When your pet gets an injury to a muscle, tendon or bone, it will suffer from disuse of the affected limb from the time of the injury until many weeks after surgery or healing of the acute injury has occurred.

Your pet's limb disuse causes:

• Muscle atrophy or shrinking: This will cause fatigue and inability to walk or play normally. It is very crucial to stop muscle atrophy and build up muscle mass, especially if your dog is a working dog.  For example, dogs will lose one-third of the muscle mass in the hind limb after an ACL tear within the first two weeks after injury. It will take 10 weeks to 1 year to return to normal.
• Contraction of ligaments, tendons and joint capsules: This will cause pain and a decrease in the normal range of motion in the joint. Your pet will not be able to flex and extend its joints normally and this will stop it from doing normal daily activity.
• If the limb has to be put in a rigid bandage or splint, the disuse will cause the bone in the injured limb to become thinner and susceptible to further injuries.
• Degenerative changes to the cartilage: This is most common when a long term splint or bandage is required to fix the injury.
• Development of scar tissue

Without proper rehabilitative therapy after an injury or orthopedic surgery, these unwanted complications can become permanent, thus dramatically affecting your pet's quality of life.  The purpose of rehabilitation medicine is to prevent and/or correct these unwanted consequences.

Initially, aggressive pain management is the center of rehabilitation.  Pain can be reduced and controlled with ice, TENs units, and laser therapy in addition to analgesic medications.  Once pain is under control, therapy can be started to decrease the effects of disuse.  Controlled exercise with equipment such as the underwater treadmill helps restore normal function to the injured limb.  Along with rehabilitative exercises, stretching and massage prevent tissue contraction and development of motion-inhibiting scar tissue.

Osteoarthritis

Obesity

Stifle (knee) injury, including surgical repair of ligament rupture

Medial and lateral patellar luxation

Muscle tendon and ligament injuries

Fractures

Conditions requiring Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO)

Elbow and shoulder dysplasia

Hip dysplasia including Total Hip Replacement and Triple Pelvic Osteotomy (TPO)

Conditions requiring limb amputation

Surgical corrections of limb deformities

Peripheral nerve injury

Neuromuscular disease.

Fibrocartilagenous embolism (FCE)

Degenerative myelopathy (DM)

Cauda Equina Syndrome (Lumbosacral Disease)

Balance disorders.

Intervertebral disk disease (IVDD)

Physical Rehabilitation veterinarians are first and foremost doctors of veterinary medicine and are therefore highly trained to diagnose and provide therapy for animals with disease and injury. In addition, they have advanced training, expertise, and, most importantly, experience in the management of pain and loss of function through injury and illness. Only a veterinarian can provide whole body care, prescribe needed medicines and perform a diagnostic evaluation prior to designing a treatment plan.

When you and your pet first visit a certified rehabilitation veterinarian, your pet will undergo an initial consultation. The doctor will take a detailed history about your pet's lifestyle and your expectations. Following this, the doctor will perform a thorough physical examination of your pet. The examination will include many measurements. A specific program will then be designed to meet your pet's needs. 

Many pet insurance companies now cover physical rehabilitation with the condition that it is performed in a veterinary clinical setting with a veterinarian prescribing the treatment.  Please inquire directly to your insurance company to determine benefit levels.