What to Expect?
Hydrotherapy is the use of water to assist in healing and pain relief following injury or surgery or in the case of chronic conditions. This can be done either in a pool or in an aquatic treadmill. At Tazza's Canine Hydrotherapy we use an aquatic treadmill, a large tank of water with a treadmill belt at the bottom of it. Once your pup is inside, we slowly introduce water from beneath and then they are asked to walk on the moving belt.
Before booking in your hydrotherapy sessions, I will get a referral from your vet. This doesn't mean you need to book a consult, just that I will email your vet to assure that they are happy for me to treat your dog. You will then be asked to book an initial consultation, which is my opportunity to get to know you and your dog, and for you to ask any questions or get anything off your chest that might be worrying you. I will also use this session to make an initial assessment of your dog. By this, I mean I will assess their gait, posture and general movement patterns, as well as palpate muscles and test range of motion to determine if there are any restrictions or areas of pain. Here is where I can also measure their muscle mass.
Once I have made these initial assessments, I will then begin to acclimatise your dog to the treadmill. Bear in mind, we have only an hour for this initial consultation so for this session your dog is unlikely to get a lot of time in the tank.
I will introduce your dog to the tank slowly, this can be intimidating, and I like to make sure their first introduction to it is as positive as possible, this means lots of fusses and lots of positive reinforcement (if your dog has any favourite treats, you're more than welcome to bring them along!)
At the end of this hour I will give your dog a post-hydro shower, dry them off, and ask you to monitor their recovery post session. The treatment will likely be very tiring for them so feel free to give them a relaxing rest of their day.
Your following sessions will be shorter, we will have a quick chat about how your pup had been since I last saw you, I will give them a quick health check to ensure they are suitable for hydro that day, and then it's straight in the tank for their exercise. We will follow this routine throughout our treatment plan, with the goal to be constantly progressing what your dog is doing provided they are improving at the pace we would like. Treatment plans vary from dog to dog, but I will always endeavour to make sure you are aware of the goals and plans so that both you and your pet can get the most out of our sessions.
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