A new trick for old dogs: Center helps ailing, injured pets

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

By:Kym Soper, Journal Inquirer

WINDSOR - Gliding through the water, Belle, a 15-year-old Great Pyrenees, swam three circular laps around the 12-foot deep pool at the River Meadow Farm on Palisado Avenue last week with seeming ease and grace.

The 104-pound dog, swathed in shaggy white fur, stopped abruptly and buckled in chest-high water, however, when her owner, Jack O'Neill of Suffield, tried to lead her out of the pool.

Splashing down the ramp to grab hold of a leash attached to the back of Belle's lifejacket, O'Neill tried to help his bear-like soggy friend out of the water, but then decided to let her sit and rest for a while.

"She has a neurological disorder in her hips, and she's deaf," O'Neill said, gently smoothing down a tuft of white hair on the dog's head as she looked up at him with tired and adoring eyes.

"When she gets to this point, where she's almost out of the water, her weight hits her and gravity takes over."

Nearby in the farm's aquatic barn, Sparky, a 12-year-old mix Labrador, sat on a treadmill happily wagging his tail as he and canine massage therapist Mary Champagne, clad in fisherman's waders, were slowly lowered into 96-degree water up to the dog's chest.

Blasts of air jets soon churned the water as the treadmill began moving at a leisurely 2 mile-per-hour pace. Sparky walked along the rubber belt as Champagne manipulated his back and rear leg muscles.

If dogs could smile, Sparky's was ear to ear.

'Sleeps like a baby'

"He goes home and sleeps like a baby after this, then the next day he's out romping in the back yard chasing rabbits," Liz Nyczak of Plainville said of her dog, who was stricken with cancer last year and is recovering from surgery.

Originally designed and operated for years as a rehabilitation center for injured horses, the farm was bought in 1997 by veterinarian Michael Stewart and his wife, Lisa. Michael Stewart specializes in equine diseases, injuries, and treatment.

Three years later the Stewarts began getting phone calls from dog owners asking if their disabled pet could swim in the pool after the horses were finished with their routine.

"We checked it out and found there was absolutely zero going on for dog therapy around here," Michael Stewart said.

It made sense that if water exercise worked to strengthen the muscles of horses, it would also work for dogs, he said. Before long, the Stewarts went from treating 10 to 15 canine clients to the 70 or so who now come to the farm each week.

Horses still receive their therapies in the mornings, Michael Stewart said, and now dogs take up the afternoons.

As for the demand, "I think we've just hit the tip of the iceberg," he said.

Maladies vary among the canine patients and include spinal cord injuries, torn ligaments, arthritis, Lyme disease, and bone fractures.

When struck with such an ailment, the dog's strength decreases, and the wear, stress, and strain placed upon a bony framework leads to painful joints, he said. Eventually, the dog stops walking altogether because it hurts too much.

Muscle mass has to be restored, but try telling a dog who's in pain that he has to walk on a treadmill in order to return to good health.

In the water, the weight is off the painful joints and the resistance makes for a better workout.

Therapy for sore muscles

The farm also offers whirlpool or hydrotherapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, and ultrasound, for the loosening and deep heating of muscles that have basically shut down and need to have oxygen re-circulated within them.

It's a fairly new practice. Researchers at the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine have been working toward adapting human physical therapy techniques to dogs since the mid-1990s.

Even though dogs lack the human qualities of self-motivation and will, researches say they're impressed with how quickly the animals begin to bear weight after receiving physical therapy when compared with people.

In a March 2000 article on the subject from the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association, associate professor and University of Tennessee researcher Dr. Darryl Millis says dogs seem to bounce back a little quicker than humans do from injury.

It all has to with training, trust, and work ethic, Stewart said.

After an acute injury or surgery, dogs tend to keep an injured limb flexed up against the body because it's more comfortable. It's not a true reflex, but rather a pain-associated tendency.

As a result, the clinic sees many dogs with chronic injuries that haven't used their limbs for several months or more, and the habit has been set.

They get used to carrying the limb, making it a challenge for the therapist to get the dog to trust its leg and put weight on it.

That's why Champagne climbs in the whirlpool with the dogs. Not only does she massage, but also she makes sure the dog is moving the injured leg under the water.

In essence, it's retraining the dog, Stewart said.

"You have to get them away from hobbling - it's like teaching them to walk all over again," he said.

Success rates vary

Spanning a wide range of breeds - including a physically fit show dog who needed a little bit of sports medicine therapy to learn to hold his head and tail higher - success rates vary, Stewart said, adding that much depends on the dog's drive and work ethic.

That doesn't mean a good guard dog will necessarily take to the pool like a Portuguese wter dog.

"Dobermans tend to seize up with fear when they get in the water," Stewart said with a smile at the irony.

While the therapy is hard work for the dogs, the experience can be emotional for the owners.

Stewart said that many find it more difficult to deal with a disabled pet than a disabled family member, likely because it's so unexpected.

"I've seen tears come to people's eyes when they see their dog walking again," he said.

Nyczak said that following surgery and chemotherapy she had tried many therapies for Sparky, who is now in remission, including acupuncture. When Sparky first came to River Meadow Farm he had very limited motion and didn't want to walk more than 10 or 15 feet at a time, she said.

"This works just like it works for human physical therapy," she said.

Sparky comes to River Meadow once a week for hydrotherapy and massage and "it's done absolute wonders - he is so much better now."

Belle comes to the center for treatment twice a week. She remains the alpha dog at home, growling at her much younger siblings to keep them in line, O'Neill said. But most days she does little more than lay around the house because of her condition, waiting to go out to the farm.

"She knows what days are hers to come here," O'Neill said, adding with a broad smile that with an excited bark "she lets me know when it's time to go."

"She's still very weak and I have to help her up, but she has more movement now with the therapy and she's getting stronger every day," O'Neill said.

For Belle, this is not so much about getting better - this is about quality of life.

For more information, River Meadow Farm, 236 Palisado Ave., Windsor, can be reached at 860-683-2386.