Photo: Frank McMains Golden Retriever Harper Lee walks on the underwater treadmill.

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The Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine hosts Pets and Vets this month. It's an annual educational program for children featuring presentations on a wide range of topics relating to veterinary medicine including small animal surgery, the cancer treatment unit, and birds of prey.

The LSU Vet School is one of twenty-eight vet schools in the United States.

Physical rehabilitation technician Jennifer Bridges presented the session "Walk This Way - Physical Rehabilitation and the Underwater Treadmill" to about 30 children aged six to twelve, and some of their parents looked on as a Golden Retriever named Harper Lee was led into a large aquarium-like device.

Bridges explained to the children that, "We use this underwater treadmill as a tool to help us get them [animals] to recover."

Bridges also added, "It's extremely unique. We're the only one in the Baton Rouge area. It's a great opportunity for patients to recover here. We also offer an inpatient service if you are unable to drive back and forth." Bridges told the children that Harper Lee has hip dysplasia and shoulder dysplasia.

Harper Lee stood in the rectangular container with plexiglass walls and an opaque plastic panel in the rear, about five feet from the floor. When the pump was turned on, 95 degree water slowly flooded into to the tank. As the water edged up the sides of the transparent walls, the kids and adults looked on slightly bewildered.

Bridges explains that the water provides a buoyancy "so it helps her [Harper Lee] to float...and take some weight off those joints so she's able to move them through a full range of motion."

The treadmill on the bottom of the tank was slowly activated and Harper Lee began to walk, unfazed by the water. Bridges explained that the treadmill helps with building animals' muscle tone and rehabilitation from full paralysis.

One of the kids asked Bridges if a Hamster had ever been in the tank, and responded that she has not, but "We did have a Guinea Pig

Photo: Frank McMains A participant observes Harper Lee.

that...was paralyzed so we made him a wheelchair." The facility also has wheelchairs outfitted for dogs.

The underwater treadmill has helped rehabilitate animals as small as Chihuahuas and Yorkshire Terriers that weigh less than one pound. Depending on the type of injury and rehabilitation, some animals require a life jacket. The school has life vests in varying sizes to accommodate different sized animals.

The underwater treadmill can also treat animals that are quite large such as a 250 pound Neapolitan Mastiff.

With animals that size, sometimes Bridges and other technicians need help getting them into the treadmill container with a hydraulic lift located on-site.

One child asked if cats have ever been in the hydraulic machine. Both the children and the adults alike were surprised by her response. In the two years Bridges has been at the vet school, three cats have walked in the treadmill. She explained that as long as the treadmill is moving that the cats fare well, but once it is turned off, they get nervous and try to climb up the walls of the tank.

Owners typically drop their pets off and they stay at the vet school for a few hours or use the inpatient option. As a teaching hospital, this gives students the opportunity to learn how post-surgery rehab works.

More information about the LSU Vet School, the underwater treadmill, and their Pets and Vets program can be found at vetmed.lsu.edu .

Watch the video here .