Canine rehabilitation is an important aspect of a dog’s overall well-being, especially if they are aging, recovering from an injury, or have mobility issues. Engaging in structured exercises with a rehabilitation expert can help pets rebuild strength, improve muscle tone, prevent atrophy, improve balance, and increase range of motion. Physical therapy is generally recommended for dogs and other pets recovering from skeletal or muscular injuries, healing from surgery, suffering from a neurological problem, delaying degenerative diseases, or improving quality of life of the animal.
Here are some different types of physical therapy available for your pet:
Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy uses water to provide buoyancy and resistance during rehabilitation exercises. Water reduces the weight and pressure on a dog or cat’s joints, making it easier for the animal to move and exercise.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy
- Water resistance helps animals improve muscle mass and strength.
- May help improve an animal’s range of motion
- Helps overweight pets lose weight and increase endurance
- Reduce joint pain and make exercise easier
Mobility conditions that benefit from water therapy include:
- CCL and other knee injuries
- DIIV
- FCE
- Arthritis
- Total hip osteotomy
Treadmill exercises
Walking on a treadmill helps animals strengthen their muscles while working on their gait and proprioception. This is especially important for animals healing from orthopedic injuries or suffering from an abnormal gait. Most treadmill walks start slowly, giving the pet time to adjust and often for short periods of time.
Benefits of Canine Treadmills
- Helping Animals Heal from an Orthopedic Injury
- Improve range of motion
- Prevent muscle atrophy and rebuild muscles
- Help with paw placement and work on gait problems
Mobility conditions where treadmill walks can help your pet:
- Hip dysplasia and hip pain
- Rebuilding leg strength after surgery
- Ruptured ligaments
- CCL injury
- Neurological disorders
Passive range of motion
Passive range of motion exercises occur when a CCRP manually moves and stretches an animal’s joint to work on its comfortable range of motion without putting weight on it. PROM exercises are more common in animals after surgery, tissue injuries, or paralyzed animals that cannot support their own weight. Stretching the joint promotes circulation and helps the animal maintain good joint health. Canine passive range of motion exercises are not intended to prevent muscle atrophy or increase strength.
Your pet professional may recommend several stretching sessions throughout the day during your pet’s treatment plan. Ask them to walk you through the steps so you can work with your pet at home. Be careful to never overstretch or extend your dog’s joint beyond what is comfortable, as this can cause further damage to the joints.
Benefits of PROM Exercise
- Prevention of muscle or joint contractures
- Increase blood flow
- Prevent joint degeneration
Mobility conditions where passive range of motion is beneficial:
- Pets with hip and shoulder problems
- The animal has lost all its range of movement
- Recovery from TPLO Surgery
- Paralysis
- Recovering from IVDD Surgery
Mobility Products to Enhance Rehabilitation Therapy
Depending on a dog’s condition or needs, they sometimes need a little extra help from a canine mobility aid during their rehabilitation therapy.
Walkin’ Wheels Dog Wheelchair
A dog wheelchair can benefit many patients during their healing and recovery. A wheelchair provides a pet with additional support and stability while promoting continued mobility. Additionally, a wheelchair relieves some of the weight placed on a dog or cat’s joints, making it easier for them to walk without supporting their full weight.
A wheelchair is beneficial for animals suffering from partial or complete paralysis to keep them upright and mobile independently. A dog wheelchair is also beneficial for pets with joint pain or skeletal injuries who have difficulty supporting their full weight on their injured limbs.
Seamless training socks
Animals with proprioceptive problems, dragging their legs and having difficulty with their gait can use the Seamless training sock to improve their rehabilitation efforts.
The Anti-Joint Device is intended to be used for short intervals to help correct a dog’s paw placement and retrain him to walk without dragging his front or rear legs. The seamless training sock can be used during walking exercises, land treadmills, or water treadmill therapy sessions.
VertebraVe back brace for dogs
Dogs healing from a spinal injury or disc problem may wear a canine back brace to provide spinal stability and limit their range of motion.
THE vertebrate The dog back support supports the spine and surrounding muscles to prevent further injury and relieve your dog’s back pain. This is ideal for dogs recovering from spinal issues like IVDD.
Hip-EEZ canine hip orthosis
Canine hip dysplasia causes debilitating pain that can impact a dog’s mobility and willingness to exercise.
THE Hip-EEZ Hip Support System provides a feeling of lift and compression that relieves hip pain and makes it easier for dogs to walk. For rehabilitation purposes, the Hip-EEZ is designed with accessories to customize the orthosis to accommodate different hip conditions.
Hip donut
Combine the Hip Donut with the Hip-EEZ System to cushion, treat and protect the hip joint from developing pressure sores. The donut redistributes the dog’s weight away from the bony joint to prevent the formation of decubital ulcers in downy dogs.
Hip Bridge
The Hip Bridge is placed over the hip joint and attaches to the Hip-EEZ to help treat mild to moderate hip subluxation. When worn during regular rehabilitation therapy, the bridge applies pressure to the joint holding the hip joint in place and preventing subluxations from occurring.
Cross support
The cross assist is worn high between a dog’s thighs to prevent hind leg crossing in dogs with weakened hind legs. When worn, the cross assist keeps the dog’s legs apart and can help them walk normally without crossing their back legs.