Took Chloe for a consult with the rehab vet she worked with after her injury

[Annette47]

several years ago where she severed the tendon in her leg.

We had brought her in mostly because we were starting to notice some muscle imbalance and wanted to correct it before it gets any worse (she literally cannot push off as hard when running or jumping with the bad leg so the good one gets a bit more of a workout). She did a very thorough exam just to rule out anything else, said her hips, knees, everything looked great but she did have a little bit of pain in her lower back which while it could be the beginnings of arthritis is more likely due to the imbalance throwing things out of whack.

Overall she was VERY impressed with how well she’s doing. Said she didn’t want to tell me at the time but she really never thought we’d get her back to full on competing, let alone to half-way to her OTCH. Said most dogs with that injury are left with much more of a deficit than she has. She also said Chloe acts and moves like she’s 2, not like she’ll be 8 next week, which was good to hear.

So they did some laser on her back, and we’re going to be going back to the underwater treadmill to build up strength in the leg, as well as some exercises she gave us to do with her at home. She would have done the treadmill today but it was being disinfected due to a “fecal incident” earlier in the day, LOL. She’ll go back on her birthday next week for that.

All in all a good appointment.

[janedoe]

Congratulations! Physical therapy makes such a huge difference.

[POPTOP]

So good to hear. A little tweaking and she'll be doing very well.

[TuMicks]

Very good news. I was wondering if just plain swimming is recommended to help?

[Blackboy98]

Good checkup indeed.

[Annette47]

Very good news. I was wondering if just plain swimming is recommended to help?

It's good for overall conditioning but she needs to make the weaker leg work harder than the other and regular swimming works them both the same. With the underwater treadmill they put a child's arm floaty on her bad leg to add resistance.