Meet Remi, our May 2020 Pet of the Month! We first met Remi in April of 2019. She had a chronic right hind limb lameness and had been previously diagnosed with arthritis. Spondylosis (spinal arthritis) was also noted on her radiographs (x-rays) taken by her regular veterinarian. Often spondylosis is considered an incidental finding on s-rays because the spinal changes were found while looking for something else, like looking at the gastrointestinal tract when a pet is vomiting. In Remi’s case, her spondylosis was quite severe, affecting her thoracic (chest region) and lumbar (abdominal region) spine. This is an important finding as spondylosis can contribute to a variety of symptoms, including hind limb lameness. When spondylosis is significant, the boney changes affecting the vertebral bodies can limit spinal motion and also compress nerve roots.
We started our rehabilitation plan for Remi with a focus on pain management for the first month. We used modalities such as laser, massage, acupuncture, pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy, and veterinary spinal manipulative therapy (VSMT) so kick start her rehabilitation journey. Once Remi was starting to feel better and move more easily, we started to incorporate some therapeutic exercises into her rehabilitation plan. Eventually, we were able to get her into the underwater treadmill.
Since then, Remi has been doing fairly well. However, she has had a few setbacks along the way, which have altered our rehabilitation plan for her. Currently, Remi continues her rehab journey with the main focus being pain management. She has a healthy list of exercises that she does at home with her family. During her appointments, we focus on the modalities that her family doesn’t have access to at home. Remi has also started some traditional Chinese herbal supplements recently, which seem to be helping her GI sensitivity as well as her hind limb lameness. We love seeing Remi here in the clinic and she is just a joy to work with!