Canine (and Feline) Rehabilitation for Spinal Injury/Surgery

Perhaps the most important step to recovery from back injury or surgery is strict rest to allow the spine to recover.  Even without medication, cage rest can be the best medicine. With mobility, the disc can continue to herniate and bruising can worsen. Rest allows the spine, ligaments, spinal cord and muscles to heal. Ideally the space the patient is rested in is large enough to allow the patient to lay in any direction, have food, water and a toy but no more than this. For example, for a Dachshund, a baby play pen is ideal in size. For a Great Dane, a small bedroom may be enough or blocking off a kitchen space. Footing matters as the patients cannot afford to slip. Yoga mats can do the trick, or area rugs. Yoga mats are ideal as they are made of rubber that is antibacterial, thus easy to wash and reuse. They also are affordable.

It is best to rest the patient at least two weeks. This number is arbitrary but essential for a minimum. Too early freedom and lead to re-injury. During that time, the patient is not immobile and still continues rehabilitation to ensure muscles and joints keep range of motion but under very controlled situations. When it is time to go out and bathroom duties, patients are carries out or assisted with harnesses or slings to avoid any falling or slipping that could set them back. 

Every day, the patient needs to improve a little. It may be challenging for the owners to know what that looks like which is why close contact with your primary veterinarian is important. In our day and age, you can easily send a video of the progress to your clinician. Every day or two, take a small video of your pet doing the same thing , such as walking outside (or trying to walk) and keep this in a file. You can then revisit the progress over the week. In all our spinal patient the mobility is affected by injury in this fashion: first the patient becomes weak and perhaps even wobbly but can walk; then the pet is so weak it cannot walk but still can walk tail or move its legs of his own will power or volition; then that voluntary movement disappears but superficial pain is present  (pain when pinching the skin is recognized by crying, turning head towards the painful stimulus, panting, whining, pupils dilating or even biting so watch out); then the last thing to disappear is deep pain which is equivalent to your finger caught in the door (pinching toes with forceps). This disappears last because the fibers that communicate that pain from the toes to the brain are distributed throughout the spinal cord and to affect it all, the entire diameter of the spinal cord has to be damaged. This is the worst and when this happens, the odds of helping is very poor. It is important for owners to watch the recovery in the reverse as described above. As well, when the voluntary movement returns, ability to know when  to urinate and defecate returns thus a very good sign. If a patient has deep pain there is a very good chance he will run again in time and rehabilitation is key.

Every day, the patient needs to improve a little. It may be challenging for the owners to know what that looks like which is why close contact with your primary veterinarian is important. In our day and age, you can easily send a video of the progress to your clinician. Every day or two, take a small video of your pet doing the same thing , such as walking outside (or trying to walk) and keep this in a file. You can then revisit the progress over the week. In all our spinal patient the mobility is affected by injury in this fashion: first the patient becomes weak and perhaps even wobbly but can walk; then the pet is so weak it cannot walk but still can walk tail or move its legs of his own will power or volition; then that voluntary movement disappears but superficial pain is present  (pain when pinching the skin is recognized by crying, turning head towards the painful stimulus, panting, whining, pupils dilating or even biting so watch out); then the last thing to disappear is deep pain which is equivalent to your finger caught in the door (pinching toes with forceps). This disappears last because the fibers that communicate that pain from the toes to the brain are distributed throughout the spinal cord and to affect it all, the entire diameter of the spinal cord has to be damaged. This is the worst and when this happens, the odds of helping is very poor. It is important for owners to watch the recovery in the reverse as described above. As well, when the voluntary movement returns, ability to know when  to urinate and defecate returns thus a very good sign. If a patient has deep pain there is a very good chance he will run again in time and rehabilitation is key.