Thursday, October 14, 2010

CAT'S PHYSIOTHERAPY- PART 2

Salam & hi to all,

its funny to see my hairy 'patient', Syifa' who was a bit nervous for the 2nd physiotherapy appointment haha...
as usual, to give the sensation to the feet paws, let the tap water flow on it for few seconds. he wasnt pleased with this, of course cats hate water (some do love it, they even can swim in a swimming pool, no kidding! you can check in the YOUTUBE).

wipe the wet fur.

for the legs exercise, support the chest, and pull the legs one by one, or you can do both at a time. notice that i pulled the legs towards me (backwards). pull and let go. do it few times.

still supporting the body, lift up a bit, and pull the legs downwards. this time his legs responded better than the previous physio.

hold both legs gently, and lift him upside down as shown in the photo. to calm him, try to support the head. let the gravity helps with the weight.

now put him back on the table, let him lie/lay down (argh..grammar problem!) on his back, straight. hold his head and hips gently.

gently press his hips to strengthen the legs and to stretch them out.

to exercise the paws. put 2 fingers tips, touching the paws as shown.

push forward. if he fights back or put out his nails, we know that the paw is healthy. do this several times to strengthen the paw muscles. (so that they can scratch their itchy ears haha ;)

next to carry this kitty like how mummy cats normally do. look at one of his legs :(

put on the table and do it again. observe the legs. a normal kitten would pull the legs completely and fold them to the tummy. my poor syifa' needs more exercise.

ok now the exercise for gripping.

let him there for few seconds, until he couldnt hold anymore. if he shows the respond to jump, let him jump....cats must have the guts to jump. i am happy that syifa' jumped (with poor landing from 8 inches of height, its ok to me as long as he is progressing)


after the hard work, give a gentle massage at the back, he loves this.

i know he is trying to adjust being in our circle. still a little bit fierce with the grrr....grrr...towards other cats. i dont blame him, the incident being bitten by the other male cat was surely one traumatic experience.

i took him to my other cats to say hi. its better if we teach him how to kiss the other 'siblings' haha...

as usual, praise and motivate him with kind and soothing words...just look at him. i think he feels calmer and relaxed.

actually after the first physio session, i saw him struggling to walk on the 4 legs. since his posterior body has not fully recovered, he fell many times. this tiny one is having high spirit, i never see him ever gives up in trying to walk.

everything happened for a reason and there is no coincidence. when we looked at each other's eyes, i think he is beginning to like me and loves the session (except the tap water). could he be carrying an important message? i guess i need to learn a lot from him and to ponder the lesson behind all this...

4 comments:

  1. Dr.Maryam,

    Sebak dada saya, masih. Riang sedikit melihat Syifa sudah pulih sedikit.

    Maha Suci Allah, Yang Maha Halus dan Maha Pengasih.

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  2. Aliff, dia sekarang naughty, bila lari, masih dengan 2 kaki, lagi 2 kaki masih diseret...insyaAllah, he will walk like a normal cat soon :)

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  3. Hi, I have a kitty about 6~7 months. she has been shot about 3 months ago.I found her in the street , a long story, she had a surgery and now she does not use her legs, she has responses in legs but not intersted to walk , most of the time she is jumping link a rabbit. actually I'm in iran and we do not have any specialist regarding animal specially cat physiotherapy. can you kindly help me regarding this? i can send some photos and videos too.

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  4. Hi there Mahtab, i am not a cat physiotherapist, but maybe you can try up some of the exercise shown in the picture, good luck!

    p/s pls update me on her progress via email..tq

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