Physical Therapy for Pets! Juno's Story

Physical Therapy for Pets!

Juno is a 7 year old boxer who has been insanely active her entire life. She loves nothing more than to run and play with other dogs, chase after tennis balls, and jump for frisbees. She one day spent an entire afternoon doing all 3 of those things, and the next morning came up sore and limping. She improved after being rested for a couple weeks, but would begin limping again any time jumping or playing with toys was introduced. A life without being able to play fetch or frisbee is not the life for Juno! After x-rays were taken that looked normal and revealed no other cause for the limping, Juno’s next step was to visit a rehab/physical therapy veterinarian. Her first physical therapy visit was aimed at finding the exact source of her discomfort. They took measurements of her muscle mass, did many range of motion exercises, watched her gait at multiple paces, and palpated her muscles. This revealed that her shoulder was bothering her. From this point, we were given physical therapy exercises to do at home, she received therapeutic ultrasound treatments followed by diagnostic ultrasounds to ensure her muscles/tendons were healing, was on strict exercise restrictions, and put on fish oil and a glucosamine supplement called Dasuquin. It was a long 4 months of Juno only being allowed to go for leashed walks while she healed, but the end result is that she is now able to run and play with no pain or limping. And even better is that they don’t usually see this type of injury recur!