Hydrotherapy (underwater treadmill) after cruciate surgery

Could anyone tell me how soon after cranial cruciate repair surgery they were advised to start hydrotherapy with an underwater treadmill please?
Many thanks

You rearly need to ask your vet this because a lot will depend on how it has healed. With my vets it is about 6 weeks but can be less or more.

Thank you for your reply. Is that 6 weeks for actual swimming or just underwater treadmill (which is what I'm interested in).
I will be discussing it with my vet of course but thought I'd try to get a rough idea from those who have actually gone through it with a large breed dog in the meantime.
Thanks

I'm probably not going to be very helpful here, as Gelert (Dobermann) was operated on for wobblers - she had 3 discs drilled out -, but she was put forward for water therapy. She was not allowed to swim as her neck wouldn't have had the strength, but she was put in the water treadmill, as far as I remember it was about 3 weeks after her op.
I hope you have more success with it than us......Gels quickly realised that if she placed her legs on either side of the speeding treadmill, she didn't have to move at all. The physio called time on it and reverted to massage and movement of her back legs!!!!

It appeared to be a really good way to get her moving without weight bearing for the 2 sessions before her eureka moment , good luck with the recouperation

Thank you for your reply Gellygoo.
Smart dog lol! Hope Gelert is doing well now.
I'm not expecting 'plain sailing' with this dog - nothing ever is with him.

Hello Susan it might be worth having a word with these people too as well as your vet.


http://www.canine-hydrotherapy.org/find/find-a-centre

Hi and thank you for the link . The centre I contacted is listed so that's good.
Vet has told us that he can start with the underwater treadmill as soon as the stitches are out and the wound has healed, all being well.
Wish we were 6 months on!

What a clever girl I had 2 dogs going at the same time, Gracie was an oldie and she used to play in the tank, she would pick her feet up, float to the other end then run to the front and do it all again, we were laughing too much to stop her. It didn't affect her but the hydro did make a big difference and gave me another 2.5 years of quality time with her, I was on the point of having her pts because of her arthritis, several sessions later she was able to stand on her back legs and scratch the door with her front paws, she hadn't been able to do that for several years. Gracie's problem was arthritis in all 4 legs and feet, both shoulders and her spine, she went weekly for 2.5 years then was pts at 17.5 years old due to a stroke.

My Greyhound had an operation on his spine, a disc had slipped and calcified, the vet had to use a hammer and chisel to get enough away from his spinal cord as it was in danger of cutting through it. My vets recommend about 10 sessions of hydro but I extended it with Merlin, after 20 sessions he started to go every other week for the rest of his life. It wasn't necessary to go after the first course but my vet said that it will keep his muscles in better condition to cope with his other spinal problem that couldn't be operated on.

Good to hear that it helped your dogs I'm hoping things go smoothly over the next couple of weeks so that we can start some treadmill sessions as he's desperate for some proper exercise already and is clearly unhappy being confined and controlled, poor dog.

Both Gracie and Merlin started with 2 minutes and built up to 15, with Gracie to make her work harder the last 5 minutes the water was dropped so instead of supporting her she had to walk through it and lift her paws. It took Merlin 8 sessions to stand on his own paws, then he couldn't get into the tank fast enough.

When I first got Cyril he couldn't be walked for 2 weeks because he was so weak from starvation, once he was well enough I took him to hydro to help build up the right muscles, the first photo is Cyril the day after he arrived, the second 6 months later. He is still lean but eats a lot but I don't think he will every be as muscled as a normal Staffy because being starved took all his muscle.