rehab after perineal hernia operation

[lehughes]

Hello Laurie,

Do you have any protocols for recovery from this operation? Supposedly they use a muscle that is not used for anything to close the tear. I will ask on facebook as well. Your protocol for conservative treatment of knee ligament tears really helped my shepherd Dexi. Now my little Bearded Collie need to recover from this operation, so I thought I would start to research it.

I will sign up, of course, to access the resources on your site.

Thank you!

SS

[lehughes]

Hello Susanne!

Nice to hear from you again!

So, this is one of those things that I’ve not seen enough of to have a protocol developed for it
However, I can put some thought towards what I’d do.

Firstly, as a precaution during the first few weeks, I’d avoid doing anything too strenuous so as to not damage the repair. (i.e. avoid things that would be the equivalent of you or I holding our breath to push hard, work hard.

I would think of this as working on Core Exercises and then Pelvic Floor Exercises.
So here is a handout for Functional Exercises for the Core:
https://www.caninefitness.com/docs/Stre ... heCore.pdf

Start with things that don’t cause your dog to stress / strain and progress from there over the next 4 weeks.

THEN, work on strengthening the pelvic floor by poking / pinching the area just below (if it’s a girl dog) or to the side (if it’s a boy) of the anus to get the pelvic floor to contract, followed by sliding the rear leg off the ground - like you did with your Shepherd. Only this time, we want different muscles to be facilitated with this exercise.

Here’s a bit of a picture… we used the end of a reflex hammer and are holding up the tail just to show stimulation to the side of the anus. No need to hold the tail up!


Let me know if you need me to explain further.

Best of luck!

Cheers,

Laurie