For about a year, animals recovering from injuries or surgeries have used the MSU Advanced Rehabilitation Center for Animals as their springboard to recovery.
Whether it's through a therapeutic ultrasound, an electrical stimulation, a balance beam or the innovative underwater treadmill, animal owners have called on the center's modern technology to get their pets back on their paws.
"We get about five or six patients a day," said Patrick LeBlanc, director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which houses the rehabilitation center. "We have a lot of animals that could use some physical therapy — animals that are in cancer treatment, animals that have had orthopedic surgery, animals that are morbidly obese. It's difficult for the owners to exercise them. We have various ways of doing that here; it's sort of like our in-house spa."
The underwater treadmill is similar to the kind at health clubs, except it has Plexiglas sides and is filled with warm water, LeBlanc said, adding it's used chiefly on arthritic dogs.
"We slowly fill it with warm water, and then the dog starts walking on the treadmill and sort of floats," LeBlanc said. "The more water we put in there, the less weight we put on their feet because they're almost floating at that point. So those animals that are really crippled up and have bad arthritis, we put a lot of water in. But as they get better, we put less water in so that there's more weight on their joints."
Genia Smith, a licensed practitioner who helps conduct the animals' physical training regimen, said the impact of physical therapy on the recovery is "limited to your imagination."
"It helps very quickly," Smith said. "Some patients that don't go through any rehab take two weeks to recover, while other patients that go through rehab can put that foot down and start bearing weight (on it) in just a few days."
About 18 months ago, Lansing resident Maxine Thome started taking her Bernese Mountain Dog, Robby, to the center because he had a partially torn cruciate ligament, a deterioration of the joints and was overweight.
With the help of the center, Robby lost weight and appeared to have a new life. But unfortunately, Robby developed malignant histiocytosis, a common type of cancer for Bernese Mountain Dogs, and died six months later, Thome said.
Thome said Robby's life was extended by the rehabilitation program and that his death was very peaceful.
"He was going through chemo, and as awful as chemo can be, his rehabilitation appointments gave him a quality of life that myself or my partner couldn't have provided him," Thome said. "It was the rehabilitation program and the care he got from Genia and the folks at MSU that gave him the extra months he had."
Thome said despite the difficulties of therapy, Robby looked forward to going to MSU and being with Smith.
"It was the definition of total-wellness care," Thome said. "They treated the dog physically, emotionally and medically. I wish more people would take advantage and recognize that this rehabilitation program exists because it's such a phenomenal treatment program and so many more animals could benefit from it."
