Jackie
When we first saw Jackie, she was in a doggy wheelchair because her hind-end was paralyzed by illness. She had just come to Massachusetts to live with her new family after being adopted. Before she was adopted, she was sick for a number of months and during that time had learned to move herself around by dragging herself with her front legs.
Hydrotherapy allowed her gently to start to feel and use her rear legs again, and
we designed a program of exercises to reactivate the pathways between her brain to her body and to strengthen her unused muscles in her hind-end.
We began with the pool being quite still and when the weight was off her paralyzed legs, they began to twitch a little....after a few sessions she started to be able to move her legs and at the end could swim against a current. To this day her owner says she loves swimming and swims like a fish.
We also used a wobble board as balancing helps stimulate the pathways between her brain and her body so that they can reactivate after her long illness and paralysis. She had tiny rails to jump over to work on eye/paw coordination. The muscles in her rear legs were wasted away so we worked on exercises to gently build them back up, and to help her with her coordination...a ramp for her to walk up, small rails to jump over and the therapeutic stairs; big steps on one side, small on the other with a place for a helper to assist. She was very proud of herself the first time she reached the top!
When she came to visit us this spring, she was able to get right up on her hind legs and help herself to tennis balls!
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