Multi-faceted therapy routines in dogs

Vet Eili Dettering used to treat Feebee for her arthritis with acupuncture and laser. When our Sarah had a mobility flare up a couple of months ago, I asked her to visit for laser therapy. We started with weekly sessions and are now working our way to maintenance monthly sessions. Her treatments helped turn our Sarah around and now she is back to levels of the start of the year. 

Eili has two dogs of her own who she wanted us to look at in a Double Therapist Friday session at AchyPaw HQ. When she arrived with Louie & Benny, our Sarah looked most put out that she was here for them and not for her. She sulked – throughout. 

Louie is a 6 year old Whippet who was rescued at 9 months. He is rather anxious and recently, when starting to get up, the hind end took a while to catch up with the front. He was diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia of the right hip. He is now no more than 5% lame and, as his Mum said “only a vet would see it”. 

He has been to a physiotherapist who confirmed the neck and front girdle was tight which is likely compensatory for his rear end issues. He goes to hydrotherapy at Roundstone Canine Hydrotherapy in Angmering but he would only use his front end and floated with the rear. That wasn’t quite the point of the exercise! Luckily, they have a water treadmill which meant he had to use the hind legs. 

His brother Benny is also a rescue and is a 3 year old Lurcher. He’s quite an athlete with no particular issues, except that he likes to be ‘part of the group’ so his Mum brought him along so he didn’t feel left out. A good maintenance massage wouldn’t do him any harm anyway. Louie chose Chris while Benny was outside exploring the garden (which later meant our Sam had to go out and pee on all the spots that Benny had pee-d on originally. Sarah followed the two boys later and left her mark on top – that’s our girl.) 

Louie was very tight from his mid back forward – muscles and fascia. It didn’t take long for Chris to work his Back Magic and ease out the tension allowing him to massage Louie all over sorting out his tight muscles. 

Meanwhile Benny felt he had to hold onto Louie (see picture) while I was massaging him. 

Despite interruptions from our Sarah who glued her face to the treatment room window demanding that her Auntie Eili work on her and not the boys, we managed a full session including exercises and demonstration of things Eili could do quickly and regularly with them. 

With maintenance work and the other therapies the boys are having, this multi-faceted approach should help both enjoy their runs and walks without niggles and discomfort