It’s that time of the year again….. gyms, swimming pools and cycle paths all over the country are full of people determined that 2012 will be the year they get fit, lose weight and make new friends through exercising regularly.
Rather depressingly though, it’s not always just the humans who need some tuning up and slimming down after a spot of seasonal excess- many of our canine and feline companions could do with joining in. Long dark nights, wind and rain (and increasingly these days Christmas goodies) are the annual recipe for unfit and overweight pets, as well as making those arthritic joints seem to creak louder and longer….
Does your best friend need a little help in finding fitness, losing weight or easing stiff joints? We can help. Fun, fitness and rehab programmes are available for all, and we’ve extended the available times for our popular Splash & Dash sessions- just give us a ring on 01484 450022!

New Year is traditionally a time of fresh starts and well intentioned resolutions…. so everyone at ARC would like to wish all of our friends and followers the very best for their 2012 plans. Canine, human, equine, feline and everyone else furred, feathered or scaly, we hope the New Year sees you out and about, active and enjoying your favourite pursuits. We’ll be swimming, walking, running and exercising our way to tip-top fitness, and you’re welcome to join us!

One of the best things about being involved in a new and rapidly expanding area of veterinary medicine is the opportunity to get involved in discoveries at the forefront of the field and try to answer some of the new questions that our expanding knowledge creates. I recently had the privilege of attending a course on neuroscience discoveries in the field of persistent pain and their implications for its management. Most of the other delegates work with human patients, and as ever many were initially surprised to find vets in their midst- even our human medical counterparts are not always aware of the current developments in veterinary rehabilitation. However, events like this are a great way to open discussion and foster co-operation between professions with different areas of expertise and definitely encourage wider thought around the subject. While there are some relatively straightforward ways in which experience in the human field can help shape our approach to animal patients in persistent pain, such as understanding previously misunderstood physiological responses elsewhere in the body, explaining strange phenomena such as phantom pains in missing limbs, and appreciating the importance of the animal’s environment- including its owners- on the patient, other aspects will as ever prove harder to apply. Some current techniques in human pain management are heavily reliant on teaching the patient to understand their brain’s responses to what it perceives as threats to the body, identifying trigger factors specific to themselves, and learning to manage them in a graded and controlled way. How will we transfer this knowledge to our animal patients without presuming a lot that we cannot prove, and how will we measure if our efforts are succeeding? How far is it reasonable to go in order to gain evidence that might improve future treatment of our patients? We can’t answer all of these questions straight away- but I think it’s important that we’re trying to.

You know what they say about buses- wait a little while and then three arrive all at once? We’ve had a week a little bit like that at ARC, and our therapeutic ultrasound machine has been very busy.
First of all we had a new equine patient. Tendon injuries are relatively common in horses, and it’s not unusual for our ultrasound unit to be ‘on the road’ visiting equine patients in their yards or stables. However, we don’t see cases like Lola as often… it’s true that Lola is fairly large, being a Dobermann dog, but it seems nobody has explained to her that she is in fact NOT a racehorse. Having partly ruptured the digital flexor tendon (which helps her bend her toes) in her paw, she too needs ultrasound to help micromassage the injured tendon with sound waves and make the healing scar smaller, more stretchy and more functional as a result. Ultrasound treatment doesn’t hurt at all, but it does take a little while. Fortunately, she’s a very patient patient!
And as if that wasn’t enough, even the humans are at it- one of the other uses of ultrasound is to heat up older scar tissue and help it to stretch a bit, so after a busy day wielding the probe, Rhona’s knee is next in line for treatment. It is, as they say, a funny old world…….

For those of you who’ve been glued to the World Athletics Championships for humans in Daegu, here’s your chance to meet one of our canine competitors. Farley is an agility star with an unusual story to tell…..
To save his life from a horrible cancer, Farley had massive surgery to remove the tumour and the flesh all around it. A few months later, he was back in action. His owners tell us all about it on the ARC Hall of Fame page.

Everyone likes getting a real letter, especially since they’re practically an endangered species these days! We were delighted to receive a letter from the owner of one of our recently signed-off patients Emmy just the other day, and we’ve posted it on our testimonials page for everyone to read. We couldn’t resist sharing this picture of her either!

Now nobody at ARC is implying that any of friends’s cars are neglected, but we sure do know what a wet and muddy dog walk can do to a vehicle! Well, for once, we can help you with that…. the intrepid vets and nurses from our sister branch at Thongsbridge are taking part in the Coniston Challenge to raise money for the Guide Dogs Association, and this sunday they are holding a charity car wash to help. So, get yourselves down to the Thongsbridge branch between 11am and 2pm and for a measly fiver you can have your beloved wheels spruced up, and all for a brilliant cause! See you at Donaldson & Partners, Miry Lane, Thongsbridge, Holmfirth HD9 7RY.

Sunday turned out a scorcher after all- perfect bouncy castle weather! We had fun welcoming visitors old and young, human and canine to our Open Day. There were fabulous cupcakes on hand to refuel the neurons after touring the rehab displays and demos as well as games of luck and of budding  veterinary skill. Several humans as well as dogs tried their hand on our agility course, while the fabulous face painters made it hard to tell which were which at times! We had a great day and we hope you did too, and best of all we raised some money for the Cinnamon Trust and the Guide Dogs Association.

It’s a question we’re asked almost every day. Veterinary rehabilitation is a relatively new field, and many of the pet owners we talk to haven’t heard about it before. The answer could be pages long- there are all sorts of injuries, orthopaedic conditions, neurological problems, fitness and flexibility issues, weight management and post-illness reconditioning needs that pets can suffer from, to mention just a few. So, we’ve decided to add a few case studies to our website to give people an insight into what we do every day. We’re setting the ball rolling with Sophie’s story, since her particular problem (torn cruciate ligaments) is one the scenarios we regularly see.

Meet some of our patients….

Our patients’ owners are just as proud of their success as everybody at ARC is! We’ve added a new page as testament to the achievements of our very determined patients and to their owners, who put a lot of time and effort into helping them recover. Visit the Hall of Fame to hear more about some of our real-life stars.