Physiotherapy offers wide ranging benefits to pets, including pain relief, improved mobility and increased strength and resilience. Pets suffering from orthopaedic and neurological conditions will find physiotherapy especially beneficial.
While dogs, cats and horses are most commonly treated with physio even birds, rats and guinea pigs have shown good results. “Providing knowledge about conditions that affect many household pets and how best to address and manage them is at the heart of what veterinary physiotherapy aims to provide along with making your pets as comfortable and as strong as they can be,” says veterinary physiotherapist Nicole Barr of Cape Animal Physiotherapy. Cape Animal Physiotherapy is partnering with EberVet Country Animal Clinic in offering physio to pets.
How physiotherapy is used
- Orthopaedic conditions – whether caused by trauma or by chronic disease such as cruciate disease or rupture, hip and elbow dysplasia and luxating patellas – will find great benefit from physiotherapy treatments, including laser therapy, TENS therapy, mobilisation techniques, massage, stretching, targeted exercises, kinesiology taping and hydrotherapies such as underwater treadmill and swimming.
- Soft tissue injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia such as strains, sprains, contusions and tears can also be addressed through physiotherapy treatment.
- Osteoarthritis is a common degenerative orthopaedic condition in many household pets and while it is incurable, physiotherapy aids in the management thereof. With the use of pain managing modalities in combination with manual techniques, mobility may be maintained for longer. The aim is to help the animal to perform its usual daily activities with as much comfort and ease as possible.
- When pets reach the end of their lives, physiotherapy will assist in determining when there has been a regression in quality of life from an orthopaedic and function perspective and when further veterinary intervention may be necessary.
- Neurological patients suffering from traumatic incidents or chronic conditions resulting in partial or complete loss of sensory and motor function, such as intervertebral/degenerative disc disease, spinal strokes (fibrocartilaginous embolisms), degenerative myelopathy and other conditions will benefit from physiotherapy. A loss of sensory and motor function may present as incoordination, slow and delayed functional reflexes and/or hindlimb or full body weakness or paralysis. Patients re-learn functions such as sitting, standing and walking and strength is maintained through electrotherapy and functional exercises. Incoordination may be improved by means of proprioceptive/body awareness exercises.
- In surgical patients, physiotherapy aids helps prepare patients for managing pain and maintains or builds muscle for a smoother post-surgical recovery. Early-stage post-surgical physiotherapy focuses on pain management along with maintenance of joint range of motion and encouraging use of the affected limb or area. Later-stage post-surgical physiotherapy focuses on strengthening the affected areas while also improving the extensibility of soft tissues such as muscles, tendons and ligaments.
- Conservative patients may be successfully managed through physiotherapy by means of a multi-modal approach including pain management, strengthening, owner education, home environment adaptations and weight management.
- When pets suffer from injury or from chronic conditions they develop compensatory patterns in the form of pain, muscle tightness and reactivity, joint stiffness and a loss of muscle bulk and strength. This results in reduced function and mobility, and more notably, predisposes to further injury or pathology. Physiotherapy finds and treats areas of compensation to aid in recovery of injury and in the management of chronic conditions.
- Obesity is a wide-spread problem amongst household pets and is commonly overlooked. Physiotherapy addresses body conditioning in pets by helping owners understand the dangers of obesity and the importance of controlled exercise, healthy diets and weight management. Physiotherapeutic exercises assist with weight loss, keeping animals functional and at a lean body weight.
- Lesser known cases in which physiotherapy will benefit pets is in the sporting arena through sports specific performance conditioning and injury prevention. Puppies also benefit from physiotherapy through puppy conditioning, desensitisation and learning water safety.
Knowing when your pet needs a vet isn’t always that easy to gauge. A veterinary physiotherapist can help identify when further veterinary intervention is necessary. “We educate and help pet owners understand how best to manage their injured or compromised pets by modifying the home environment, applying home exercise programmes, diet control and activity management. This is a key benefit of physiotherapy,” Nicole says.
