Just like physical therapists in human medicine, we use a variety of modalities to help our patients. Therapeutic exercises are used to increase strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness. We have low-level laser therapy to reduce pain and inflammation as well as an underwater treadmill to provide low-impact exercise.
When you schedule an initial consult, plan on an hour-long visit. We will make an assessment about your companion’s condition, functional challenges, goals for therapy, take muscle and joint measurements and develop a plan for therapy. We always look at the patient as a whole, addressing compensatory issues (for example an altered gait or muscle pain), recommending dietary supplements and medications as necessary.
Frequency of physical rehabilitation therapy visits are generally recommended once to twice weekly to start, but may vary on an individual basis. For those visits, plan on 45-60 minutes. We incorporate low-level laser therapy, stretching, massage, core strengthening and therapeutic exercise (often including the underwater treadmill) into those visits. Reviewing exercises and restrictions at home is an important aspect to getting your dog or cat back to normal. We will send you home with written instructions for daily exercises.
Conditions that can benefit from rehab include:
- Post-operative orthopedic surgery (such as cruciate repair)
- Orthopedic non-surgical management
- Arthritis
- Obesity and metabolic disease (such as diabetes)
- After traumatic injury
- Congenital issues
- Sporting dog conditioning
- Intervertebral disc disease
- Hind end weakness and degenerative myelopathy
