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The Gold Standard in Physiotherapy and Hydrotherapy for dogs

Dog Health Guides

What science has told us about rehabilitation

There are very few reports discussing the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation strategies for dogs. As a consequence, rehabilitation decisions are typically made by extrapolating information from the scientific evidence available in human clinical trials and by following universal rules of rehabilitation.

However, we’ve been reviewing a whole load of scientific papers recently that are focussed on dogs and wanted to share a summary of what their research has revealed – it’s surprisingly interesting:

A single hydrotherapy session increases range of motion and stride length in Labrador retrievers diagnosed with elbow dysplasia.


Early physiotherapy intervention should be considered as part of the postoperative management of dogs with CCL deficiencies to prevent muscle atrophy, build muscle mass and strength, and increase stifle joint flexion and extension.


Without physiotherapy dogs with CCL injuries typically don’t recover muscle mass in their hind limbs for 3-5 years


Rehabilitation after surgery for dogs with IVDE improves surgical success rate and neurological function


A CCL injury doesn’t mean the end of agility dogs. More than half return to competition


Dogs have a much greater range of motion when going ‘up hill’


Hydrotherapy can improve gait, range of motion and flexibility, whilst reducing stiffness in dogs with hip dysplasia

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