Does your home promote your dog’s healing and health? Or does it perhaps predispose your dog to further injury, or delay their healing from injury?
Let’s discuss the simple adaptations you can make to your home to help your dog heal and live their best, pain-free lives.
When are environmental adaptations necessary?
While certain environmental adaptations benefit all dogs, we need to pay special attention to preparing our home when our dog has been injured, is recovering from surgery, or develops arthritis.
Research has shown that 24% of dogs under the age of two have arthritis and that 80% of dogs over eight have arthritis in one or more joints. When our dogs become injured or undergo orthopaedic surgery, their chances of developing arthritis increase.
When we know and understand this, we can start to incorporate small changes into our homes while our precious pet is still young, to support them as they age. Minor changes can reduce the impact of arthritis and ensure a long and happy life for our dogs. These changes become especially needed as your dog ages and pain possibly increases.
Short-term vs long-term adaptations
Short-term adaptations are those we make when a dog requires a period of rest after an acute injury or surgery. Short-term adaptations will include
- creating safe, restricted rest areas: crates and alternatives.
- finding the best position in the house: flooring, household activity, and more.
- providing physical support: harnesses and leash walking.
- providing mental stimulation: games, exercises, and mental exhaustion.
- creating the best bed: shape, size and position.
Long-term adaptations are those we make to reduce the impact of arthritis through home modifications, which will also reduce the risk of future injury in your dog. This will include minor changes in
- flooring
- stairways
- doorways
- furniture
- toileting
Short-term adaptations for recovery from injury
When recovering from an acute injury or surgery, your dog may need to go through a period of restricted activity that includes crate rest. With a few simple tricks, this rest period can be easily managed.
Safe, restricted activity
Crate rest is the equivalent of bed rest for us, and allows us to protect our dog from further injury while they are healing. Crate rest is usually recommended after:
- an amputation
- intervertebral disc disease surgery
- the fracture of a bone
- an orthopaedic or soft tissue surgery
It may also form part of the conservative management of many conditions, such as a torn cruciate ligament. Full crate rest, or bed rest, can be detrimental as dogs need a degree of movement to encourage good-quality healing. With full crate rest, regular toileting and walking breaks are needed. Alternatives to crate rest can provide a happy medium between restriction and movement.
Alternatives to crate rest
If your dog is small and calm, a playpen with an open top could double as a crate. This gives your dog slightly more space than a crate, and allows you to lift them up and carry them, instead of asking them to enter and exit the crate through a door. Room rest is another alternative for dogs that don’t need to be as closely restricted. A resting room needs to have non-slip flooring, a comfortable bed, and no furniture that the dog will try to jump on or off of.
Simple tips and tricks to make crate rest stress-free
- Find the best position in the house.
A rest area should be easily accessible from outside, have access to non-slip flooring, and allow the dog to engage with and be a part of the activities of the family.
- Provide mental stimulation.
Mental stimulation can take many forms, including food puzzles or games, environmental stimulation, training games, and therapeutic exercises.
- Kit out the rest area with everything your dog needs.
A comfortable bed, water, and their favourite toy or chew can go a long way to ensuring that they feel safe, comfortable and happy in their rest area.
Long-term adaptations to prevent injuries and encourage longevity in dogs with degenerative conditions
When our dogs suffer from chronic degenerative conditions such as arthritis or neurological degeneration, simple adaptations to our home environment can help reduce anxiety, prevent injuries, and slow the progression of their disease.
Flooring
Repetitive slippage on floors can inflame painful joints and cause injury to the soft tissues that surround those joints, further worsening arthritis.
Our most common flooring types today are also those that cause endless difficulties to our dogs! These include laminated, tiled and wooden floors. These surfaces provide little or no traction for the dog, and can cause them to slip, so that their legs splay out dangerously.
Two aspects determine whether your dog slips on the floor – the flooring material and their paws. You can reduce slipping by paying attention to both aspects.
Stairways
For dogs with arthritis or degenerative conditions, stairways should be avoided, or controlled if they cannot be avoided. If stairways are a must, they should have a non-slip surface – for wooden, laminated or tiled stairways, add non-slip flooring tape to each step. Small dogs should be carried up and down stairs, while large dogs should be supported as they navigate the stairway with a harness such as the Help ‘Em Up harness or an alternative.
Control access to the stairway with a baby gate, and minimise the number of times your dog needs to travel up and down the stairs as much as possible.
Doorways
Doorways can pose a challenge when they require turning a sharp corner over a slippery surface, especially when your dog wants to move through them at speed.
Thresholds or split levels that include a step up or down across different indoor and outdoor surfaces can be just as challenging. Ensure that surfaces are non-slip, and that height differences are minimised as much as possible with an in-between step or a ramp.
Furniture
Many of us love having our dogs lie on our bed or snuggle on the couch with us – and they love it, too. However, dogs with arthritis or degenerative conditions should not be allowed to jump on and off furniture, as the impact of jumping can cause additional damage to their joints.
Furniture ramps or steps are easily accessible and should be used in these cases.
Toileting
Many factors about toileting need to be considered, some of which are specific to your dog’s condition. As dogs age or their condition progresses, they may experience increasing stress or discomfort around this. You can minimise their anxiety and pain by ensuring that they have easy and direct access to a toileting area that provides good traction, allowing them to position themselves as comfortably as possible.
Feeding
Raising food and water bowls off the ground to about the chest or shoulder height of your dog can make eating and drinking far more comfortable for them. This can reduce the amount of pressure they place on their front legs, neck, and back. It can encourage a good neutral posture and, as a result, aid in better digestion.
Place non-slip mats around feed and water bowls to ensure that your dog has secure footing while they are eating and drinking. Feeding older dogs or dogs that are compromised separately can also reduce anxiety and prevent rushing while eating.
Speak to your Veterinary Rehabilitation Therapist for additional advice
If your dog is recovering from an injury or surgery, or if they suffer from arthritis, reach out to your local veterinary rehabilitation therapist for advice on the best ways to support them and help them heal.
Your local veterinary rehabilitation therapist will be able to help you with environmental adaptations, natural pain management, therapeutic exercise and so much more.
Provide your clients with education on environmental adaptations and more
If you are a veterinary rehabilitation therapist who wants to provide your client with educational resources on environmental adaptations, the progression and treatment of specific conditions, and so much more, you might want to take a look at some of the comprehensive educational resource templates we’ve created, which you can edit and make your own. These are incredibly helpful extras that you can offer your clients, and have the potential to add value to your service. Learn more about these resources, here.
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