Does it seem odd to you that a Decatur veterinarian is writing about arthritis? Well, I’d like to tell you why. I suspect that many people don’t know that arthritis isn’t limited to humans. That’s right! Many animals can suffer from painful arthritis, as well, including your dog or cat. And, arthritis is just as painful for pets as it is for humans, especially for certain pets, like dogs, who tend to do what “their” humans do. Arthritis in humans can make simple activities, like going for a walk and climbing stairs exceedingly painful. Because dogs frequently accompany their owners, dogs can experience the same kind of pain and debilitating problems doing the activities that their owners do.
Merely going for a walk, let alone fetching a tossed ball or running in the park, can be very difficult and intensely painful for a dog with arthritis. In other words, arthritis can take the fun out of your dog’s “purpose” in life…to have fun! As a concerned veterinarian in Decatur I am relieved to let you know that treatment for canine arthritis is not totally confined to the use of pain medication. Just as humans suffering from arthritis often benefit from physiotherapy that helps to increase joint mobility, dogs can, too. Physiotherapy, in humans, helps to lessen arthritic pain and increase function of the affected joints and limbs. So, how does physiotherapy affect canine joints and limbs, and what methods are most effective?
Though physiotherapy for dogs has been available for a while now, until recently there hasn’t been adequate research done to sufficiently document its effects on canine arthritis. However, a recent study by researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, and published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, validated the efficacy of physiotherapy in decreasing arthritic pain and immobility in dogs.
The researchers studied the movements of the joints in the front and back legs of dogs through the use of a expressly-designed treadmill and intricate computer algorithms. While the researchers took notes and measurements, the dogs performed three types of exercises: walking uphill, walking downhill, and walking over low obstacles.
The experiments showed that the three exercises had different and particular effects on the movements of the dogs’ joints. While walking downhill did not appear to have much therapeutic benefit because it caused the hip to be less bent and the tarsal joint to be less extended, walking uphill caused notably greater bending at the hip, while the stifle joint (the dog’s knee) was less extended. There were also decreases in the accelerations at the carpal and elbow joints. But, the most consequential effects came when the dogs walked over low obstacles. This resulted in increased bending of all joints except the hip and shoulder, and greater extensions of the carpal and stifle joints.
You may be asking, at this point, what all of of this means for your dog? For one thing, it indicates that walking uphill is a simple exercise that you could provide to help to improve your dog’s joint flexibility, particularly at the hip joint, and that adding low obstacles could help to improve the bending of the joints in the forelimbs and hind limbs. It is important to mention, though, that adding low obstacles should be avoided if your dog has recently had surgery for the tibia, because such activity could result in increased bending of the joints and potentially strain the tendon that joins the knee to the shin.
And, as a Decatur veterinarian who loves dogs, I would like to make one final suggestion for “man’s best friend,” since the study indicated that walking downhill wasn’t shown to be effective anyway, perhaps a nice ride downhill in the car would be a nice treat for your dog once you’ve exercised him or her uphill!