'Dancer',
a 5½-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, was at the height of her
agility career, competing three out of four weekends with her
owner, Suzanne Birdsall of Long Beach, Calif. Dander had
her MACH and was competing in AKC Excellent B and USDAA Masters
Classes, and Birdsall had her sights set on the nationals.
dancer had always been in perfect health, so when the terrier
started showing periodic lameness, Birdsall was puzzled.
Dancer occasionally skipped, briefly holding up a hind
leg. Then, at class one night, Dancer hit the teeter
slightly off center, and didn't want to continue. The next
morning, she couldn't get up.
"I
was shocked. In a matter of hours, she went from a little
bit of skipping to not being able to walk," say Birdsall.
The next shock was the challenge she was about to face in
finding out what was wrong with her dog, how best to
rehabilitate her, and how to return to the sport they both
loved.
In last
month's column, we heard about dogs and handlers who found
physical conditioning programs to enhance their agility
performance. In cases where there has been no injury or
lameness, it can be relatively easy to chart and implement such
a program. Not so in cases like Dancer's.
Birdsall
remembers the difficulty just to reach a diagnosis:
"I took her to my regular vet, who took X-rays which showed
no breaks. They didn't know what else it could be. I
took her to an orthopedic specialist who looked at the X-rays,
and recommended an MRI. The MRI showed possible
compression of the [sixth lumbar] vertebrae. I took her to
another orthopedics for a second opinion, and he didn't think
the L6 was the problem, so he did a bone scan. The bone
scan showed 'hot spots' in the left hock and right knee.
He prescribed crate rest and Deramaxx for a month. When we
rechecked at a month, there was only slight improvement.
He said just keep at it. I really felt that since there
wasn't an obvious surgical resolution that the orthopedists
washed their hands of me."
Two
months and $2,200 later, Dancer was still lame and had lost a
lot of muscle tone in the process. It was at this time
that Birdsall's research turned up a physical therapist that
could help her create a rehabilitation program that included
exercise on an underwater treadmill, massage, and stretching to
improve flexibility and range of motion. After four
months, she saw enough improvement to start Dancer on a general
conditioning program. She hired Desiree Snelleman, of
Fido'N Friends in Long Beach, Calif., who specializes in fitness
and conditioning programs for people and their digs.
"We created a program that consisted of cardiovascular work
and skill work specifically for the agility dog," says
Snelleman, an agility competitor herself. "It's very
hard to find veterinarians who truly understand agility.
Unless they've done it themselves, they think that it's just
running and jumping. There's so much more to it
structurally and mechanically."
"It
was very frustrating, trying to find out what was wrong with
Dancer," says Birdsall. "I can only imagine how
much quicker we would have returned to agility if more
orthopedic vets had expertise in evaluating and treating
performance dogs. I really go the feeling that these kinds
of non-surgical problems fall outside their normal billing
structure, and if there's no money in it, they don't concentrate
on it." Birdsall's persistence in spite of these
challenges paid off. She and Dancer went on to qualify for
the AKC Nationals in both 2003 and 2004.
'Maybie,'
a 7-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, was more fortunate than
Dancer. She suffered injury while doing agility in the
greater Chicago area, where there is a veterinary clinic that
specializes in sports medicine. Maybie took off six feet
early for the first jump at an AKC trial. Although she
cleared the jump, she ran the rest of the course with her rear
legs tucked under her rather than stretched out over
jumps. In the next day of competition, she crashed into
the first jump, and when she crashed into the second, she let
out a yelp. Another agility handler told owner Dana Pike,
of Wilmington, Ill., about TOPS Veterinary Rehab in Grayslake,
Ill. She called Sunday evening, and was able to get a
Monday morning appointment.
TOPS'
evaluation determined that Maybie had sprained a ligament in her
knee, fortunately not the more commonly diagnosed torn cruciate
ligament that would require surgery. "We treated
Maybie with acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, and cryotherapy
[cold therapy] at home, and Hako-Med therapy (micro-current
therapy to relieve pain). With three consecutive days of
therapy, she was back to being able to giddy-up, but not doing
agility yet," says Laurie McCauley, DVM, and TOPS' Medical
Director. As luck would have it, a week after the
treatment started, Maybie tried an eight-inch jump, twisted her
body over it, and dropped the bar, straining two muscles in the
same leg.
Pike
continued treatment and after just two more sessions, Maybie was
able to jump without twisting, and sail over a jump in the
classic full-stretch position. Just in time to go to the
2003 AKC World Team Invitational!
"The
staff at TOPS is at the top of their game," says
Pike. "We did three of four sessions a week for two
and a half weeks, and were amazed [at Maybie's progress].
And she's been doing great ever since!"
McCauley
is well aware of the dearth of veterinary sports medicine
expertise in many areas of the country: "American
Canine Sports Medicine Association -- is small compared to some
of the other veterinary associations, but it is a start.
They have meetings in association with the American Veterinary
Medical Association meeting each year, and a quarterly
newsletter. Their website is www.acsma.org.
And Dr. Chris Zink, along with myself, Dr. Jan VanDyke, and
Laurie Edge-Hughes, PT, teach veterinarians, vet techs, and
physical therapists what to look for and how to treat these dogs
through the Animal Rehab Institute in Florida."
What
can the average agility handler do in the meantime?
Research -- before you ever need the services -- what canine
sports medicine expertise is available in your locale. Go
to the ACSMA website, and contact the people listed. Talk
to other competitors about who is good in your area, and go to
seminars presented by people with expertise in gait analysis,
structure, and conditioning.
McCauley
stresses that handlers should become more aware of normal and
abnormal gait in their dogs. "I was recently at an
agility competition," she said, "and noticed at least
two lame dogs." I think some of these dogs may go
back to competition whether they should nor not. Not
because the owners want to hurt them, but because they don't see
the lameness. I also see the dogs that started agility too
early having problems at 2 to 6 years old, compared to the dogs
that waited until they were 18 to 24 months to start jumping,
competing into the double-digit years. I also think the
more veterinarians who participate in and pay attention to the
demands of the sports, the faster the canine sports medicine
community will grow."
If
the phenomenal growth of canine performance sports is any
indication, it will only be a matter of time before that
happens.
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