Doenças neurológicas e ortopédicas em cães e gatos submetidos à fisioterapia / Neurological and orthopedic diseases in dogs and cats submitted to physiotherapy

ABSTRACT

Background: The goals of physical therapy are to maximize functional recovery, improve mobility, and restore wellbeing and quality of life. In the veterinary literature, there is a dearth of data on physical therapy in small animal practice. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the main neurological and orthopedic diseases in canine and feline patients seen at the physical therapy service of an animal hospital. Concomitantly, we collected demographic and clinical information on patients, including sex, breed, physical therapy modalities, number and frequency of physical therapy sessions, duration of treatment, and rate of functional recovery. Materials, Methods & Results: The records of animals with neurological and orthopedic diseases seen at the Physical Therapy department of a university-affiliated animal hospital were reviewed. The animals were divided into two groups I) dogs and cats with neurological diseases and II) dogs and cats with orthopedic diseases. Both groups were distributed according to species, age, sex and race. Dogs and cats were classified into three age groups puppies (≤ 1 year old), adults (> 1 year and ≤ 10 years old) and elderly (> 10 years old). A total of 384 records were retrieved, of which 370 (96.4%) were of dogs and 14 (3.6%) of cats. Neurological cases accounted for 66% of the total (n = 253), with 243 cases in dogs (96%) and 10 in cats (4%). Among orthopedic cases (n = 131, accounting for the remaining 34%), 127 were in dogs (97%) and only 4 in cats (3%). In the neurological dysfunction group, intervertebral disc disease (72.4%) was the most common diagnosis. Among the orthopedic disorders, femur fracture (23.1%) was most prevalent. In group I (neurological), 66.7% of outcomes in canine patients and 44.4% in felines were considered satisfactory. In group II...