Osteoartritis en perros - Fisioterapia canina

Foreign Today we're going to talk about osteoarthritis. First of all, remember that physiotherapy should never be performed on an animal that has not been diagnosed by a veterinarian, and that all the techniques explained below should be performed by a physiotherapist who will indicate, if possible, which exercises the owner can perform on their animal and how, according to the treatment. Hello, I'm Monsar Ar Roca. I am a home physiotherapist for small animals, especially dogs and cats, and I am also the physiotherapist at the Kanopolis Delgarif shelter. I also provide physiotherapy services to the Gocespige association of Catalonia. Today we're going to talk about physiotherapy, which unfortunately is largely unknown in our country. Osteoarthritis is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases in dogs, affecting up to 20% of the canine population. It is an irreversible and progressive chronic degenerative joint disease that causes pain, loss of joint function and lameness. It is therefore a serious disease that can greatly limit the dog's activity and unfortunately has no cure. Treatment with physiotherapy can delay the progression of the disease's symptoms and improve the animal's quality of life. The inflammatory response is individual. It has acute phases in which the dog has symptoms of pain and lameness and phases in which it does not present any clinical symptoms. As owners, you may notice that there is increased lameness in cold weather. It has difficulty getting up, walks with a slower gait, there is a reduction in stride length, physical activity has decreased, that is, it sleeps more and plays less. It has difficulty going up and down stairs and ramps and presents muscle atrophy. And as owners, you can offer it a padded bed so that it does not sleep directly on the floor. Place it near a heat source or a place with a suitable temperature to reduce stiffness due to immobility. We can also achieve this effect with a coat. We see that there is actually a worsening in the winter months in animals that suffer from osteoarthritis. Try to minimize going up and down stairs. Provide a ramp for getting in and out of the car. Adapt your lifestyle to your dog's situation and have them undergo physiotherapy by a professional. A model rehabilitation plan lasting approximately 60 minutes could be as follows. We would start with thermotherapy, applying heat, which we use to promote blood circulation, tissue flexibility and reduce pain, muscle spasms and joint stiffness. We will continue applying electrostimulation to reduce pain and facilitate support and weight bearing on the limbs. We will then seek analgesia. Then we will continue with low level cardiovascular exercises such as walking on a treadmill, controlled steps on a leash, hydrotherapy and cavalete. For example, we will apply hydrotherapy to increase the range of motion of the joints and it also helps with weight control. We will continue with therapeutic massage which has the following it relieves pain, reduces tension and sedates the central nervous system, improves lymphatic blood flow and relieves muscle tension through relaxation. It reduces pain and increases mobility. We will continue doing stretching which aims to treat pathologically shortened tissues and increase flexibility and joint movement in normal and abnormal tissues. We will finish the session by applying superficial cold cryotherapy if we see that it is necessary because the most affected joints are inflamed after exercise. The long term objectives of the rehabilitation plan for a patient with osteoarthritis are above all pain control. Achieving analgesia, slowing down the progression of the disease, improving and maintaining the range of joint mobility, achieving maximum functionality in the animal's return to daily activity. Also the treatments of the compensatory changes caused by the disease in the musculoskeletal system and in general improving their quality of life. Weight control is also very important in patients with osteoarthritis if needed because obesity is an added problem to the disease and it is very important to control weight to achieve better therapeutic results. Otherwise we are in a vicious circle because the animal is in pain, moves less, its muscles atrophy and then causes more overweight. In other words, we have to break this vicious circle. Ah.