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.
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4 comments:
many years ago one of my canine family members had a really bad back problem which made it very difficult to walk without pain - i found a wonderful horse natural therapist who was prepared to treat my dog - he used manipulation only with amazing results... wasn't long before my boy was back running around... definitely recommend it parlance...
Thanks, proud womon, it's good to get other people's opinions. I think this type of therapy is more accepted these days, but it still surprises me to talk to people who think their dog will just recover from surgery without any therapies.
Penny is so lucky that she has you! She's coming along beautifully!
Mitch and Molly, you are two very lucky dogs also!
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