Exercise
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Exercise is extremely important for all animals, both to maintain
health and to aid recovery from injuries. Exercise promotes
mobilisation of healing tissues, allows repairing bone, tendons and
ligaments to gain more strength and helps to keep all animals
both mentally and physically healthy. However it should be carefully
regulated in animals with injuries or diseases to avoid exacerbation of
their disease.
Individual exercise plans can be tailored to each animal that specify
an ideal amount and type of exercise, monitoring then allows the
exercise levels to be increased gradually as animals recover. For
instance, a dog that has had a joint injury may need a month or two of
increasing lead exercise before it can be allowed off the lead, and may
also benefit from a certain amount of swimming exercise (swimming is
particularly useful as it allows exercise of joints and limbs without
weight bearing) or work on an underwater treadmill. Similarly a horse
may benefit from a convalescent plan involving increasing amounts of in
hand and then ridden exercise over a period of several months before
uncontrolled turnout is allowed.