It was great to see Roisin this week. We have been working so hard this year to get her back on track. Roisin had a total hip replacement earlier this year which unfortunately had complications. After implant removal she needed a lot of work to slowly build her stability and strength. With acupuncture and massage for pain relief and intensive physiotherapy and swimming at home she is finally getting back on track. With hip dysplasia it is important to keep working on her at home and maintenance with physiotherapy to ensure we are minimising the effects of arthritis. She is certainly a lot happier. Feel free to watch her progress in the underwater treadmill this week. If you compare to my blog entry to October 8th you can see she is much better.
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As I reduced the height of the water you can see it becomes more difficult for Roisin as she needs the strength in her hip flexors to break the surface tension of the water.
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This is something we can work on for her with exercises at home e.g. walking through long grass, stepping over logs, walk through ladders etc. We also need to improve her fine stability so she can support herself standing on the leg better (a bit like pilates for dogs if you like) for her deep gluteal muscles. She is doing so well considering she was on 3 legs for months!
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Well done!
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