Rehabilitation, or rehab, is the act of restoring normal health after injury or illness using exercise prescription, often with the help of a physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath, or other trained professional.
Rehab may be a relatively new concept to veterinarians, but it’s been a staple of human healthcare for over a century.
Rehab can be useful for many veterinary patients: post-op & non-surgical orthopaedic, cruciates, IVDD, neurological & arthritic cases are the most common presentations that we see, but it’s not an exhaustive list.
This is one area we’d love to get vets thinking about and changing the current thought process, especially in the post-op space.
Our opinion is that vets should be referring for rehab as soon as it’s practical and safe for the patient. Ideally, 1-2 weeks post-op.
It’s been well established for decades that with humans, prolonged bed rest as the primary treatment in a post-op situation is associated with worse outcomes. (1)
We do acknowledge that animals have an extra layer of complexity to humans, but we believe that a happy medium exists, where appropriate exercise & rehab can be provided during the crate rest period.
What would you do if you were the one getting surgery?
Rehab isn't just for dogs who are having a problematic recovery. Look at what we do with humans - there are over 100 000 orthopaedic surgeries performed each year in Australia, and the vast majority, if not all of those would be prescribed some sort of rehabilitation protocol regardless of if the surgery has gone perfectly or not.
That is because rehabilitation enhances post-op recovery.
Physio/Chiro/Osteo |Hydrotherapy | Laser | Forceplate Gait Analysis | Exercise Prescription
We offer a comprehensive rehab experience at ARK.
The initial consult involves a range of orthopaedic & force-plate measurements to establish a baseline.
Our practitioners will recommend a treatment plan involving rehab at ARK, home exercises & lifestyle advice.
Once the patient has finished their treatment plan, we'll compare their results to our initial consult findings to determine the next course of action - discharge, more rehab or a referral back to their vet.
We can but prefer not to in most cases. If we can achieve the same result using a different technique, we'll usually opt for that. However, in some situations, it may be necessary. With techniques like this, It's all about the risk/reward balance in our opinion.
There are of course absolute contraindications where we never would use an adjustment/manipulation technique ie, at the site of a suspected/confirmed IVDD, at a recent surgical site, most geriatric patients, suspected/confirmed osteosarcoma or other disease affecting the integrity of a bone...and the list goes on.
Yes there is. Have a read here where we've collated some of the most recent research which looks at the treatment methods we use at ARK.
Something specific that you'd like to know about? Ask us and we'll find out for you.
Before being qualified in our respective animal rehabilitation degrees, many of us started in human allied health care as human physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths. We then went on to study varying degrees in animal rehabilitation.
The Animal Rehab Klinik works closely with vets like you to provide musculoskeletal rehabilitation services to your patients, just like a physiotherapist works with GP’s & Surgeons in the human world.
To refer a patient to us we will need a little bit of information about your patients’ complaint, as well as the go-ahead from you that you think it is suitable for us to work with your patient.
This can be done via one of two ways:
P.S we understand that your credibility is extremely important to you, and it can unnerving to refer your valued patients to someone that you don’t know. If that’s the case, we invite to you get in touch with us via email or phone. We’ll gladly run you through what we do here and answer any questions you have. We’d also love to have you visit the Animal Rehab Klinik one day – we think that’s the best way to understand exactly what we do and to give you full confidence that we’ll look after your patients as well as you do.
