Whoa! My Lab is barely using one of his legs
Not just a limp: Tests show three legs are absorbing most of Whiskey's weight
Eleven! That’s the number that jumped off the page at me and that I’ll never forget.
As the technicians at Animal Acupuncture LLC in Tulsa told me a dog’s weight is normally distributed at 60 percent front, 40 percent back and that as Whiskey stood on a pressure pad it would—ideally but rarely perfectly—read 30/30 for the front and 20/20 for the back. The results were telling.
His front legs registered 35/32 and the back scored 22/11.
Standing normally, at heal to me and with a tech distracting him with his head up to enjoy a small treat, Whiskey was putting only about half the amount of weight on his right rear leg as he should and the other three were picking up the load.
But you wouldn’t have known it to look at him. He was just… standing there.
Having in the past struggled with a stronger right side and over-work that led to my own back issues and physical therapy, you wouldn’t think I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in my injured dog—it’s just something I hadn’t imagined before.
I knew Whiskey was favoring his right rear leg. It was apparent at times. I just never thought about him favoring it all the time, even when he was just standing there.
I will never watch a dog’s gait in the same way again.
This new view and the therapy and supplements prescribed by Dr. Heather Owen to try and make Mister Whiskey right again have really opened my eyes. I truly believe the steps we are taking now have already prevented a potentially very costly and career-ending injury.
Along with what I would call a nuts-and-bolts exam and physical manipulation to check Whiskey for injuries, two tools in use at the clinic brought Whiskey’s issues into focus.
The digital readout on a pressure pad documented that Whiskey was not only compensating with his left rear leg, he was putting more stress on his front legs as well.
That was when he was just standing there. Imagine the pressures while running, leaping and turning sharp corners. Imagine swimming several hundred yards using mostly two limbs instead of four, and then jumping out to run through mud.
Digital thermography was the other tool to bring the picture into focus. With imagery that shows working muscles and heat (blood flow) as red and orange and more relaxed areas in greens and blues the difference between Whiskey’s rear legs could not have been more plain. The right side was mostly blue and green and the left and front showed more deep red and orange. The distribution of color along each side of his spine also showed uneven muscle tension.
Other indicators used by the techs included measuring his thighs and the degree of extension of his rear legs. As expected, the left thigh was larger. The extension on the legs was 143 degrees for the right and 147 for the left. Normal flex range in the stifle—imagine the dog’s legs extending backwards as it leaps—is 160 to 170 degrees. Coming up 20 degrees short on flexibility is a big deal for an athlete.
These are key measurements that, along with his general appearance, gait and physical examinations, will show us whether Whiskey is improving in weeks to come.
At home Whiskey will still be on limited activity and on his leash—unless I think I can let him out the back door without him running around too much. His therapy will be walking laps with his weak leg on the uphill side as we walk sidehills, and several times a day I am to lift his strong legs slightly to get him used to putting weight on that right rear leg again.
At the clinic he will receive three shock-wave treatments on four occasions over the course of two weeks. Each time we go in they’ll treat his left stifle joint and his right stifle joint and thigh.
Shock Wave therapy basically a treatment that uses high-energy sound waves to stimulate cells and reduce inflammation and swelling and to increase blood flow.
He will also start on several new dietary supplements to help with pain and to promote joint health and he will get several injections of Adequan (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) which has long been used to treat degenerative and traumatic joint dysfunction and associated lameness in dogs and horses.
In the next installment we’ll get more into the treatments and supplements and how each of them works and why—with help from Dr. Owen to help me make sense of it all.