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Physiotherapeutic Strategies and Their Current Evidence for Canine Osteoarthritis

Mille, M. A., McClement, J., & Lauer, S. (2023). Physiotherapeutic strategies and their current evidence for canine osteoarthritis. Veterinary Sciences, 10(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci10010002


Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic progressive disease, which frequently requires lifelong therapy in dogs. In addition to pain management with drugs, exercise modification and physical therapy are important measures to alleviate pain and to improve patient mobility and quality of life in osteoarthritic dogs. The main goals of physiotherapy for osteoarthritic dogs are pain reduction, improvement of muscle strength and preservation of joint function.

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For this purpose, the patient’s life style and environment are optimally adapted to facilitate daily life in osteoarthritic dogs. Owners learn to optimize daily exercise and to perform simple home exercises. Additionally, physiotherapists regularly adapt the PT-program according to patient progress and complement the home program with “PT-expert” exercises and physiotherapeutic modalities (for example: shock wave or laser therapy) to further improve the patient’s overall quality of life and function. The authors propose a simple systematic PT approach for canine OA, prioritizing measures according to simplicity, cost effectiveness and practicality in the form of a “PT pyramid”. The levels of the pyramid are in ascending order: environmental modification, exercise plan, OA-specific home exercises, and treatment by a veterinary physical therapist. Additionally, efficacy of physiotherapeutic measures is reviewed for canine osteoarthritis.


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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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