Merely going for a walk, let alone catching a frisbee or running in the fields, can be very difficult and extremely painful for a dog with arthritis. To put it another way, arthritis can take the fun out of your dog’s “purpose” in life…to have fun! As a attentive veterinarian in Decatur I am happy to ease your mind by telling you that treatment for canine arthritis is not solely reduced to the use of pain medication. Dogs suffering from arthritis may be able to benefit from the physiotherapy that helps to improve joint mobility, just like humans are. Physiotherapy, in humans, helps to reduce arthritic inflammation and increase function of the affected joints and limbs. You may be wondering how physiotherapy affects canine joints and limbs, as well as what exercises are most effective.

Though physiotherapy for dogs isn’t new, until recently there hasn’t been much research done to sufficiently document its effects on canine arthritis. However, a new study by researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, and published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, validated the efficacy of physiotherapy in reducing arthritic inflammation and immobility in dogs.

The researchers used a specifically-designed treadmill and delicate computer algorithms to analyze the movements of the joints in the front and back legs of dogs while the dogs performed three different types of exercises: walking uphill, walking downhill and walking over low obstacles.

The study showed that the three exercises had different and particular effects on the motion of the dogs’ joints. Walking uphill caused notably greater bending at the hip, as opposed to walking downhill, which caused the hip to be less bent and the tarsal joint to be less extended. However, the most consequential effects came when the dogs walked over low obstacles. This resulted inincreased bending of all joints except the hip and shoulder, and greater extensions of the carpal and stifle joints.

You may be asking, at this point, what all of of this means for your dog? One for, it’s an indication that walking uphill is a simple exercise that you could provide to help to improve your dog’s joint flexibility, especially at the hip joint, and that adding low obstacles could help to improve the bending of the joints in the forelimbs and hind limbs. It is important to mention, though, that adding low obstacles should be avoided if your dog has recently had surgery for the tibia, because such activity could result in increased bending of the joints and potentially strain the tendon that joins the knee to the shin.

And, as a Decatur veterinarian who loves dogs, I would like to make one final suggestion for “man’s best friend,” since the study indicated that walking downhill wasn’t  shown to be effective anyway, after you’ve exercised your dog uphill, perhaps a ride in the car back down the hill would be a nice treat!

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