Veterinary Physical Rehabilitation

   Physical Rehabilitation can help pets with a variety of mobility conditions and aid in restoring their quality of life. Our two full time therapists, Robert Porter CCRP and Melissa O'Brien RVT, CCRP, evaluate each patient and develop a customized treatment plan. 
     All Resurge orthopedic and neurological patients are seen by the rehabilitation department at 1 or 2 weeks post operatively depending on their procedure. Resurge non-surgical patients can be seen after their surgical consult with Dr. Dena Lodato and/or during a scheduled visit.

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Common Conditions Treated 

• CrCL/ ACL Injury (PO surgical and non-surgical management)
• Intervertebral Disc Disease (medical management and post op hemilaminectomy/ ventral slot) 
• Hip Dysplasia (PO surgical and non-surgical management)
• Elbow Dysplasia 
• Medial Shoulder Instability (MSI)
• Bicipital tenosenovitis 
• Osteoarthritis Management
• Femoral head and Neck Ostectomy (FHO)
• Post operative Fractures
• Radioular Incongruity 
• Lumbosacral Stenosis
• Iliopsoas Strains
• Degenerative myelopathy 
• ​Custom Braces (legs not teeth)
• Custom Wheelchair fitting and training
• Athletic conditioning for working and sporting dogs
• Proprioception re-training

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Benefits

​Benefits of Physical Rehabilitation 

• Prevent muscle atrophy 
• Build strength
• Increase range of motion
• Improve comfort and decrease pain
• Improve coordination and balance
• Enables safe and effective exercise during strict confinement periods. 
• Helps patients return to more normal activities faster

Therapeutic Exercise

Therapeutic exercise differs from general exercise as it is highly adjustable to fit a patient’s physical and mental abilities during recovery. Prescribed exercises are targeted at functional limitations and are specifically designed to help speed recovery from surgery or injury. Therapeutic exercise can also be started early in the recovery process to maximize functional recoveries and minimize compensations. It can also be investigative and provides practitioners valuable information about a patient’s recovery. 
    Underwater Treadmill Exercise is the most common type of therapeutic exercise that we provide in our practice. This exercise is surprisingly easy to teach most dogs even when they are thought to be scared of water.  Our therapists have been teaching dogs to walk in treadmills for over 2 decades and most patients learn to do it in under 2 minutes with minimal stress. Underwater treadmills allow us to vary weight bearing of a patient and can displace up to 40% of their body weight. The resistance of the water can aid in building strength but also slows the velocity of movement making it very safe yet a highly effective exercise for patients recovering from injury or surgery.
    Prop based floor exercises are targeted at improving functions and/or locomotion. Food motivated patients practice starts, stops, turns, and climbing in a very safe and effective way. If your dog is food motivated and works well in clinic, our therapists will design their program to maximize time and benefits, as well as, allowing the patient to have a great time in therapy.

Learn more and watch our video on underwater treadmill exercise

This is Voulez doing very advanced treadmill exercises.

Youtube Playlist of first timers in the underwater treadmill                    

LASER therapy

Class IV LASER therapy has gained popularity due to short treatment times and little to no preparation. Other electrotherapeutic treatments require the shaving of hair and/or for patients to sit very still for long periods of time. LASER therapy offers many of the same benefits as other electrotherapeutic physical agents. When paired with therapeutic exercise, it can be a huge benefit to patients recovering from injury, surgery, or those with degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis or degenerative myelopathy. Our therapists will select the best possible combinations of therapeutic agents/modalities to help your pet get back to their normal life as soon as possible. 

Benefits 

• Reduced pain
• Increase circulation
• Reduce inflammation
• Decrease healing times
• Promote neurological healing
• Stimulates the body to release endorphins to help manage pain
  

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slow motion video gait analysis

​Slow motion gait analysis can help objectively evaluate and record a patient’s gait. After data is collected a practitioner can calculate acceleration, velocity, joint angles and watch a patient’s gait in repetition to gain more knowledge of how they are doing or what may be abnormal. Further studies can compare data before and after treatments to quantify progress. Our Rehabilitation department works closely with surgery patients and staff to make better decisions about what treatments are best for our patients.

Recovery Stories 

Buddy had a poor prognosis when he was first referred to our physical rehabilitation service. Dr Yates at Baton Rouge Veterinary Specialists had diagnosed Buddy with multiple micro hemorrhages/bleeds in his midbrain. Buddy had a lot to overcome. He couldn’t get up or walk on his own, has a heart murmur, and laryngeal paralysis. He also had developed several pressure sores from being unable to get up for so long. Our therapists, Robby Porter CCRP and Melissa O’Brien RVT, CCRP, worked with Buddy daily for almost 4 weeks straight to help him regain function and independence. Each day they rewarded Buddy for simple tasks and in turn Buddy rewarded them with more motivation and drive to get better. We utilized hyperbaric oxygen and LASER therapy, however the bulk of Buddy’s care and success was due to our therapists skills and a few rolls of kinesiology tape. Knowledge, wisdom, bravery, passion and love, beyond any technology are the cornerstones of overcoming adversity. We should all be a little more like Buddy, our world could be a much nicer place.
#caninerehabilitation #strokevictim #brainbleeds #resurge #resurgeveterinary #passion #love #wisdom #bravery ​

Marley is going home to start a new beginning. No more pain in her knee, no more rehab (even though that part is fun), no more meds, and soon no more rest. She has been here at Resurge since we opened in January and was the first TPLO performed here. Marley's owners live in Memphis,TN which is a pretty far drive… This made rehab and aftercare pretty difficult but we all wanted Marley to have a new life. We decided that as long as Marley wasn’t very stressed about staying with us she would have surgery with Dr Lodato, then start rehab with Melissa O’Brien RVT, CCRP and Robby Porter CCRP. We would then send Marley home when we thought she was ready. At 4 weeks post-op Marley is looking great! She still has a little R and R left until her bone completely heals but she is well on her way. We will all miss you, A LOT Marley!!!! Congratulations on your new beginning! #TPLO #recoverystories #veterinarysurgery #veterinaryrehabilitation #newmovement #newlife #newbeginnings #resurge

It’s difficult to imagine loosing your ability to move, to walk, to drink, to eat or go to the bathroom by yourself. I can only guess what an emotionally frustrating roller coaster of not knowing why, when or if you may get control of your body back could feel like. Louie suddenly lost everything. He didn’t know why, when or if he was going to get better. On top of having a life changing spinal cord injury, Louie is also an insulin dependent diabetic. None of this stopped Louie. He never came into therapy and felt sorry for himself. He never refused a challenge and he never gave up. He looked past fear, past failure, embraced the process and knew exactly what he wanted… chicken:) I hope Louie can be an inspiration for dog parents and veterinary professionals to push through the challenging moments and stay focused on creating New Movement, a New Life and a New Beginning for their loved ones and patients.

Many people feel like their dog is too old for surgery or blame age for the issues that their aging dog is having. However, age is not a disease and many dogs have treatable conditions with and without surgery. Dodge is a 14 year old dog that our rehab department had been treating for lumbosacral disease. This is basically arthritis in the lower back that causes pain. Some patients also lose neurological function. Dodge was doing great with minimal and non-invasive treatments for over a year but this past January he came in acutely limping on his left rear limb. Dr. Dena Lodato diagnosed a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CrCL or ACL) in his knee. Dr Dena preformed a tibial plateau leveling osteotomy(TPLO) to stabilize his knee and he has been doing fantastic. He looked almost normal at 3 weeks post operatively. He is now almost 10 weeks from surgery and he continues to do well. We love you Dodge. Keep up the hard work and enjoy your life! ​

Max came in 2 weeks ago unable to sit up or do anything by himself. He was in a lot of pain and instead of moving his head to look around his world, he could only move his eyes. Dr. Dena Lodato MS, DVM, ACVS, CCRP took him to surgery and removed the compressive herniated disc that was pushing on his spinal cord. He was then put into our rehab program where he learned new movement, started a new life and is now ready for a new beginning. Thank you for never giving up, Max. We can’t wait to see you improve even more. ​

Carl was a young and healthy dog that suddenly was unable to walk or move. His owners took him to his regular veterinarian who then referred him to Resurge for further assessment and recommendations. Dr. Lodato preformed a CT scan to look for any compression to his spinal cord that would explain his symptoms, but there was no compression. No compression means that there was no surgical intervention that would benefit Carl. Pet parents generally are very confused about this type of situation, and rightfully so. Having a young, seemingly healthy four legged friend one day, then having them lose their ability to move is stressful to say the least. Carl’s mom was obviously very upset and we did our best to try to explain to her that this was actually good news. We suspected that Carl had what’s called a high validity, low volume disc extrusion. Meaning that a disc in his back had ruptured but left only the evidence of spinal cord inflammation. Carl woke up from anesthesia after his CT scan and showed some improvements in motor function. In veterinary neurology, any sign of improvement this early out in an acute problem like Carl's, generally yields a fairly good prognosis. It was decided that Carl would stay with us at Resurge for physical rehabilitation for the rest of the week, then we would reevaluate his condition and decide how or if treatment should continue. During his first week we started hyperbaric oxygen treatments and LASER therapy. Both of these treatments would help reduce inflammation in his spinal cord as well as help with any pain he was experiencing. Inflammation of his cord was really his problem and treatments appeared to be helping him very quickly. We also started therapeutic exercises to help target functional tasks that Carl needed so that he could be able to live with good quality of life. 

Each day Carl stayed with us, he improved. Carl was almost able to walk on his own, but we had to stop treatment and send him home due to the impending doom of Hurricane Ida advancing on the Gulf Coast. We were all hoping that Ida would not be as big or damaging as forecasted, however it was probably worse. Carl’s mom picked him up the Friday before Ida and did the best she could to care for him and herself throughout the storm. They did great despite the physical challenges that were upon us. Carl came in this past Monday and Tuesday for his final treatments and continued to excel and improve. For the short week and a half that Carl stayed with us, everyone fell in love with him. He always loved any attention given to him, he worked hard and he never gave up on a task that was asked of him. The last couple of weeks have been very hard for us who were effected by Hurricane Ida. Loss of property, communication, electrical power, and the financial stress of Ida has taken a toll on us all. I always admire the strength that dogs like Carl have. Their determination and the “never give up” attitude is always inspiring and helps put life into perspective, especially during times like this. I hope everyone who watches Carl’s video can find some happy moments in their recent struggles and that he can help those effected to continue on with a positive attitude despite their losses. 
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Sebastian, affectionately known as Sea Bass, acutely lost all function of his right rear limb. He sustained what is called a fibrocartilaginous embolism or FCE for short. We were able to see Sea Bass just 4 days after the emboli and got straight to work on him. After just 6 sessions he was significantly better and was able to return to his normal farm dog life in the country. 
Stay out of trouble Sebastian. We will miss your antics! 
#resurge #caninerehab #kenesiotape #underwatertreadmill #photobiomodulation #FCE #fibrocartilaginousembolism

​Sally sustained multiple injuries after being struck by a car. One of her rear legs was broken and fixed before she was referred to Resurge. However, both of her front legs held a poor prognosis for recovery due to the severity of her injuries. Her left front limb had what is called a brachial plexus avulsion. The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves under the shoulder blade or scapula and it had been so severely damaged that Sally was unable to feel or use the limb. There was no chance of her recovering feeling of it. Her right front leg had one fo the worst fractures a dog could have. The very top part of her upper leg bone, the humeral head, was broken off. This left a very small fragment for Dr Dena Lodato to put together. Sally also was in a lot of pain, even though she didn’t show it much, she had been suffering and basically using her head as a limb to get around while recovering from her rear leg fracture. Dr Lodato was able to bring Sally to surgery and fix her broken front leg. At the same time Dr Lodato also amputated her left front leg since it had no chance of recovering feeling or function. After 8 weeks of physical rehabilitation including advanced therapeutic exercise, LASER therapy and a lot of love, Sally was able to discover new movement, begin a new life as a puppy and move onto a new beginning after a horrific ordeal. Good luck on all your journeys, Sally! We will all miss you!!!! ​