Sadie's Rehab appointment.
I took Sadie to see a rehab vet on Saturday and the appointment went REALLY well.
The vet was VERY nice and wonderful with Sadie, who is shy around people she doesn't know. She performed cold laser therapy on her, which she said promotes healing of neurological cells (I think that's how she explained it.). Sadie then got to work on an underwater treadmill for approx. 25 min. Poor Sadie, she was so afraid and unsure at first, I felt bad leading her into that plexi-glass box that made strange noises. She got used to it quickly though and ended up really enjoying her self. They put a couple of floating balls in with her and she spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to get both in her mouth at once. She did REALLY well.
The vet was very pleased with the progress Sadie has made in the last month (Its already been a month since her collapse, I can't believe it!), more than she usually sees with this sort of injury. She said that she doesn't believe that Sadie really needs to return for anymore therapy and that the home exercises she gave me are most important for her recovery, but that I could return should I feel it necessary. She offers therapy packages, which are a little less expensive but she really didn't think I'd benefit from them.
She also said that swimming is excellent for rehabilitation and to keep doing it for as long as possible. I'd wondered how much I should have Sadie swim without a life jacket, and the vet said that she should wear it all the time, that she finds that dogs use their back legs more with the life jacket than without it.
She also suggested cavaletties or ladder work so that Sadie relearns how to pick up her feet. We spent a small fortune on PVC yesterday and are going to build her a ladder lik this one tonight.
http://members.peak.org/~helix/Agility/ladder.html
I had mixed reactions about taking Sadie to a specialist and was prepared to have someone trying to convince me to spend a lot of money, so it was such a relief that she thought the same thing as I did and the appointment was reasonably priced, especially considering how much it put my mind at ease. It was SO worth the money. Under $100 for a 45 min. appointment which included initial exam, going over all of the home exercises, laser therapy, 25 min. on an underwater treadmill and peace of mind.
It turned out that the clinic was down the road from a new Ren's Pet Depot (my FAV petstore), so afterward we all went shopping. Sadie and Ginny got a bottle of Almond/Cocoa dog cologne to hide the wet dog smell from so much swimming.
