Anyone's dog suddenly really lame after hydrotherapy session

[MoaMartinson]

My dog has mild arthritis, takes Rimadyl and an Arthriaid supplement. She has had six sessions of tank-based hydro. She’s been fine after every session and her gait, which was a little stiff, has become more fluid. However, after the last session, which was on Friday, she has an extremely pronounced limp on her front leg and her back legs are also really stiff and she’s literally hobbling - so much so we had to carry her out to the garden which is unheard of. Could she have been injured during hydro? Or was the hydro too intense? The last session the treadmill was faster, water was deeper and she walked for longer and I’m concerned that the therapist pushed her too far, so am uncertain about future sessions. I’m also considering making a complaint but don’t want to do so if it’s unreasonable. So wondered if this sudden major setback is normal when doing hydro?

Not normal and it would concern me. I would speak to therapist asap and would want a senior therapist involved in the discussion

Depending on the stiffness also speak to vet

Thanks so much for responding, I thought it seemed odd but am slightly freaked out so don’t trust my response. She had surgery when she was young and her arthritis links back to that, which happens, but apart from a slightly stiff gait she’s had no major mobility issues, but now she reminds me of my older dog not long before he completely deteriorated and had to be euthanised, hence the freaking out; the hydro was meant to stave off getting to that stage as long as possible!

I was told at the initial session there might be minor stiffness after a session and to rest her on the days after a session, which I've done, so apart from walking to the car and being lifted in and out, and walking round the garden can't think of anything else that could have caused a problem.

I will call the surgery tomorrow and ask to speak to the senior vet and go from there. I’m hoping that the symptoms will diminish but at the moment she’s reluctant to move and had to give her water lying down as she clearly doesn’t even want to walk to the bowl. She’s had a dose of Rimadyl but it doesn’t seem to be helping. But at least she’s not in active distress and resting now.

Deeper water is usually more supportive but if did significantly more work faster & longer than before then its possible that its been stepped up too much for her to cope with or exacerbated a strain.
Definitely go see the vet if she's still uncomfortable & to make sure nothing else is going on.
Give the hydrotherapist feedback, guess their response will also help you know whether its worth going back there.

Our lab used to have hydro for his arthritis. In a pool rather than a tank so slightly different. We were always advised to walk him gently for around 20 minutes between 1 and 3 hours after his session to prevent lactic acid build up, and to ease tension. Have you been doing that?

On one occasion he had a particularly bad flare up the day after a session, so bad that I had to take him to OOH vet for a painkiller injection. It was awful, he screamed out whenever he moved 😞 thankfully they didn't happen often and it may have just been a coincidence but since then we capped his hydro at around 21 minutes swimming during a 30 minute session, so plenty of down time walking around the pool etc.