14 DAY TRIAL // While an overweight cat named Holly is now doing her best to get back in shape by swimming on a fairly regular basis, a pet rabbit named Heidi has recently taken up the very same sport, only for entirely different reasons.
Thus, Heidi's swimming routine (i.e. two 7-minute-long sessions twice per week) is meant to help rid the animal of some of the pain she is experiencing because of arthritis. Sources explain that, before going swimming, Heidi puts on a buoyancy vest which keeps her from accidentally drowning.
“Over Christmas Heidi just stopped moving so I took her to the vet,” Heidi's owner, Miss Williams, told members of the press.
“He said we should try hydrotherapy, even though he had never seen it used with rabbits before. It is more usually used for horses and dogs. None of us thought she would tolerate one minute in the water but in her first session she took to it very quickly. She leapt off the platform into the pool,” she went on to explain.
Presently, Heidi and her owner live in Christchurch, Dorset.