Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Second Edition. Edited by Chris Zink and Janet B. Van Dyke.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Rehabilitation for Geriatric

18 Patients

Rosemary J. LoGiudice, DVM, DACVSMR, CCRT, CVA, CVSMT,

FCoAC, and Lisa Starr, DVM, CCRP, CVA, CVSMT

Summary

Quality of life—it is what people want for their dogs, and it is something that rehabilita-

tion therapists can help to provide, especially for aging dogs. Aging is not a disease; it

is a complex process that occurs at the genomic, cellular, and organ level—a process

that appropriately selected rehabilitation therapies can help manage. Each organ sys-

tem experiences senescence, or decreased function and degeneration, with aging.

Many factors contribute to how an animal ages, and aging tables are readily available

that can be used as guidelines while considering these factors. In human geriatric prac-

tice, there is no set age at which patients are considered geriatric. Rather, this decision

is determined by the individual patient’s condition. In veterinary medicine, helping to

recognize and manage the factors that may contribute to an animal’s aging process is

an important role that the rehabilitation therapist should play as part of a patient’s

health‐care team. Factors affecting the older dog, in addition to chronological age, that

are crucial to evaluate when prescribing appropriate rehabilitation plans include

weight, existing diseases or physiological conditions, sensory deficits, musculoskeletal

conditions, and abnormalities resulting in mobility and incontinence issues, as well as

neuromuscular, neurological, and cognitive deficits. The rehabilitation therapist must

understand the client’s goals for the patient to be able to determine whether the goals

are possible to achieve, and how to best develop the rehabilitation plan to achieve

these goals. Geriatric patients respond to traditional therapies differently than younger

athletic dogs. Choosing eccentric versus concentric exercises for an individual patient,

for example, is key. A multimodal therapy plan including pain management is often

necessary to allow the patient to achieve success.