Hydrotherapy

Many of you know that I am a Licensed Veterinary Technician and that I work in a small animal hospital. That's a hospital for small animals, not describing the size of the building. :) I get to do all the fun things like dental cleanings, teeth extractions, blood draws, x-rays, prepping for surgery, monitoring anesthesia, placing IV catheters and much, much more. But recently, I've taken on a new interest of canine rehabilitation. A few years ago I took several classes on small animal massage and then this past year I have been doing hydrotherapy in the hospital. Its been a year now since we installed our underwater treadmill in our new rehabilitation/boarding/grooming building. It started out mostly for rehab with our orthopedic surgery dogs. It allows them to exercise and move the leg without having to fully bear the weight on the leg. Its much better than swimming because this uses all the muscles and range of motion. We've since expanded to back injury dogs(I've seen dogs go from paralyzed to walking on their own in a matter of weeks!) to overweight dogs who cant do a good workout because of their weight(this allows them to walk or run without the weight of their body holding them back), and also athletic dogs in training. Its so amazing to see the results. I get to do hydrotherapy twice a week now and it is so much fun. I also recently started doing massage at the hospital. Here's some pics of what I do and also a video of one of my first hydro patients, "Princeton". Also, check out where I work: Northwest Animal Care Hospital. The webpage is a little cheesy, but its cool.