How Hydrotherapy Helps Dogs with Neurological Issues
The healing powers of water are something that humans have been relying on for centuries, but it’s only fairly recently that hydrotherapy has started to be incorporated into veterinary medicine to allow our beloved pets to enjoy the same benefits. Hydrotherapy can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions in animals like dogs, including acute injuries, chronic musculoskeletal conditions like arthritis, and even neurological problems. It can be a powerful tool for pet owners and veterinary professionals alike to help to increase the comfort, contentment, and quality of life of dogs of all kinds!
Symptom Relief
Hydrotherapy is a powerful treatment tool in large part because it offers both short term and long term benefits to animals. Pets can experience relief from the symptoms of a neurological condition immediately, and those benefits can compound and increase over time with regular repetition.
The warm water used in hydrotherapy provides immediate relief from pain, stiffness, and discomfort in sore or damaged muscles and irritated joints, as does the gentle pressure of water immersion. The pressure of water on a dog’s body also helps to increase circulation and reduce swelling, further promoting comfort and healing. A session of hydrotherapy can provide medication-free pain relief for dogs immediately and over time.
Gentle, Safe Exercise
Physical activity is a necessary part of treating a neurological condition, strengthening and stretching muscles and training them to better respond to the commands of the brain. However, this process is not always easy, especially for dogs who can’t be coached through exercises like humans can. Hydrotherapy provides an uncomplicated, animal-friendly option with benefits for the whole body.
Swimming or walking on an underwater treadmill is gentle on joints thanks to water’s buoyancy, but provides the resistance needed to increase strength and mobility in muscles and tendons. The pain-relieving qualities of hydrotherapy allow animals with all sorts of conditions to get valuable cardiovascular exercise, with soft tissue contractures and stiff joints eased and prevented by the water. The exercises of hydrotherapy help to build endurance and enhance motor control over time, giving animals the tools they need to live happily and comfortably with a neurological condition.
Increased Proprioception
Hydrotherapy is particularly useful in treating neurological conditions specifically because of its positive impacts on a patient’s proprioception, or their sense of where their body is in space. Because water provides constant sensory input on the body and limbs of a human or dog, it increases awareness and control by continually stimulating the brain. When a dog slowly improves their proprioception in water, they are able to carry that sense over to their life on dry land as well.
Immersion in water also lessens the effects of gravity without removing them completely, allowing a dog to work on building their sense of balance and practicing recovering from and preventing falls in an environment where they won’t get hurt and can feel their weight shifting slowly instead of suddenly. Hydrotherapy provides a safer and altogether more effective method for animals with neurological conditions to strengthen the connection between their body and their brain and increase their comfort and motor control.
Canine hydrotherapy has been a boon to many dogs around the world, as well as to the dedicated veterinary professionals who work to help them. If you’re interested in learning more about hydrotherapy and what it might be able to do for your dog, make sure you reach out to the team at Prime Pet Rehabilitation today!