Will this brace help my dog? The veterinarian’s checklist for dog parents.
OUTCOMES: The purpose of the vest and sleeve brace system is to exercise the weak legs against resistance while acting as a soft support. After your pet wears it and walks against the eccentric and concentric muscle movements, they will initially feel more tired. This is because their muscles are still in the learning phase of neuromuscular reeducation: movement overrides pain, spinal learning and restoring natural movement in the brain.
The effects of wearing the brace will do one of three things:
- Your pet will move with more confidence, ease and be able to walk longer without the brace, resulting in occasional use (such as just on walks or at the dog park): this is the goal.
- The brace will act as a daily support maintaining or steadily improving your dog’s ability to walk. This could be during the day or 24 hours at a time. The dog will need to permanently wear the brace daily.
- The dog is past the point where re-conditioning alone will help. In which case your non-surgical options are to wear the brace with a wheelchair, engage in more intense VPT care, or move towards more veterinary drugs and surgery intervention. In other words your dog needs more help and our brace will act as a piece to the puzzle, because it is too late for it to work alone.
