I felt fairly confident she would cope with a short swim in the river, but it was still a bit scary seeing her go out there. Thank goodness we didn't have to jump in and rescue her.
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