Hi Laurie,
I have a question for you. My practice is in the process of building a rehab center for us (due to open in about 6 weeks.) For the first time since I have been practicing in the rehab field, we will have water - a pool and an UWTM. I was wondering if you have any requirements for patients using these modalities - like dogs with cardiac issues or other medical issues and if so how do you handle these patients. Do you have referring vets examine and send a form saying dog is ok to swim? Do you have the family sign a waiver? Just want to make sure I am providing the best care for my patients and their families while watching out for the practice.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all you do-
N
Disclaimer / Clearance for UWT use
Re: Disclaimer / Clearance for UWT use
Hi N,
We tend to have a waiver / rules of use for the UWT that people sign... it covers when to eat before exercising, poops in the tank, and permission / consent. On our intake form, we do ask about other conditions... and then it would be up to our discretion to allow treatment or not. If they say 'yes' regarding heart issue for example, then we would start them very slowly. I look at it like going to the gym. You don't have to have your doctor's permission to go to the gym...and you just might have a heart attack there. So a disclaimer might be in order - and/or something that says that the owner assumes the risk of exercising their dog and that a veterinary physical examination is recommended prior to commencing in any exercise program... yadda yadda!
I think that because we have a medical background, we tend to over-think all of the 'what if's'... At my clinic, we've not had an issue however, train your UWT staff to look for signs of distress and not be afraid to pull a dog from an exercise session or demand a physical exam if they are concerned. That being said, I did pull one dog from doing self-directed training / exercise in our back exercise area and told her to get her vet to sign off before we'd see it back (actually told her to go to emerg immediately)... dog had such significant laryngeal paralysis that I thought it was going to die just coming in... let alone AFTER exercise. So she took it to the vet - nothing was wrong when the vet saw the dog. Vet signed off that the dog was fit to exercise. But there was no way I was letting the dog back in to the clinic to exercise. We phoned the vet, explained the severe respiratory distress. They did x-rays and also found cancer all throughout the lungs. Bottom line.. it doesn't matter if the vet signs off that the dog is healthy enough to exercise, being able to respond appropriately in the here and now, raise a red flag, or listen to your intuition is more critical than having their regular vet sign off on the dog.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Laurie
We tend to have a waiver / rules of use for the UWT that people sign... it covers when to eat before exercising, poops in the tank, and permission / consent. On our intake form, we do ask about other conditions... and then it would be up to our discretion to allow treatment or not. If they say 'yes' regarding heart issue for example, then we would start them very slowly. I look at it like going to the gym. You don't have to have your doctor's permission to go to the gym...and you just might have a heart attack there. So a disclaimer might be in order - and/or something that says that the owner assumes the risk of exercising their dog and that a veterinary physical examination is recommended prior to commencing in any exercise program... yadda yadda!
I think that because we have a medical background, we tend to over-think all of the 'what if's'... At my clinic, we've not had an issue however, train your UWT staff to look for signs of distress and not be afraid to pull a dog from an exercise session or demand a physical exam if they are concerned. That being said, I did pull one dog from doing self-directed training / exercise in our back exercise area and told her to get her vet to sign off before we'd see it back (actually told her to go to emerg immediately)... dog had such significant laryngeal paralysis that I thought it was going to die just coming in... let alone AFTER exercise. So she took it to the vet - nothing was wrong when the vet saw the dog. Vet signed off that the dog was fit to exercise. But there was no way I was letting the dog back in to the clinic to exercise. We phoned the vet, explained the severe respiratory distress. They did x-rays and also found cancer all throughout the lungs. Bottom line.. it doesn't matter if the vet signs off that the dog is healthy enough to exercise, being able to respond appropriately in the here and now, raise a red flag, or listen to your intuition is more critical than having their regular vet sign off on the dog.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Laurie
LAURIE EDGE-HUGHES