Physiotherapy for dogs is a somewhat new concept for many dog lovers and dog parents because physiotherapy is associated mainly with humans.
Did you know that, unlike humans, dogs can suffer with arthritis from a very young age? If your dog’s ability to walk has changed, would you know what to do about it? Would you run your dog around a field for 30 minutes or go for an hour’s walk just 6 weeks post-surgery if they’d been on restricted exercise throughout this time?
Veterinary physiotherapy for dogs can help support you and your vet to keep your dog fit and strong, whether they are recovering from an injury or simply getting older and struggling with getting around.
I work alongside your vet to assess and design a treatment programme individual to your dog. This may include exercises, pain relief with laser treatment, stretches and soft tissue release. As the assessment and treatment is carried out in your pet’s home, I can also advise on any changes to the environment which would help enrich your dog’s life and minimise any potential hazards.
My name is Carol Wyse, and I initially trained as a human physiotherapist. I have over 22 years of experience, retraining for 2 years to become a registered ACPAT veterinary physiotherapist. I am hugely passionate about animal health and welfare and have a particular love of dogs of all shapes and sizes, but I also treat cats and other small furries! I love working with owners to improve the quality of life and functional abilities of their animal.
Common conditions I treat include:
- Arthritis (again this can affect really young dogs not just your golden oldies)
- Knee problems (e.g. subluxing patellas and cruciate ligament repairs)
- Hip problems (e.g. hip dysplasia, femoral head removal)
- Spinal problems (e.g. disc bulges and paralysis)
- Neurological conditions (e.g.strokes, nerve damage, degenerative myelopathies)
An example of one gorgeous boy I have treated is Schlooby (owners’ permission to share). He is a young Dachshund who unfortunately had two incidents of a disc in his back “popping” and causing paralysis in his back legs. After spinal surgery, where the protruding disc material was removed, initially he would drag himself around with his front legs. With intensive physiotherapy he now runs around as if nothing had happened. Therapy started slowly as he needed to heal post operative. We started with the owners being taught how to stand him onto all 4s and rock him gently side to side and back and forwards. They provided lots of sensory stimulation to his hind limbs and regularly bent and stretched them out. As the weeks went on, we added harder exercises to encourage core control and strength of his recovering muscles. Hydrotherapy on the water treadmill provided support, which allowed him to start walking using both legs. The time spent on this and the depth of the water were altered over time to make him work harder. After the first 4 weeks of recovery he was allowed to start short 5 minute lead walks (on soft ground) and this was increased weekly. His owners were amazing in doing their homework and this really paid off – as you can see he is now a happy, bouncy little chap.
Note from Dogward.com – We can see from the example above, physiotherapy for dogs is not a fad. It’s serious stuff.
The above article is by Carol Wyse who is a veterinary physiotherapist in UK and her website is leaps-and-hounds.co.uk
Photo by Joséphine Menge on Unsplash
I am a dog lover and creator of this site. I am also the author of ‘Keep Sleeping Keep Missing- if only you knew’ (available on Amazon, Flipkart, Kobo, Google Store, etc.).
