Hydrotherapy
So that’s why my wife wanted a pool when we rebuilt our house 3+ years ago?! To think that I thought it was about swimming and drinking beer on hot summer days!
CCNF Seraphim, one of the core group of mature Archangel daughters that in many ways forms the back bone of our light colored female herd, last week gave birth to one of our better looking crias of 2014. Unfortunately, the little guy was born with loose hips and luxating patellas (knee) in both rear legs, so severe that he couldn’t even stand for the first 24 hours without getting hobbled with a piece of vet wrap that helped hold his legs together. Though that did enable him to get around, nurse, and stand so that he could go to the the dung pile, he eventually developed sores where the vet wrap was rubbing. Thankfully by the time we had to take the hobble off, he was able to stand — albeit not that gracefully — without it. That got the powers that be (read: Jennifer and our vet, Susan Johnson) thinking about what sort of physical therapy we might be able to do to help the little guy build and tighten everything up in his hind end? Well, what about water therapy? It’s pretty well known that the resistance that water creates, while at the same time eliminating the complicating factor of gravity on rehabbing injuries is very beneficial. Can you say pool time?
The opportunity for this little guy to be able to move his rear legs through their full range of motion without his weight pushing down on everything seems to be paying slow but steady dividends. I was away from the farm for a few days earlier this week and remarked when I got home yesterday, how things seemed to have improved! Plus, it gives us something to do with the old lifejacket that our boys last took turns wearing on our sailing trips when they were each about 4 years old. When my better half first decided to do this, she made me promise I would go nowhere near her with a camera but once she got the little dude all suited up, it was just too darn cute. In any case, not a bad way to spend an August afternoon…
