:Physical therapy for dogs prone to luxating patellas
Here’s that information I mentioned yesterday:
Special care for the dog with knee problems: All puppies’ knees are evaluated prior to placement, including a grading of each patella. Your Gompa Lhasa Apso may be prone to luxating patellas. A great deal of increased strength and comfort can be obtained through appropriate exercise. Marty Peace, Physical Therapist with Veterinary Referral Center of Colorado (Englewood, Colorado), makes the following recommendations for dogs with luxating patellas (knee problems):· Regular daily walks of 10-15 minutes, or more than that if the dog can tolerate greater length. Two short walks may be better than one long one if the dog gets sore; if your dog limps, you’ve overdone it. A steady, maintained walk on the leash (rather than run and stop, run and stop) is excellent therapy because the dog makes use of all four legs symmetrically.· Going up steps strengthens the quadriceps. Walking uphill and walking on uneven terrain (off the sidewalk) are also good strengtheners.· Standing on the back feet and “dancing” 5-10 steps for 10-30 seconds, two times a day, helps considerably.· Going over small obstacles and walking in figure eights or through cones or weave poles will help build strength and flexibility.· Swimming in a deep tub or Jacuzzi (moderate the temperature to mid-80s) strengthens the muscles without the strain of bearing weight; start with 5 minutes with a goal of 30 minutes.· Massaging the front of the thigh or holding above the knee and stretching a leg back can help relieve discomfort. How do you know if your dog has a knee problem? A veterinarian can make the diagnosis, but you may see signs on your own, such as an odd “skip” in the dog’s gait, or “bunny-hopping” to protect the loose knee joint. The dog may be carrying up to 90% of its weight on the front legs instead of an appropriate 60-70% of its weight on the back legs. In severe cases where the dog is in continual pain, surgery may be warranted. Take care if you know or suspect your dog has knee problems, but if your dog is asymptomatic, don’t limit activity, since exercise is good at warding off problems. Keeping your dog on the lean side is a good idea, since excess body weight stresses the joints, and it’s also a good idea to give your dog glucosamine supplements to support joint health.
:Moving on..or what about knees?
While the humans fret about Champ’s encounter with the pit, Champ
himself has forgotten all about it. He’s a happy little camper again.
He looks a bit worse for wear, with all those bald spots, but he got up
this morning singing and dancing and wanting to eat, play, chew, nap.
I took him to my regular vet yesterday afternoon for a check-up on his
wounds, and because he was worrying a raw red area around the base of
his tail. My “regular vet” is actually an office with three women
doctors, and the doctor who saw him yesterday had not seen him before.
(When he first got here we saw one of them for his check up; when he
got hurt we went to the emergency vet which is closer to my house.)
Anyway, she declared his wounds to be healing well and gave us an extra
three days of Clavamox just to be sure. For his irritated butt, she
checked his anal glands, and they were probably the cause of his
distress — one was full, one was impacted. For the rashiness she
advised me to use some Gentacin that I had gotten previously for a hot
spot Raji had. It’s already looking better this morning.
While she was checking him over, she asked me if he limped, and I told
her that I had not noticed, but that everything about him had been a bit
irregular over the past week, so it was hard to tell for sure. She said
his left rear leg was definitely less developed than the right. I
mentioned that this breed often presents with luxating patella, and she
checked his back knees. Sure enough…..two luxating patellas, one of
which she said was “probably almost never in”, and probably the reason
that one of his legs was significantly more muscular than the other.
I’ve never noticed the hop-walk that I’ve seen in dogs who have been
pointed out to me as having luxating patella, so I guess he’s adjusted
or….okay, end of what I know about lp. Apparently he’s got it. I
know his son, Vajra walks the walk (looks like he’s skipping when he
walks), so it’s not surprising.
Anyway, Champ is doing is favorite thing: napping on the couch on the
front porch. Here are a few pix.
Susan
:Julie sent..Footprints
Julie wanted to share this photo, along with this note:
These footprints are from Candice. You will notice at the bottom of the screen, you can see where her feet are making individual prints. Once she hit her “gait” it looks like she only has 2 feet! This is a puppy with correct movement.
Couple of things from Debby…
This is called single tracking and is correct movement for most breeds. It indicates balanced angles, front and rear.
Will post photos of the puppies over the weekend. I’m still on the run and will be all day, again, today. Tango is getting neutered today. I’m going into the shop to groom my own dogs, trying to catch up. Towels need to be washed. I’m going to take them to the laundromat and get them done in one fell swoop, rather than drag out that chore all weekend. This weekend I plan on reading in the recliner, reading in a prone position on the sofa and reading in my bed right before drifting into an afternoon nap!
:Julie on..understanding front assembly
This weekend is really busy for both Julie and me. Julie’s son is getting married. I’ve got four days of dog shows. Hey! Julie! Why did your son pick this particular weekend - one of the top ten biggest shows in the country - to get married?! 
My monitor started acting wacky yesterday…perhaps in celebration of this upcoming crazy weekend. It pixelates. There’s little moving thingees. Rick said it could be the monitor. Or the computer. Maybe I’ll need a new, fancy monitor! Yippee!!
Here’s Julie…
Debby asked if I would put into words what I, as a judge look for in the “front assembly” of a Lhasa, especially for Faye who is evaluating her puppies.
The front of the Lhasa for me is way easier to understand than the rear. The Lhasa has normal “dog” structure, which in one word means EQUAL.
Equal length of bone, equal height , equal angulation. Bone length: the length of the shoulder blade should be the same length as the upper arm (measured from point of withers to point of shoulder & point of shoulder to point of elbow). The height from point of withers to point of elbow should be equal to point of elbow to the floor. Where should the withers lie? In the perfect dog, it would be about at a 40 degree angle from point of shoulder, but Lhasa’s “layback” is far from perfect!! I don’t want the withers in the neck! That may sound funny but many Lhasas withers start in the neck rather than forming the start of the topline. Now picture this, draw an imaginary line down from the withers, the point of elbow on the Lhasa should fall directly into that line. If a dog with withers “set high” the upper arm has to be short, so it fall s in line from the point of withers. You will not get correct movement. A dog with a short upper arm will “pound” the floor in movement. What I see a lot of is “high ” set withers with equal length of all bones, but this places the point of elbow far behind the “line down from the withers” This also is incorrect dog structure which may give the illusion of good gait in a puppy, but as an adult what you will see is the front legs cannot “reach”. These are the Lhasas you see in the ring who are straight coming at you but in side gait the front feet have a hard time breaking through the chest hair, no way is it possible for it reach past the nose which a dog with correct structure should. This is a simplified explanation, there is a lot more that goes into making “movement and structure” So Faye measure-equal bone length, equal height, and equal angles. Also, the width between the shoulder blades ideally should be close, far set shoulder blades end up with what I term “a loaded front” a wide chest usually will accompany this, giving the mature adult Lhasa a bulldoggy muscle bound front. I don’t want a chest that is much wider than 3 of my fingers. If you can put the whole palm of your hand between the puppies front legs-it’s chest is to wide. Also make sure you have depth of chest and nice tight elbow.
