"Healing Comes in Waves"

Lola's Journey

Lola and I

My Lola, a beautiful testimony to water’s healing touch. I rescued Lola in 2015 from a puppy mill. She came to me malnourished, with kennel cough, lethargic and overall unhealthy. After a few months and multiple vet visits later, she persevered and came out the other side healthier and happier. It wasn’t too long after I had her, that I started to notice that her physical make up may have been compromised as well. She walked with an enormous sway, bunny hopped when she ran, favored one hip while sitting, had a hard time getting up from lying down and would ALWAYS make herself comfortable-she would never lay on the floor or any hard surface. She hasn’t been diagnosed with any degenerative disease or orthopedic condition, but I know deep down somethings isn’t 100%. All of these signs were red flags for me and I knew I needed to take action.

I started doing some research and it persuaded me to take a deeper look into what’s really going on in her body. I was aware that puppy’s who came from mills were almost always unhealthy in multiple different ways, but at the time of rescuing her, that wasn’t even a thought in my mind. After countless and continuous researching, I found that with the correct diet, supplements and physical activities she had a good chance staying healthy internally and externally. I fed her high quality foods, supplements and kept her physical activity regular, but with low impact. This all seemed to get the job done, while keeping her happy and healthy, but I still knew I could do more for her. A year or so later I discovered canine hydrotherapy and decided to really pursue it. I had a feeling this may be my answer to all this wondering of how to help heal my baby girl and finally give her some real relief. I went through schooling and became a certified canine hydrotherapist shortly after. While in training, working with multitudes of different dogs, breeds and conditions, this field opened the doors to understanding dogs anatomy and complete internal and external systems. Finally, all of my accusations on what could be going on with my Lola were recognized and confirmed.

I started hydrotherapy with her immediately after my certification and had her in the water 2-3x a week. A first, she absolutely dreaded the water(which is common in most dogs) and she absolutely did NOT know how to swim. After a few sessions of being patient and welcoming her into the water as a positive activity, Lola’s confidence bloomed and she started swimming almost perfect. Her hydrotherapy sessions became fun and meaningful, especially because I never imagined I’d be where I am now with her. All of those hours spent researching and worrying about how I was really going to HEAL her from her setbacks, hydrotherapy became even more special to me. I was able to witness first hand, the miracle it was bringing to my dog, and how life led to the perfect place and exactly where Lola and I needed to go. She still swims to this day and has shown so much improvement in her overall physical and mental systems. She hardly bunny hops anymore, she doesn’t favor a hip and she has more energy and vitality than ever before. Lola still has a slight sway, which I assume will get better with time and management, but aside from that, she has come leaps and bounds with her healing and I couldn’t be more grateful. Hydrotherapy not only led me to help and heal other’s animals, it allowed me to help my own, and really appreciate how simple the solution can be sometimes. You don’t always need surgery or a magic pill to “cure” a problem, you need is patience, knowledge and passion to find what you’re truly looking for. And when you least expect it, it will appear and lead you to what you were seeking all along.