Aqua Therapy
Essex Animal Hospital’s offers aqua therapy treatments for dogs. Our hospital has a heated indoor pool that is chemical free. We also have a hydro treadmill for our aquatic therapies. Aqua therapy utilizes the natural properties of water such as buoyancy and resistance to help improve your pet’s mobility.
Aquatic therapy is beneficial for:
- Post-operative orthopedic procedures
- Neurological conditions
- Osteoarthritic patients
- Obese patients
The under water treadmill allows your pet’s muscles to quickly and safely return to normal strength compared to other types of rehabilitation. As an added benefit, the warm water of the pool helps soothe and ease pain and discomfort, further enhancing the healing process. Water exercise is a low impact activity that helps to improve strength, range of motion, and endurance. The buoyancy properties of water minimize weight bearing stress to the joints which helps to prevent tissue injury, inflammation and pain.
Depending on your pet’s needs, we can begin aqua therapy using the underwater treadmill and/or swimming pool. The under water treadmill promotes controlled weight bearing by varying the water level. The swimming pool is a non-weight bearing environment, especially effective for osteoarthritis and weakness associated with neurological conditions.
Swimming Sessions at Essex Animal Hospital
In addition to therapeutic uses, our 12×20 ft. indoor, heated aqua therapy and fitness pool is available for swimming sessions for dogs. All swimming sessions are directly supervised by our staff at all times and are by appointment only. We welcome you to watch from the observation area, or even participate with your pet!
For more information about our aqua therapy treatments or to make an appointment for a swimming session, please call us at (519) 776-7325.
