Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a popular and important tool in veterinary medicine following injury, surgical intervention, chronic pain, and/or neuromuscular dysfunction. Physical rehabilitation is helpful for injury prevention, recovery from trauma, and for promoting better quality of life for our pets.

Step 1: Assessment. The animal rehabilitation therapist will evaluate your animal’s movement, spinal and joint functions, strength, co-ordination, and other physical abilities. This will determine the impact of an injury, physical degeneration, or disability.

Step 2. Physical Diagnosis and Plan. The therapist will determine how to best restore functional movement to reduce pain or disability based on your animal’s condition, environmental factors, and lifestyle. The plan will be individualized, based on science, and encompassing both the pets and owner’s needs throughout the rehabilitation process.

Step 3. Treatment and Re-Evaluation. Rehabilitation therapy for animals uses multiple tools and methods which mimic those utilized in “Physical Therapy” for human patients, except our goal is to heal four legged patients. Manual therapy includes mobilizations, message therapy, and stretching. The therapist has specialized training in biomechanics of the spine, joints, and muscle origins/ insertions/ actions. We use “therapeutics”, which are tools or machines commonly utilized by “Physical Therapists” for humans. These include therapeutic ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, and cold laser therapy. An exercise prescription will be specifically designed to help your animal re-train their physical movements to neuromuscular normalcy. Our goal is have your pet be restored to a good quality of life.