TPLO Rehab & Convincing the Surgeons

[lehughes]

Hi Laurie! I am a subscriber to your website and love all the information. I am a licensed DVM with certifications in acupuncture, chiropractic and am currently pursuing my CCRP certification but won’t be finished with it until early next year (March). I worked for a couple of years with a certified CCRP who recently shut down her business (long story) so I’m in the process of starting my own. I have a few clients that came along with me when the original closed down. I’m wanting to do some marketing to the local surgical specialists. They have been reluctant to refer post-surgical cases for rehab, especially TPLO. Rumor has it they were told at one point the drag from the UWTM can damage the surgical repair. I’m wondering if you have any resources (peer-reviewed) I could put together for them that can dispute this and identify the benefits for post surgical rehab using the UWTM? It may be on your website as well but is there an established recovery protocol to follow for the post-op TPLO’s that I could potentially summarize and give to them as well? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Dr. J.S.

[lehughes]

Goodness gracious! This is such an old debate, I’m flabbergast that it still comes up!

I don’t have one consolidated reference / document to validate rehab post-TPLO… but it’s certainly worth creating if we still have this sort of narrow mindedness.

I’d look into the following of the FourLeg Newsletters to gather research articles.
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But I’d also advise you to market directly to the consumer instead of spending too much focus on the surgeon. I think you have a far better chance of making an impact from the bottom up. Educate owners. Get them to demand the service. Have them TELL the surgeon that they WANT to do rehab.
This is not just a veterinary rehab issue… we run into it on the human-side of things as well. It requires a change of mindset in how you are going to impact change. And vet surgeons don’t change their minds easily… so how can you work around that!?

Thanks for the idea - putting all of the TPLO rehab documents into one place. I’ll look into it!

Oh, and my post-op protocol is located in the protocol section of the Articles tab.

Best of luck!

Laurie