We have had so many new patient referrals this month which have been so interesting with such a variety of diagnoses. All the dogs have been such a pleasure to assess and we look forward to rehabilitating them and getting them back to enjoying their daily activities!
Our treadmill is such an important piece of equipment that we use everyday. We always ensure it is in tiptop condition for our clients by cleaning it everyday and testing the water quality multiple times a day
Installing some mirrors outside of our treadmill allows us to monitor your dogs gait throughout their treadmill session. This ensures we can make adjustments to various treadmill parameters if something isn’t quite right!
There are lots of different tools we can use in the underwater treadmill to facilitate our patients. For example we can assist with weight bearing or improve proprioception amongst other things. This is useful for a huge array of conditions to optimise the recovery process #watertreatment #watertreadmill #watertreadmillfordogs #physiotherapy #dog #puppy #rehab #caninerehabtherapist
When a dog is swimming they utilise all their joints and achieve a much higher range of movement compared to on land. This can help with a number of issues including arthritis, fitness, post-op and general mobility difficulties. Check out the video below to see an underwater perspective of a dog swimming #swimming #hydrotherapy #dog #canine #caninerehabtherapist #exercise #strengthening #strength #puppy
We often prescribe home exercises for our clients to ensure they gain strength, mobility and therefore comfort. It isn’t just rehabilitation cases we work with, we can also provide strengthening exercises for the working dog to optimise their performance #exercise #exercises #exercisemotivation #physiotherapy #caninerehabtherapist #canine #dog #puppy
This is the beautiful Raven demonstrating some exercises we do in the underwater treadmill. It isn’t all about the walking, we can utilise the waters properties to perform various exercises to enhance rehabilitation plans #hydrotherapy🌊 #dog #canine #rehab #physiotherapy #puppy #strengh #strengthtraining #exercise
We love seeing our clients this happy to receive their treatment. Whether it’s maintenance, post-operation or general fitness, we can help a wide variety of issues so get in touch for more information on how we can help your dog #dog #puppy #rehab #rehabilitation #veterinary #physiotherapy #fitness #strengthtraining #strength #hydrotherapy #postoftheday
Here is the lovely Milo enjoying his epaxial massage and laser therapy. He likes to look out the window whilst receiving his treatment so he knows what’s going on outside. Maintenance treatment that he receives keeps him in top health to enjoy his long walks and playtime. If you feel your dog could benefit from this then please get in touch #dog #dogsofsocialmedia #puppy #caninerehab #rehabilitation #physiotherapy #hydrotherapy #veterinary #postoftheday
Here is one of our lovely clients demonstrating a portion of his proprioceptive course. We often use rehabilitation exercises and equipment to strengthen specific areas of the body to provide support to joints and improve movement #caninerehab #caninerehabtherapist #caninerehabilitation #dog #puppy #veterianry #physiotherapy #rehab #exercise #strengthen #strengthtraining
Did you know in the rehab world a three legged dog is known as a tri-paw.
Here is one of our lovely clients demonstrating that the underwater treadmill can still be used effectively when he only has three legs. Hydrotherapy can be highly beneficial for a range of conditions and cases so get in touch if you’d like to know more #hydrotherapy #dog #caninerehabtherapist #puppy #tripawdsofinstagram #watertreadmill #watertreadmillfordogs
Attention all furry friends! Burnside Animal Rehabilitation Centre is now ready to beat the heat with our new air conditioning system that was installed today. No more panting and sweating during your treatments, so you can focus completely on your rehabilitation.
Come give it a try and let us know how cool you feel! 🐾❄️
#AirConditioning #CoolPets #BurnsideAnimalRehabilitationCentre #VeterinaryPhysiotherapy
Hydrotherapy isn’t just swimming!
We can use the water to help with strengthening, proprioception and weightbearing. In between the swim sections the dogs need to rest but this time can still be used to promote the above.
Here is Snoopy carrying out a couple of exercises designed to encourage weightbearing and strengthening of the hindlimbs. We still have him half immersed in the water so he has some support but also has to work against the water when perfecting his sit- stand.
Some of our dogs won’t be asked to swim at all - all of the hydrotherapy can be on the pods with their feet on the ground if that’s what’s most appropriate. 🐶 💦
Water safety
Here at Burnside we take water safety really seriously. As well as ensuring the dogs enter the water safely, we ensure that they swim safely too.
We don’t throw toys into the water and ask dogs to retrieve them off the water line. Although this looks fun it carries the risk of water ingestion and this can cause water intoxication as discussed in a previous post.
Here is Snoopy showing us how we can use toys safely to encourage power up in the water and make it fun 😀 Notice he doesn’t retrieve off the water line, I give him the toy at the end as a reward. 😃
Getting in the pool:
Here we have the beautiful Doza showing us the safest way to enter our pool. Beautifully controlled with a little help from me.
We are super boring here at Burnside and don’t allow our dogs to take flying jumps from the side or leap off the pods into the pool. Here is why:
1. It’s dangerous - jumping from the side or pods is not controllable and we can’t protect any limbs or heads from being squashed or hit or injured from the impact of the water or from hitting a side of the pool. We want them to enter in a controlled manner where we have full control over all the limbs and accidents can’t happen.
2. We don’t want to compromise surgical
procedures that they may be recovering from. Limbs that are weak or aren’t fully healed are very vulnerable to re injury and the force of the water on impact is higher than you think!
3. Water intoxication: if dogs are repeatedly jumping into water, their head is likely to go under and mouths are likely to be open - this means they are at risk of swallowing water which puts them at increased risk of water intoxication which is rare but can be fatal.
4. Everything should be therapeutic - we want to have the best outcome possible, controlled entry in and out of the pool involves greater muscle control and contraction of muscle fibres as the dog has to move slowly and steadily which works the muscles super hard.
5. If we don’t feel the dog can manage the ramp safely or is very early post op then we will lift them straight over the side onto our underwater pods to minimise stress on joints.
Showering: This is done before and after every hydrotherapy session but do you know why we do this?
1. Removes excess dirt and dust to help keep our water as clean as possible 💦
2. You can see here I use the shower head in diagonal strokes across Tyrone’s body - this is to stimulate his muscle slings and get him thinking about using the whole of his body in the water in the most efficient way.
3. I then use the shower head to stimulate specific muscles that I would like him to engage in the session. By giving a sensory stimulation you stimulate the receptors to the brain and hopefully get more efficient movement and contraction of the muscles you want the animal to use.
4. Alternatively at the end of the session I will use the shower head and warm water tk massage muscles that he has used in the session to prevent muscle soreness post session.
So even our showers are therapeutic! 🌧️
Cats do physio too!
Cats can benefit from physiotherapy just as much as dogs do.
As cats get older they can suffer from arthritis- it is particularly common in cats aged 12 or over (in a study published in 2002, two-thirds of cats over 12 showed evidence of arthritis in their limb joints). Courtesy of Cats protection.
This is Pepper, Pepper started with a strange gait pattern early last year and was sent for numerous scans and investigations. Unfortunately nothing was found that indicated a diagnosis so she has returned to us to try and look at improving her walking pattern. Pepper doesn’t appear to be in any pain but has a significant foot drop which she compensates for by hooking and skipping her left hip when on land. We decided to try some underwater treadmill to see if we could strengthen the muscles she should be using and facilitate a more normal gait pattern. As you can see from the first part of the video she really struggled to place her foot against the resistance of the water as she couldn’t use her normal flick through that she does on land - her foot was knuckling on every step and she really struggled to move forwards even with proprioceptive input from us. So we made her a toe up sling from vet wrap to assist her ankle. As you can see it worked a treat and we can now focus on strengthening the correct muscles and hopefully improve her patterning on land eventually.
✨️ Introducing Heidi ✨️
We introduce Heidi to you all. Firstly she is a complete superstar, we adore her! Heidi underwent bilateral TPLO surgery and has a diagnosis of lumbosacral disease. Using the under water treadmill and proprioceptive input from the therapist, this encourages longer stride length and activation of key muscle groups💪
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#veterinary #veterinaryphysiotherapy #orthopaedic
#surgery #hydrotherapy #hydrotherapist #physiotherapy #physiotherapy #rehabilitation #underwatertreadmill #treadmill #canine #dogsofinstagram #dog #dogstagram
