After Surgery: Why Walk When You Can Rehab?
The first several weeks after a surgery are crucial to making the most optimal recovery, for both humans and canines. If you’ve ever had surgery yourself which required rehab, you may know just how important it is to stay on top of the exercises prescribed by your physical therapist! But there are some veterinary surgeons whose rehab protocol is solely a progression of walking, and oftentimes that simply isn’t enough.
Specificity is the Name of the Rehab Game
As discussed in a recent blog post, the underwater treadmill does not equal canine rehab. Think about the rehab process for humans; there are specific, targeted stretching and strengthening exercises that physical therapists prescribe to aid in recovery. An athlete recovering from knee surgery wouldn’t progress to running a 5K by walking progressively longer distances, just like a canine shouldn’t progress to jumping in and out of cars and bounding after tennis balls by increasing the number or length of walks taken each day on or off the underwater treadmill. Rehab is a process that requires patience, diligence, and a tailored approach.
Walking…But With a Limp?
For a human or canine patient who has recently undergone surgery, there are numerous factors for the physical therapist to consider when designing a rehab protocol. In the instance of ACL surgery for humans, which is comparable to CCL surgery for canines, the patient will typically present with joint swelling, pain, decreased range of motion at the knee, and decreased quadriceps activation, resulting in altered gait mechanics. These issues do not clear up by walking progressively longer distances. (If that were true, the extensive graduate-level training currently required for physical therapists would be drastically reduced!) And even if the patient does improve from being able to walk one mile to two, the change may not be very meaningful if that walking comes with a limp.
Instead, the physical therapist guides the person through a progressive, tailored rehab program that addresses his or her specific impairments and goals, keeping quality of movement in mind. That’s how athletes go from day 1 post-op ACL surgery to week 12 when running is initiated: with specific exercises targeting tissue length, muscle strength, joint mobility, balance, and endurance. Otherwise, the likelihood of re-injury will remain high, and the person may not be able to safely return to the activities he or she enjoyed before the surgery.
Practice Makes Pawfect
Some sports coaches say that practice makes perfect. But in reality, perfect practice makes perfect. Because if you just keep practicing walking with the same altered gait pattern without addressing the underlying impairments with focused exercises, you are setting yourself up for re-injury once you start back up with higher intensity activity. And the same goes for canines. Of course, you may not be training yours for a 5K (although there are several doggy-friendly walking/running 5Ks around!). But if you want to help your furry friends get back to their wiggly-bottomed, ball-chasing selves, you’ll enlist the help of a certified canine rehab professional to guide you through the rehab process with an individualized plan of care. Walking is wonderful, but there’s simply more to be done!
~TheK9PT
Dr. Francisco Maia, PT, DPT, CCRT
In collaboration with:
Dr. Aliya Bahjet, PT, DPT
Professional Writer and Physical Therapist