Hydrotherapy & Rehabilitation
Through programs such as our Ashford adoption facility and animal sanctuary, partnerships with local municipal shelters, and insights gathered from thousands of Helpline calls each year, we are able to identify patterns and deepen our knowledge of the needs in animal welfare. Because of our Sanctuary and various programs, we often cater to animals with special needs – from senior pets to animals with complex medical care and rehabilitation needs. We also have the unique opportunity to cross reference the types of pets in the most need which are often seniors and those with medical or emotional special needs.
As we expanded our Sanctuary campus, we felt it important to create a physical therapeutic center. In researching options and developing our Valerie Friedman Healing Center, we narrowed in on the benefits of hydrotherapy with an underwater treadmill.
An underwater treadmill is an enclosed treadmill with the ability to fill with water once the patient is inside. We have the Oasis Pro and a 400-gallon water tank. The water is filtered and treated with chlorine and bromine and heated to around 90 degrees. It has a moving treadmill, with increasing speeds and options to go forwards or backwards, that works when dry or submerged in water, allowing the dogs to walk or trot while submerged.
Underwater treadmill sessions are facilitated by trained professionals and veterinarians.
Customized for all canine patients and their needs, the three main focuses are:
- Decrease pain
- Optimize gait
- Build resistance
Hydrotherapy has multiple benefits when it comes to decreasing pain. When the dog is fully submerged, buoyancy in the water decreases the pressure and weight carried by joints and muscles. The heated water can decrease inflammation and acts as a therapeutic sensory input – a dog will focus some attention to the water touching the skin, diverting the focus from pain or discomfort. The combinations of physical and sensory therapies allow the dog to walk more comfortably with a corrected gait much easier than out of the water.
Correcting the pet’s gait is an important aspect of physical therapy. Arthritis, ACL surgery, or stiffness with aging can all cause a pet to walk “funny” due to pain. Even after the pain issue has been managed with surgery or medications, your pet may still walk in the manner they were used to when they were in pain.
Picture a rock in your shoe, and how you would walk around if you couldn’t remove the rock. Your body would recognize the pain and discomfort, and you may start to limp, you may direct more weight to different areas of your feet, using different muscles in your legs and hips to compensate, and so forth. Eventually your body may find a “funny” way to walk that doesn’t cause as much pain as stepping on the rock directly. After a week, you remove the rock, but damage has already been done to the body. This same concept is why hydrotherapy aids correcting a pet’s gait – or healing the damage.
Continued therapy builds resistance as the body becomes fitter, less inflamed or painful, which will also result in improved mental and emotional health too!
Cooperative Care: Helping Pets get Comfortable with PT
As caretakers and pet guardians, we know mental and physical wellbeing of our pet will move in a positive direction when our pet is feeling better. Since we can’t have a discussion with our pets about hydrotherapy or physical therapy (PT), we want to slowly acclimate them to the equipment and setting.
Let your dog explore the room and around the treadmill with freedom.
Placing treats around the treadmill and rewarding interaction towards the treadmill is a great first step.
Once the dog seems comfortable in the room, you can begin adding treats to the steps to the treadmill or even inside. It’s best to go at the dog’s pace, keeping initial sessions short and fun as a positive association.
Increase your goals one step at a time and eventually the dog will be able to go into the treadmill and close the door without causing stress. Silicone lick-mats with suction cups on the back are a great tool for the underwater treadmill! We can place mats on the sides of the interior and the back of the treadmill door to increase the pattern of positive association when in the equipment.
Sticking to our step-by-step approach, water is eventually added while observing the dog for any stress signals. Each step is increased when the dog seems calm and consenting to the therapy.
The end goal is the dog comfortably walking while her body is submerged within the underwater treadmill for a full therapy session.
Within a normal session, the dog enters the treadmill while it is empty. Treats, lick mats, and praise too of course. Filtered 90* water fills the underwater treadmill to a mid-chest height on the dog so their limbs and most body weight is underwater, relieving pressure from joints.
The underwater treadmill is started and speed is adjusted incrementally to whatever is the appropriate speed for the patient. Our Sanctuary dogs, like Scout and Gidget, have been using the underwater treadmill for full sessions now.
Scout, as usual, has been a wonderful physical therapy (PT) patient! After he tore his ACL last year, we’ve used the treadmill to keep him strong and help keep his weight down so we can try to prevent him tearing his other ACL. Tearing the second ACL is a high probability without PT. So far, so good! His underwater treadmill session help to maintain muscle mass in a low-key manner. He loves to go to the healing center each week for his treadmill time!
Staff have been thrilled with Gidget’s improvement with her historical limping. We have seen her limp less and have less severe instances of limping now that she uses the underwater treadmill regularly. It has been such a wonderful form of exercise for her since it is easier on her joints, therapeutic for her muscles and low impact. She doesn’t have any problems using the treadmill after having used a cooperative care approach to show her that it is a nice place to be!
We have been using our cooperative care approach with Coal to get him comfy with the treadmill setting, noises, and feeling of the water. He has been doing great with his sessions; he was initially nervous with the beeping noises made when we turn on the treadmill and the noise it makes when water begins to fill. By allowing him freedom to enter and exit at will while creative additional positive associations, Coal has learned those ‘beeps’ aren’t anything to fear. Now, he doesn’t even react when we begin to fill the underwater treadmill. We can’t wait to get him fully submerged to see where his therapy will take him!
