Re: Smudge and hydrotherapy.

I am writing to express my sincere gratitude for all the help Smudge has received from Bex in helping him to get fit and healthy again.

Smudge is my Dogue de Bordeau, he is 17 months old now.  Unfortunately Smudge was diagnosed with severe Hip Dysplasia at just 10 months old, the prognosis wasn’t very good at all.  Our vet said he had never seen a young dog with such severe Hip Dysplasia, there were only 2 options available to help Smudge,  the first was double hip replacement, which couldn’t be carried out until Smudge was 4 years old and finished growing.  The second option was hydrotherapy, which is the option our vet recommended we follow.

I knew the hip replacement surgery wasn’t really a viable option, certainly not for the present time, so decided to try hydrotherapy to see if it would help Smudge.

I obtained CaNine Plus’ details through my vet.  I was confident  that this was the right place for us and this was helped by the fact that Bex was a veterinary nurse within my vets practice.

Smudge was booked in for his 1^st hydrotherapy session at the beginning of March, I was very sceptical as to how hydrotherapy would help my dog.  Smudge is a very nervy dog and is scared of most things despite his size!  My biggest initial concern was, would we even be able to get him in the pool!

Smudge initially started off in the pool for just 1.5 mins at a time, with maybe 3 swims per session, this helped him build his confidence in the water and with Bex.  It was a slow process building up Smudge’s time in the pool but Bex never gets impatient and watches Smudge closely to ensure he is okay in the water.

Smudge’s hip dysplasia had affected his walking movement so severely as a pup he had very poor muscle definition on his legs, he needed regular physio to help build the correct muscles, for this reason we booked him in for 1 session a week for the 1^st 2 months.

 I didn’t notice much change in Smudge for the 1^st month, then quite suddenly he became more confident, was starting to enjoy his swim session and, more importantly, had muscle definition in his legs. The difference in Smudge over the 2^nd month was astounding.  He had proper solid muscle on his legs, was able to walk properly for the 1^st time in his life and was realising he could play now without pain.

In addition to his hydrotherapy Smudge was on medication to help control his pain and ease inflammation of his joints. He was prescribed 1 tablet twice a day, by the end of the 2^nd month this dosage was down to .25 of a tablet once a day!  Amazing!

Smudge’s session then decreased to 1 session a fortnight purely to help maintain his fitness level and muscle tone. I think smudge was quite disappointed by this has he loves his swim sessions! He powers through the water in his life jacket, using his tail as a rudder!   

The improvement in Smudge’s health and wellbeing after just 2 months was astounding to me,  our vet was very pleased and couldn’t believe how much of an improvement Smudge had shown in a relatively short time.

Unfortunately, Smudge had a cruciate ligament injury to his rear right leg in July and needed surgery to replace his ligament.  This was a dreadful setback to all of us, especially as it was totally unrelated to his hip dysplasia and not expected.

 I had concerns about Smudge swimming post-op, as he had a pretty rough time with his injury, lots of swelling and was in a considerable amount of discomfort post-op.  Recovery has been very difficult and I even questioned whether we had been fair on him having the surgery.

Smudge attended his 1^st post-op hydro session the day after his stitches were removed, this was only 2 weeks and 1 day after surgery.  He hadn’t attended hydrotherapy for 4 weeks in total and he had lost most of the muscle definition and use of muscle in his rear right leg.  He would barely put his leg down.

Smudge was very cautious in the water on his 1^st session but he did actually use his leg, albeit, very minimally! He attended his 2^nd session that same week and what a difference!  He was more confident in the water and more importantly, he used his leg properly!  I was ecstatic, I knew then that we had definitely made the right decision in having surgery and that he would gain full use of his leg again.

Smudge has attended 3 sessions now since his op and is back to his usual happy confident self when in the water.  He has already started getting back muscle definition in his rear leg and is able to put weight on his leg.  I am over the moon at the rapid improvement in Smudge’s health and his wellbeing.

 I would strongly recommend CaNine Hydrotherapy to anyone who is considering hydrotherapy for their dogs.

In the early part of 2008 our sheltie Billy who was born in February 1999 had a horrific accident while lunging at our front door-chasing a charity bag which had been delivered, which resulted in him having problems with his back and rear legs. At one point we thought he might never walk again. Fortunately with cage rest and lots of TLC he has made a good recovery. It seems as though he will never be back to 100% but he’s nearly there.

Upon our specialist’s recommendation we took Billy along to CaNineplus for some hydrotherapy. The only time Billy had ever come across deep water was a bath or as a puppy he managed to fall in a river. He started off with only three, one minute swims. At first he was shattered after only 3 minutes but now he swims like a fish for three lots of six minutes.

We cannot thank Rebecca enough for he help, dedication and love for or sheltie as each week we ask Billy “do you want to swimming with Becca?” which is met with several loud barks and a very waggy tail!!!!!!!