Animal Rehabilitation Services

What does animal rehabilitation mean?

Animal rehabilitation is a form of cure that helps the animals to heal faster, naturally and on their own. In the process of rehabilitation, veterinary doctors and the animal rehabilitation services use the least possible surgical methods. Instead of surgery they resort more to natural treatment like exercises and protecting the animal from any kind of stress. In general, animal rehabilitation services aim at curing the animal naturally, by avoiding surgery or higher medications.

Methods that are used for rehabilitation of domestic animals are different from those deployed for wild animals.

Animal rehabilitation services for domestic animals

The domestic animal rehabilitation services cater to the treatment of domestic animals who have suffered from injuries or illnesses. Most of the times the domestic animals suffer from the following problems.

• Joint diseases
• Hip dysplasia
• Elbow dysplasia
• Post-surgery orthopedic problems
• Overweight problems
• Neurological ailments
• Sports-related injuries

The best and the most long-lasting cure for these ailments is rehabilitation. The process of rehabilitation of these animals involves regular and appropriate exercise and diet control. The veterinary surgeons providing animal rehabilitation services for domestic animals resort to many kinds of exercises in such centers. Some of the most commonly used exercises are the aquatic treadmill, limb related exercises, and therapeutic exercises.

Animal rehabilitation services also recommend some manual therapies that are very essential for the animal. These therapies include, massage, mobilization of joints, stretching exercises that help improve the animal's mobility.

Sometimes animal rehabilitation services resort to many herbal and traditional medicines and methods to prevent the excessive strain of the animal's body. The most common of these methods is the acupuncture. Acupuncture methods have been successfully used to reduce chronic pain for domestic animals.

A domestic animal due to the lack of a natural habitat needs help to recover from it's ailments. Techniques like aquatic treadmill, gait training and therapeutic treatments are deployed to help the animal come back to its natural form.

Animal rehabilitation services for wild animals

The animal rehabilitation services for wild animals are different from that of the domestic animals. In case of wild animals, the process of rehabilitation begins with the rescue of the wild animal. The wild animals are rescued from poachers, calamity-stricken natural habitat or even from illegal wildlife traders. Sometimes very young off-springs of wild animals are also rescued from the wild, as they may not survive the harsh conditions in the wild.

The most important thing for wild animal rehabilitation services is to rehabilitate the animal in such a manner that it is able to quickly adopt and survive the wild.

The wildlife experts examine the animal and determine the level of damage caused. The animal is operated and conventional treatment deployed if necessary. The nutrition of a rescued wild animal is always imbalanced and has to be brought on track. The most important step in the rehabilitation of wild animals, is the step of reconditioning. In the process of reconditioning, the wild animal is put in an artificial habitat (one that is constructed by man) and is taught to adapt to this habitat. If the wild animal is a carnivorous animal then it is also taught to hunt using different methods. Many a times, animal rehabilitation services, deploy means like teaching the animal to hunt live game i.e. game (herbivorous animals) is put into the artificial habitat of the carnivorous animals. This process of reconditioning and rehabilitating wild animals sometimes can stretch up to several years.

The orphaned animals, who have been rescued are many a times given to zoos. However the critics always raise an objection to this fact. The orphaned animals who are let out into the wild are first trained to adapt to the wild by the method of using the artificial habitats.

Criticism against animal rehabilitation services

Critics always state that the nature is the best place in which the animal can heal itself. It is also often argued that man must not interfere in the cycles of nature. However these critics fail to realize that in his conquest of nature, mankind has managed to wipe out huge populations of animals, domestic and wild. The injured wild animals have to be rehabilitated by mankind due to fact that they are the last ones left, and if they do not survive (with or with out the help of man), they will soon become extinct.

Note: the accompanying picture is that of a Giant Panda, joyously relishing bamboo leaves in it's habitat.