Did You Know?- Rehabilitation Services

West Ridge Animal Hospital now offers extensive canine rehabilitation and conditioning services including, but not limited to; water treadmill, massage, exercise, and owner education. These services are ideal for dogs recovering from orthopedic surgeries, suffering from certain painful conditions, needing to lose weight or those whose owners would like them to receive conditioning.

Right now, we have one staff member, Kadi, who is a human Physical Therapist (PT) as well as a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP). We also have another staff member, Mary, who is also a human Physical Therapist and is attending classes to become certified with canines. They both have extensive experience in physical therapy, and are excited to add dogs (whom they both love!) to their list of patients.

Following is a paragraph describing our rehabilitative services, written by our rehab staff:

The emerging collaboration between the professions of veterinary medicine and physical therapy is an important advancement in the quality of care which can be provided to our canine clients. Upon veterinarian referral, the physical therapist utilizes rehabilitation principles and techniques (heat/cold/light modalities, therapeutic exercise, massage, aquatic therapy, owner education, and other activities) to improve the function, comfort and quality of life for our arthritic, deconditioned, post injury, postoperative, or neurologically-involved dogs. Performance enhancement services are available for show and working dogs.

Please note that our rehabilitative services are headed by a CCRP/s. While it is not required that a veterinary practice use certified rehabilitation practitioners, and many don't, we here at West Ridge are dedicated to providing the best care possible for your canine companion. The classes required for certification ensure that your pet receives the most professional, holistic, personalized rehabilitation regime available in Northern Colorado. Certification also ensures that our practitioners are capable of providing rehabilitation services compatible with our high standards of veterinary care.