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PICTURES IN THE POOL
The Pool Room
The pool is 12 feet long, 5 feet wide & 4 feet deep, heated to 27'C We have a hoist over head to lift heavy or incapable dogs into the pool with ease and a variety of other instruments and devices to help your dog swim if necessary.
Scooby, a Border Terrier, swimming like a fish! He has arthritis in his hips and having a series of 6 swims in 3 weeks and then 1 swim weekly thereafter for about 6 weeks his symtoms have been relieved quite considerably, he is again using all four legs with very much less pain. We now swim him about 1 or 2 times a month to maintain his mobilty.
Storm, A Briard. She is swimming to relieve the pain in her front leg after an accident whilst running. A series of 7 swims in 5 weeks helped to rebuild the damaged tissue, reduce the swelling and get her back on the road in no time.
Marlowe was a black labrador who sadly had arthritis and hip dysplasia amongst other things. We are swimming him to rebuild the muscles in his back legs and to help relieve the pain he suffers:
Very sadly Marlowes problems were much greater than we had feared and swimming in Marlows case was just not enough to help him. But he so looked forward to his weekly swim that his owners kept him coming right up to the end so at least he was getting a really worthwhile bit of excercise that he really enjoyed. He found it increasingly difficult to move around comfortably on land without a lot of pain, but in the pool's warm water he was able to swim to his hearts content almost pain free.
Sophie a Springer Spaniel, Came to us last year. She was very over weight and owing to the fact that she had a front leg amputated a few years ago she was finding it very difficult to support her weight for more than just a second or two at a time. She started swimming with just 30 seconds for her first couple of swims and soon built her stamina and we were able to increase her time in the pool. After about a dozen swims she was able to stand and move about with much more ease, and of course she has lost some weight which all helps her quality of life. She now has a regular swim every week which is continuing to help her gain her mobility and help to lose even more weight.
Paddy is coming in on a regular basis to build his muscle tone and get fit for Crufts and other C.C. shows .
As he is a very fit dog we utilise the jets in the pool which have air pumped into them. This makes him work very much harder, and so builds his muscle tone even more.
Paddy is our most humourous client as he loves his swimming sessions so much that we find it very difficult to prevent him from leaping into the pool before we are ready for him to do so. While he is in the pool he makes so much commotion in the water, chasing the splashes and making huge waves that he reduces the level in the pool quite considerably each time. He loves it so much that we have trouble getting him out afterwards, and if we lose our grip on him once he has been dried, he will shoot straight back up the ramp and jump in again.
Bella is a year old and is also coming to the centre for fitness swims. We can't say she enjoys it as much as her best friend Paddy, but she always waits with 'dogged' resignation until Paddy has finished before she goes in, reluctantly.
Jess, is a cocker spaniel who has been swimming with us for about 3 months after cruciate disease neccessitated an operation, has now, happily completed her course and we are very pleased to say that she is very much better than when she started swimming.
This is Henry, an Italian Spinone. He is being treated for Hip dysplasia. Swimming regularly helps to ease his pain and strengthen his muscles which in turn will help to support his joints, thus reducing the pain even further. You will notice we are using a neck support, backwards on Henry while he is swimming as he has a tendency to gulp big mouthfuls of water, this makes it harder for him to do so.
We will sometimes use this device on a dog that tends to shake his head a lot while in the pool due to the fact that he doesn't like water in his ears. This will just lift his head a little to alleviate the problem. We use hats on dogs while swimming for two reasons, 1. It helps to prevent so much water going in the ear, thus releiving the head shaking problem a little and 2. If the dog does shake it's head, the hat will prevent the ears from being battered on the side of the pool or any other hard object which can cause Haematomas to the ears, (Cauliflower ear).
Buster is 11 years old and has Osteoarthritis, so he's swiming to build up the muscles in his hind legs which helps to support his hip & knee joints and subsequently helps to relieve the pain he has.
Mavi is a chocolate Labrador who comes in for a swim every week to help relieve the pain from Hip Dysplaasia and Elbow Dysplasia. Regular swimming is delaying the need for another operation. Mavi is rather a lazy swimmer so to help keep his rear end up we use a pair of kiddies arm bands strapped around his tummy and the neck pillow to keep his ears out of the water, stopping him from constantly shaking his head. He loves to hold a soft ball or toy in his mouth while swimming up and down the pool.