Treatment Options

We offer a wide range of rehabilitative and fitness services to treat dogs from the senior to the athlete.

1. Aquatic Therapy

Aquatic therapy has become a valuable part of canine rehabilitation. It provides unique benefits that other forms of therapy cannot do. Also, it comes naturally to most canine patients and they enjoy it.

The basic principles and properties of water including relative density, buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure, viscosity and resistance, and surface tension, all have implications in rehabilitation.

These include:

The limbs bear less weight in water, which reduces load on painful joints, thus allowing more comfortable exercise.
Water pressure can reduce swelling.
Water resistance is useful for muscular strengthening and cardiovascular training.
The buoyant effects of water are stabilizing and help patients to do exercises in water that they cannot do on land.

Research shows that exercising in water is effective for improving strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, range of motion, agility and psychological well-being, while minimizing pain.

Most conditions treated can benefit from aquatic therapy, including but not limited to, CCL stabilization, post-op fracture repair, neurological conditions, tendinitis, gait abnormalities, and conditioning. Any disorder in which a dog is reluctant to use a limb or there is a lack of strength, range of motion, proprioceptive ability or weight-bearing status, can benefit. They are very useful with neurological patients in gait patterning where support of the water is helpful

How the Underwater Treadmill Works:

Underwater treadmills encourage walking or jogging with a more normal gait pattern than swimming does, thus it is often preferred. The height of the water can be adjusted, which alters buoyancy and joint motion.

Our unit itself has an entrance and exit door, a storage tank for water, a heater, filters and water treatment with bromine. Dogs typically walk into the treadmill, doors are sealed and shut, and water rises from the bottom to the desired level. The treadmill is then turned on to the appropriate speed. Occasionally, the therapist may accompany the patient to assist with gait training. After treatment, the water is pumped out and the doors are opened and the patient is dried off.

Research (Justin Shmalberg) demonstrates that the energy expenditure of dogs exercising in an underwater treadmill compared to a dry treadmill, was 50% more in 25cm of water.

2. manual therapy

3. therapeutic exercise

No modality in rehabilitation is more valuable than a set of highly trained hands of the practitioner.

Manual therapy involves using the therapist’s hands to improve mobility of soft tissues and joints, thereby improving function of the dog. This may include passive stretching and range of motion to specific areas, soft tissue massage and joint mobilization techniques.

All these work in harmony to reduce pain and improve function.

Therapeutic exercise is possibly the most valuable tool used in canine rehabilitation. Exercising with specific therapeutic goals in mind are vital to returning the dog to the best function possible.

Early limb use exercises improve active pain-free range of motion, increase muscle strength to allow weight-bearing, improve balance and performance of activities of daily living. Other goals are also to decrease lameness, improve aerobic capacity and prevent further injury.

Balance and proprioception exercises are important in a well-designed program as they help to restore normal balance, body awareness and function. Neurological conditions benefit greatly from these exercises. Recent evidence also suggests that musculoskeletal conditions and injuries also affect proprioception of the joints.

Advanced therapeutic exercises which build power, strength and speed are the final phases of returning the dog to optimum function.

Your dog will also benefit from a customized home exercise program, modified for each step of the rehabilitation process.