Canine Rehabilitation of Orange County

04/24/2025

Dogtor Wilbur was just a little concerned that his mom would take home the wrong dog 🥲

04/22/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 16 🏆!

Even when you do everything right, your canine athlete can still sustain an injury that requires professional veterinary care, especially when symptoms like limping, swelling, pain, or instability appear. Early intervention and physical rehabilitation can be crucial to avoid long-term issues and help dogs recover safely and effectively. Rest alone can lead to muscle atrophy within days, so controlled, medically-guided exercise helps maintain fitness and prevents further injury during recovery. When looking for Rehab services for your athlete, look for providers with any of the following certifications: Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP), Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist (CCRT), Certified Companion Animal Rehabilitation Therapist (CCAT), and/or Certified Canine Rehabilitation Veterinary Technician (CCRVT).

04/21/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 15 🏆!

COMMON INJURIES - Metacarpophalangeal-Interphalangeal Joint Disease
It's a mouthful even for us, so we've taken to calling it Polar Bear Paw because bony changes within the foot cause the front paws to resemble that of a polar bear. This is a repetitive motion injury often associated with frequent games of fetch, acrobatic movements with hard landings on the front paws, and dogs that live exclusively on hard surfaces like tile and concrete. Most of the cases we see are dogs that repetitively run along a fence or property line. Their intense speed followed by abrupt, sideways stopping results in chronic abuse to the tiny joints within the paw, causing osteoarthritis formation and thickening of those joints. These permanent changes often cause pain, reduced range of motion and loss of flexibility within the paw and toes. To prevent this injury, try to prevent repetitive, high impact activities and focus on building strength in the forearms and paws to support the joint.

04/20/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 14 🏆!

COMMON INJURIES - Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture
Often compared to the human Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), rupture of the Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) is the most common injury in pet and sporting dogs. In young dogs, rupture typically occurs with fast & forceful movements but in older dogs, rupture occurs over time with chronic wearing away & fraying of the ligament. Careful conditioning helps reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of injury by keeping the muscles, tendons, & ligaments flexible, supple, & balanced. Cross Training to avoid injury involves slow, controlled exercises & a focus on enhancing stabilizing structures like the Patellar Tendon.

04/17/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 12 🏆!

COMMON INJURIES - Iliopsoas Strain
The Iliopsoas (pronounced ill-ee-oh-soh-az) is a grouping of muscles that flexes the dog’s hip. Highly active or sporting dogs are frequently affected by this type of injury since the activities they participate in are high intensity like jumping, sprinting, or rough play. Injury to this muscle group usually happens when it is overstretched during activity & if left untreated can become a chronic source of lameness & pain. There are some conditions that can make your dog more likely to experience an Iliopsoas injury like Hip Dysplasia, Intervertebral Disc Disease, or Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture but a dog’s overall fitness level & lack of preparation for high intensity activity can also be primary causes. Thermotherapy, massage, & stretching are particularly effective to reduce risk of this injury.

For more info, visit our Medical Library article: https://www.caninerehaboc.com/post/iliopsoas

04/16/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 10 🏆!

The foundation of good agility, proprioception is the brain’s awareness of the body’s position in space. Improving proprioception enhances your dog’s speed and precision of limb movement. Poor proprioception can mean the difference between 1st and 2nd place, but it might also be the variable saving your dog from serious injury. One paw in the wrong spot could lead to a nasty fall off an obstacle and potentially months to recover before they can resume their favorite activity.

04/15/2025

Our latest Medical Library article is all about cross-training to keep the Canine Athlete's body well rounded, helping to prevent strains and injuries. Check it out!

The second chapter in our guide of essentials to ensure K9 Athletes are prepared to safely continue performing their jobs and sports!

04/15/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 9 🏆!

You can’t focus on getting stronger if you keep falling over! Balance is the ability to maintain uprightness and avoid falling, so we begin our work here before moving our focus to coordination and strength. Balance work also increases core strength; a weak core can cause hypermobility of the spine and predispose your dog to significant back injuries and chronic pain. Poor core strength will also put excess force onto the limbs, increasing risk of compensatory injury. The goal with balance work is to gradually increase the challenge of each movement. If your dog is unsteady at a certain level and cannot hold a balance pose for extended periods of time, continue to train and repeat the exercise until it is no longer difficult for at least 5 sets of 15 seconds.

04/14/2025

🏆 Canine Sports Medicine Day 8 🏆!

What does weight lifting have to do with playing tennis? Human athletes cross-train to ensure they are in peak physical condition and ready to perform at their best. They know that weight training and targeted exercises translate to bigger wins and reduced chances of injury. That’s why Olympic swimmers can be found cycling and basketball players practice Pilates. Using low-impact, targeted exercises, cross-training will improve your Canine Athlete’s balance, endurance, flexibility, and strength in the same way as their human counterparts.

04/11/2025

We had our own mini Goldie Palooza today, with Percy, Red, & Chopper in for exams! Thank you to Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue for sharing Red & Chopper with us 💙 We've also been hosting several Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians lately that are in the process of earning their certification in Canine Physical Rehabilitation. It's such a compliment for these students to shadow our team because it means we are the prime example for high quality Rehab services!!!

04/10/2025

Part 2 of our weekend - Goldie Palooza!!!! This event just keeps getting better and we are thrilled to be a part of it! This year, 1,684 Golden Retrievers were in attendance 🥳 What a turn out! Thank you to everyone who came! We were also lucky enough to have our very talented friend alongside us, Chad from Coastal P&O, who makes human grade prosthetics and orthotics for dogs! We absolutely loved participating in this incredible event that benefits so many dogs and their families and we are counting down the days until next year's Goldiepalooza!!!

04/09/2025

We'd like to thank I Heart K9 for hosting us this past weekend - it was an incredible experience to meet all of the Canine Athletes and their humans! Dogtor Wilbur attended to assist Lauryn in demonstrations of Massage, Stretching, and Exercises beneficial to Canine Athletes and he couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by such stunning, powerful working dogs 🤯 We love these opportunities to get involved with our community and share our knowledge to help dog families to keep their pup in excellent health for as long as possible - it's kinda the whole reason we do what we do! We are so grateful to everyone who attended and would absolutely love to help more Canine Athletes and their handlers. If you are a member of a dog sporting club in OC, reach out to us and we'd be happy to meet with your club members to share demonstrations as well as our 30+ page booklet all about Canine Sports Medicine!