Indianapolis Star, The (IN)
October 26, 2004
New trick for old dogs
Underwater treadmill benefits aging canines.
No matter how well you treat your dog -- proper feeding, daily walks, medicine, even surgeries -- your pet ages. His joints get sore, he loses muscle mass. He loses . . . verve. But a growing number of pet owners are refusing to allow their pets to drift into the sunset without a fight. Which is how the other day an aging lap dog named Zinny came to be exercising on a $36,000 treadmill/bathtub contraption, being attended to by a wetsuit-clad therapist. "He loves the treadmill; he smiles the whole time," says Erin Peffley, Zinny's owner. "Now he no longer takes pain medication or steroids." "Every dog I've had in here has been helped," says Jonna Kanable, the therapist. "First client was a Great Pyrenees -- 12 years old, couldn't get up (because) he was so arthritic. Now, he can go for a walk." The treadmill, which is under water so that the pooch can move without having to support its full weight, is at a veterinarian's office in Westfield, just north of Indianapolis. Zinny (short for Zinfandel), a 14-year-old bichon frise, has been a regular there for the past year, first three times a week, now weekly. Zinny is a lot peppier these days as a result. "He's now initiating play," Peffley says. "He's just . . . happy." Since Westfield's All-Star Veterinary Clinic acquired the underwater treadmill more than a year ago, about 200 dogs have used it, half of them temporarily, post-surgery, the other half for the long term, as a way to keep arthritis at bay. "Lifers," Dr. Emily King calls them. "It's also good cardio conditioning," the veterinarian says. "We've got Juneau walking for 30 minutes -- that's a pretty good amount of exercise." A year ago, Juneau, a husky, had a tibia plateau leveling osteotomy -- a surgical procedure that stabilizes the knee. On top of that, Juneau is 14 years old -- ancient for such a big dog. Yet there he was the other day, calmly but perkily entering the plexiglass chamber with Kanable. The chamber's floor is a treadmill. Kanable talks dog-talk to Juneau as water enters the chamber: "You ready to walk?" He says, 'I'm ready to walk!' She massages the dog's hind legs a moment, and then -- with the water to Juneau's chest -- turns on the treadmill. Juneau spends the next 30 minutes walking enthusiastically in a box of water at a 1.9 mph clip. A session costs $59. There are only two such underwater treadmills for dogs in Indiana (the other one was installed at a West Lafayette vet's office earlier this fall). The machines are the work of a joint venture between Ferno Washington Inc. of Wilmington, Ohio, and Angola, Ind.-based Easton Engineering. Easton builds the machines; Ferno markets and sells them. In the arrangement's five years, about 150 machines have been sold nationwide, the bulk of them on the coasts. Says King: "People in California and New York have a tendency to try things first." Hydrotherapy has for years helped humans -- and expensive racehorses. Dogs are just the natural progression (cats are welcome -- and not necessarily afraid of water -- but so far all of All-Star's customers have been canines). Pets "are like companions to people, like secondary children," says Dr. Janet Sizelove, who has a vet clinic on Indianapolis' Southwestside and is president of the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association. "We're getting them to live many, many years longer. It used to be 10-12 years for a big dog, but now a lot are making it to 15. "I see a lot of 18-year-old dogs. I saw a 22-year-old dog last Tuesday." Living longer costs money -- a year of weekly treadmill sessions at All-Star vet clinic costs nearly $3,000 -- but Sizelove says it is not just the rich who are springing for advanced pet medicine. Many people don't mind sacrificing for their pets: "These clients love their animals." And they want to keep them keeping on. In the old days, Pumpkin Yedlicka surely would have left this earth by now. Pumpkin, a 13-year-old Great Pyrenees, was hit by a car few years ago. Pumpkin is down to 94 pounds, from 116 pounds, but her twice-a-week treadmill sessions at the All-Star clinic "are keeping muscle tone on her," says her owner, Nancy Yedlicka. "A year ago June, when we started this (therapy), she could barely get up. Now we go on two short walks a day. As long as she keeps her mobility, she'll be able to have quality of life." "When vets see Zinny, they think he's about 8," says Peffley, of her aging bichon frise. Peffley lives in Franklin, an hour away from the underwater treadmill. She recently trimmed Zinny's workouts to once a week. But she has no plans to discontinue the therapy. "He just loves it," Peffley says, "so I don't want to take it away from him."
Call Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043.
Edition: FINAL EDITION
Section: FEATURES
INDIANA LIVING
Page: E01
File Created: 2008-Sep-06
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