Rehabilitation Of Your Pet: Tips
At some point in life, animals can suffer accidents or events that compromise their health . Depending on the severity, your pet’s rehabilitation may depend on physical therapy sessions. It is necessary to be attentive and follow the indications given by the vet .
Your pet’s rehabilitation will be more effective if you know all the details about this type of treatment. Below, we’ll show you some guidelines to consider:
Why Your Pet’s Rehab Is Necessary
The rehabilitation or physical therapy is indicated for different purposes. It all depends on the animal’s condition and situation. Next, we’ll look at the most frequent cases:
- Complete recovery from an injury caused by an accident or injury.
- Recovery after major surgery or acceleration of the process, with relief from pain or inflammation.
- Neurological or orthopedic causes.
- Prevention of other damage to the animal’s physiology, such as atrophy due to periods of immobility.
- Reduce or eliminate the possibility of remaining permanently disabled.
- Eliminate or alleviate disease sequelae.
- Need for strengthening due to loss of muscle mass.
- Ensure the pet’s quality of life.
How is your pet rehabilitated?
Rehabilitation includes a number of sessions held with the frequency indicated by the expert. Sessions between an hour and an hour and a half, several times a week, may be indicated.
Some techniques are passive, that is, they are received by the animal through the physiotherapist. Others are active, in which the pet must perform certain actions.
Different exercises are performed in physiotherapy sessions. For example:
- Active and passive exercise. It involves various types of exercises to condition muscles, tendons or bones.
- Cold and heat. Some therapies aimed at diseases that affect the muscles consist of applying cold or heat, putting on compresses or bathing.
- Massages. The same therapeutic benefits of massage in humans apply to animals. However, we must take into account the physiological or constitutive differences of each animal.
- Hydrotherapy. The pressure exerted by water, whether applied directly or by immersion, offers health restitution benefits in specific cases.
- Other therapies. Certain technologies have found application for rehabilitation, both in humans and animals. For example, lasers ( laser therapy ), ultrasound (short waves) and electricity ( electrotherapy ).
Tips for Rehabilitation of Your Pet
The suggestions below are a guide for owners to follow. Thus, they can help pets that are on a physical therapy program. These recommendations are important for the process to be successful. In this way, it will be possible to recover the animal’s health.
- Follow the pet through the sessions. The animal will feel safer, less stressed and affectionately accompanied. Thus, it will be possible to improve the fluidity of the process.
- Go to all your scheduled rehab sessions. Missing some of the sessions can cause the animal to lose all previous work. And therefore, have to start over from scratch. This will also cause the recovery process to take longer than necessary.
- Perform the techniques that are recommended for doing at home. Also, take measures related to the animal’s lifestyle. Especially, take into account the recommendations about physical mobility.
- Follow the medication schedule. If the animal has been medicated, this is part of the recovery protocol. Failure to comply can hamper recovery.
- It is necessary to take into account the contraindicated actions and respect the prohibitions. After all, they are aligned with the same rehabilitation program.
More Rehab Tips
- Clear any doubts that arise about physical therapy. You can even write them down. After all, any doubt can mean the difference between a quick or slow recovery of the animal.
- Make sure the animal is fully healed or that the goals of the rehabilitation program have been met. For this, it is necessary to attend the last veterinary control appointment. In it, the doctor will give the results and confirmation of the animal’s condition.
- Provide as much affection and attention as possible. The security that the animal feels will be directly related to its desire to improve. This will directly affect the progress of the treatment. It is important to provide comfort, hygiene and ventilation to the animal. In addition, it is also necessary to reduce the factors that can cause stress .
- As long as the process lasts, we should make sure that all aspects of your health are okay. Among them, feeding, urination, bowel movements and mood, among others.
Following these recommendations increases the chances that your pet’s rehabilitation will lead to a full recovery.
