Hip dysplaysia, a small problem in one hip.

[alligande]

Rievaulx has occasionally shown stiffness in a front shoulder after an excessive amount of exercise, usually involving to much frisbee or tennis ball. For the first time it appeared after a long weekend of an agility seminar so off to the vets we went. After a normal training session or competition weekend he shows no sign of discomfort.

It is not his shoulders, but he has a small amount of hip dysplaysia on one side, with the beginning of calcium deposits. His thigh muscles on that side are also not has large. We are hopefully going to be working with a vet/physio therapist to work on this, but as he is Spanish, speaks excellent English, but I find there is still some loss of info. I would to love to hear the type of exercises of people have done in similar circumstances.

[Gideon's girl]

Going from a stand to a down and from a down to a stand and lots of swimming, lots of swimming. We also do some doggy yoga poses.

[mum24dog]

Kye has some HD on both sides but his right side isn't as muscled as the other. From being young he has sometimes had a little kick to the right with his hind leg. We'd never noticed the muscle discrepancy until the specialist pointed it out earlier this year. I don't know how we missed it as now it has been pointed out it is obvious. Probably we didn't see it because we weren't expecting it.

 

Despite concentrating on building up that side there is still a noticeable difference. On the plus side, he is 9 next month and doesn't suffer from stiffness after exercise and the specialist can't find anything that is obviously causing him trouble. If he were younger we might worry about it more.

 

Swimming is out of the question for him for behavioural reasons and isn't a form of exercise that would target the affected side specifically.

 

Sue R's TPLO thread has lots of rehab info that is not only relevant to cruciate problems.

[Alchemist]

Underwater treadmill therapy. It's more controlled than swimming (some dogs flail when they swim). You can control the depth (controls both buoyancy and resistance to motion), speed, duration, and you can also monitor the dog's gait, which will help you see if the dog is favoring one leg. You can also do tricks like put a harness on them to pull back on to force them to push harder with both rear legs. It worked wonders on one of my dogs (now a poster child for the benefits of physical therapy).

[Sue R]

I agree with everything said. One thing my dogs' therapist has always made clear is that the problem isn't always where it seems to be. As a dog compensates, even in very small ways, for a problem, it causes unevenness and loss of balance, and affects other limbs (often the diagonal limb) and the back adversely. Your problem seems a textbook case of this.

 

I have experience with my one dog with regards to underwater treadmill therapy, which is totally helpful when administered by someone competent (please make sure the person you choose is certified and has experience as anyone who buys a unit can run it and, run incorrectly, it can do a lot of harm). It is marvelous for building strength and muscling, but also for making the dog *think* about how he is using all his limbs and working his entire body. As Lynn points out, different adjustments of water depth and speed (and also incline in units that have that, and current in units with that capability) allow the therapist to customize the workout to best benefit the dog's situation. I have seen this multiple times with my one dog who has undergone two TPLO surgeries and two iliopsoas strains. And, in the current location where the therapist practices, I've also been able to see the results of hydrotherapy on dogs with spinal and other issues, and it's just amazing.

 

That said, it is not cheap and not always feasible (or even available) so there are exercises you can do to help with muscling. I've read over and over again of dogs that were great workers, had super stamina, could work all day, and were only found on x-ray to have dysplasia to one degree or another - because they were fit, a healthy weight, and well-exercised so that their muscles stabilized their hips.

 

Exercises we have used for Celt are outlined (with photos) in the topic about his TPLO surgery but basically they include: walking (probably the #1 best all-around exercise); range of motion exercises; standing on three or two legs; going up and down stairs; walking over cavaletti (step-overs, we use a 10" height but start lower and work up as he can handle it); sit-to-stand-to-sit (similar to down/stands) (but making sure that the dog works the hind end by placing your body so that his front feet hold their position and his hind feet - and entire hind end - are doing the work of the exercise as his hind feet move back and forth); backwards walking; sideways walking.

 

All these exercises combine to help strengthen his hind end; reduce stiffness; develop muscling; increase coordination; improve balance and evenness; make him more aware of his hind end and/or develop good patterns of muscle memory.

 

Very best wishes!

 

PS - Here is the link if you are interested - http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=33480&hl= The photos illustrate the exercises I've mentioned (you'll have to scroll through, it's a long topic) but are not meant to take the place of the advice of a veterinary therapist professional.

[Sue R]

I agree with those who have cautioned about swimming. It can be a great exercise but some dogs that are not comfortable with swimming can, as stated, do a lot of flailing which can do more harm than good if they are already hurting or experiencing problems. Dogs that are relaxed, confident swimmers may not experience problems with swimming as therapy *once* they have gotten to a certain point in their recovery but in my experience, that means they need to be pretty much 100% before beginning swimming. Again, only in my experience.

[alligande]

Thanks for the input... At the moment swimming is not possible, even the Mediterranean gets a little nippy in winter, and Rievaulx is a whimp, but once it warms up he will be able to swim everyday.

I have a question about the underwater treadmills, there is one on the island and I visited the the physios office that has it, and it did not like the condition of the water, I know they only replace it every week, they do filter it every evening, and it was late afternoon but the water looked grungy and I am not sure I want my dog in that tank, or am I being over protective. This a different physio to the one I will be working with, but I could switch.

I have read Sues post about TPLO surgery from the start as I was just interested in what was involved.

[alligande]

I posted while you were typing Sue, thanks for the long reply. Rievaulx is a very comfortable swimmer, and I think lack of swimming might have contributed to the instability showing up more obviously. In Newport he was able to swim in fresh water often during the summer, on hot days it was our chosen exercise. Since moving despite being on an island in the Med his swimming opportunities were limited, in fact he only swam twice this year, our current house is very close to the beach and so we can swim again.

When I was at the physio with the treadmill I got to watch a GSD with a really bad back end and it was interesting watching her to try and walk with only 3 legs.

[Sue R]

I have had Celt do the treadmill at two facilities. I have no idea how often they change the water but at the first, they used bromine to keep the water safe and clean. At the current place, they use chlorine, which I like less because it is very drying to his skin. However, I am able to hose him down in a dog tub after at the same place and that gets off the higher levels of chlorinated water so that he does not itch.

 

I wonder if your facility uses either (or another) additive to keep the water safe?

 

I wouldn't be happy if the water looked "grungy" - I've never seen the water look grungy at either place we've been. I'll ask Shari if and when either place replaces their water. I am sure it is filtered, maybe even after every use. I'd be concerned if the water was visibly dirty, too!

[alligande]

A friend has been taking her border collie there for a vertebra issue, which is why I know the details of the tank, I think they use chlorine due to the place smelling like a public swimming pool when I walked in. The only treadmill I have to compare it to is the video you took of Celt and the water looked clean and clear, this one just looked a little grungy.

My gut instinct is to work with the physio who works with my vets office, he is a vet who specializes in physiotherapy and only with dogs, sometimes I think having an office of fancy equipment means they use that rather than working the muscles, or at least that was my take away from going with my friend. There was no "gym" equipment in the office.

[Sue R]

The therapist we work with has equipment including the treadmill, laser, steps, cavaletti, balls, and balance boards - but the only thing we've used with Celt are the treadmill, laser, stairs, and cavaletti. They are really all pretty basic except the treadmill, and that's pretty straightforward.

 

Grungy water would make me keep my dog "out of the pool".

[gcv-border]

I have heard many good suggestions here, and will just put my 2 cents in. And please forgive if I repeat anything from above.

 

Balancing on three legs (one of which is the affected leg) and balancing on 2 legs (one of which is the affected leg). You will have to help with the 2-legged stance, and I helped my dog with the 3-legged stance too. (Just pick up a leg) One of the clients at my rehab vet taught her dog to pick up each leg when she pointed to it.

 

Water treadmill: I was lucky to find a water treadmill, but an acquaintance decided that she was going to walk her Sheltie in a kiddie pool (saves $$). I think she was happy with it. I am not so sure I would want to do something like that. I see that you could adjust the water level to adjust resistance, but I am not so sure that walking a dog around the pool, vs. straight walking as on a treadmill, is good.

 

To work the back legs, use a tracking harness and teach him to pull on the harness. At first, provide light backward resistance, then increase resistance as his muscles build up. Best would be to find a hill so the resistance you provide can really target the back legs.

 

Good Luck.

[Alchemist]

The facility I used had sparkling clean water. They were upset over how fast they were consuming bromine (which they used instead of chlorine), and asked my opinion. They also noticed that the storage tank was accumulating slime rapidly. (At last! I get to use my environmental engineering background on something related to dogs!). I told them it was critical to fish out any treats that fell into the water. Treats = natural organic matter = food for bacteria = slime (and bromine or chlorine consumption).

 

If the water is visibly turbid, then they probably aren't maintaining any sort of bromine or chlorine residual, meaning that bacteria can happily grow in it. It's possible they're using something other than chlorine/bromine as a disinfectant, but turbid water often equates to water that bacteria can and will grow in.

 

Of course I also let my dogs swim in a lake all the time, and there's no chlorine residual there... but there's also less risk of transmitting things from dog to dog.

[Sue R]

I did check with Celt's therapist and she said that both places she's worked in our area have their water continuously filtered. At the one place, she was the one to change the water and that was every two weeks unless she felt it needed to be done more often (certain circumstances might call for that). She is not the one that changes at the current place (where there are two therapists who do different days) so does not know just how often it is done. The water is always, as Lynn says, "sparkling".

 

Shari wondered if it could be a pH problem contributing to the grungy water.

 

As for the bromine or chlorine, while the water is chlorinated at the facility where we go now, it is now overwhelmingly strong smelling like an enclosed pool can be. The room does smell fresh, though.

[alligande]

Thanks for the responses, it would be my guess from what you have said that they don't have a good ph balance on the tank. The water is definitely not sparkling. I am not usually a worry wart about what my dogs do, but a small enclosed tank that is in continuous use all day with different dogs just makes me uncomfortable, I would not go in a hotel hot tub unless it was sparkling. Hopefully we can get some good results from just exercises, but at least we have the option of the treadmill I was rather surprised when I found out there was one here.

[alligande]

For anyone interested we met with the physio today and where given a number of exercises to work on.

They included:

Warming up his hip with a heat pad for 10 minutes then doing extensions with him lying down on that one leg.

One legged dog with his bad leg on a foot pod, and the other rear leg raised.

Both rear legs on foot pods and circular motions with his hips.

Cavelleti work

Walking through cones

Lateral walking... We have to work on that as a new trick

And massaging his muscles on the bad hip.

 

Other suggestions included walking up hills and stairs.

[Sue R]

All that sounds very similar to exercises we have done with Celt (and even with Megan and Dan, when they have had a minor issue with a discomfort in a leg).

 

What I would suggest is to *not* just manipulate one leg but to do all exercises for both hind legs (and, honestly, when we do any range of motion type exercise, we also do it for both front legs, also). You've got the deficient hip but remember that favoring that in any way involves extra effort on the part of the other hind leg and the diagonal front leg, in particular. And since extra work for the other hind leg results in a change in use of its diagonal front leg, there's your reason for working all four legs! Plus, that helps in the long run to avoid back issues caused by uneven or unbalanced use of the legs. Of course, do what your professional advises, I'm just giving my opinion based on my experience. You may have to adapt an exercise initially for the two different legs if he's not up to doing it the same on both, with the goal of both being eventually equally strong.

 

And I think you meant "three-legged dog" not "one-legged dog", or he's going to be the best-balanced dog around!

 

Glad to hear you got him seen and have a plan! Now, the hard part starts because sticking to the daily (or twice daily, depending on the protocol you were given) is not always easy, but it is really the difference between getting good results and not.

 

Very best wishes!

 

PS - What's a pod? Is he standing with that one foot raised off the floor on some sort of platform?

[DeltaBluez Tess]

Please keep us posted.

[alligande]

A one legged dog pose would be interesting!! these are the pods http://www.vivomed.com/en/Therapy-in-Motion-Balance-pods---1-pair/m-8385.aspx?gclid=COC60b_cwsICFUjJtAodxkEAAQ&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=Spain

 

We are going to work on the exercises for 4-5 weeks and then go back to visit the physio therapist. He said to do the exercises once a day, if we can. Rievaulxs hip problem is very small, and I think the physio's treatment is based on me wanting to keep him fit and pain free so he can enjoy being an active agility dog, and if he was just a lazy pet then we would not have a long list of exercises or any exercises for that matter.

 

I understand what you are saying about uneven strength, my guess is that he wants us to build up the rear leg so that it matches the other, he said to watch the muscle development in that leg at the moment there is a 1.5cm difference. After this initial period I will ask him about making sure that he is balanced in his muscle development.

 

Liz do you have any recommendation on the height of the cavelettis, we have to build some and I want to make sure we get the height right, the therapist was rather vague about height, he said not to low, not to high so he jumps … but his are adjustable the home made version won't be.

[Sue R]

You can easily make adjustable cavaletti out of traffic cones and pvc pipe. Drill the right sized holes in the cones (you can drill a different height on each side, or on two different sides, for different needs), insert pipe, and viola! These are easy to take down and set up as the cones stack for storage or just to get them out of the way.

 

I only had one cavaletti (cavaletto?) so Celt and I would walk across, take a few steps, turn around, and walk back over, and repeat to get in our reps.

 

I just measured him at 21 1/2" at the withers, and 17" at the flank, and he's about 42-44#. We've used 8" for rehab and 10" when he's gotten pretty well along in his progress.

 

It sounds like Rievaulx (how do you pronounce that?) is in fairly good shape already. A difference of 1.5 cm is significant but certainly not extreme, and I'll bet he comes along very nicely with you implementing his rehab program.

 

Again, very best wishes!

[alligande]

My apologies Sue, it was early this morning when I asked the question and called you Liz…

 

Living somewhere I don't speak the language makes it challenging to hunt down things like traffic cones, I can find the small ones used for marking sports games but not the bigger ones, so I thing wood ones modeled on horse cavaletti would be easy and save me a lot of hunting, I can find the diy store easily.

 

Yes Rievaulx is in pretty good shape, he has been fitter and stronger which is why it has probably taken me awhile to notice the problem. When we had 2 dogs he ran much harder and for longer when we walked them, and he just doesn't have the same relationship with other dogs and want to run like that, and I have not been running in the last year so nor has he.

 

His name is pronounced revo this is where he is named after: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/rievaulx-abbey

[mickif]

There is a good group on Facebook called canine conditioning and body awareness exercises that has a section on DIY cavalettis, though I haven't looked through it. Also has ongoing exercises posted (plus way more discussion then I can find the time to read ). I am not much into Facebook, have like 5 friends, but find this group to be very informative for dog conditioning exercises/info. I made my first set of cavalettis years ago out of 2 x 2s and still use them, there are 4 levels of height, the end pieces can be cut to create different variable heights. I can take a photo if you are interested. They do take up some storage space tho.

[alligande]

Thanks mickif, I am a member of that Facebook group, to be honest I find it a bit to geeky for my taste, I like to see dogs working out by running and having fun in the woods!!!! not working out on balls and treadmills, unless there is a specific need like Sue and Celt.

But I did look up the caveletti section and all the ideas involve items from a dollar store and I have not found a euro store yet .. So it's wood I think, I have found cheap broom handles to use as poles.

[Sue R]

What Mickie said - You can make them that way but they are way more cumbersome. Are the little cones tall enough? If they are just tall enough at the top, you can attach the pvc to the top with zip ties that you run through little holes you make with an awl or knife. You can make those just loose enough that you can dismantle if needed but still snug enough to hold the pvc in place.

[Sue R]

The other thing I like about how lightweight the cone/pvc ones are is that it's not such a clunk if your dog hits it with his leg.

 

Revo is easy to say!