Dog Agility Shoulder Problems

When you are putting your dog into agility training or an agility competition you are asking a lot of them physically.

Working at a high pace, and with many changes in direction, agility can put your dog into compromising positions that can stress different areas of their body.

A dog will usually work until they can’t.  They will push through the discomfort until it’s too unbearable anymore. They truly are resilient animals.

One body area that is particularly vulnerable with dog agility is your dog’s shoulder and lower neck.

The lower neck has a network of nerves that feed the front limbs.  While the shoulder is your dog’s primary joint for movement between the spine and the front limb.

If your dog injures either of these areas, the symptoms can overlap and look similar.

Typically your dog will come up lame and not weight bear well on that side.  They may have tenderness in that area of their shoulder or they may have limited neck range of motion.

In any case where your dog comes up lame you should have them assessed physically by either your vet and if nothing serious arises, make sure they have a physical assessment by an animal chiropractor.

One way you can determine where the injury is coming from, by testing the ROM in your dog’s neck.  If it’s limited or asymmetrical side to side it is a positive test.

You can test this by performing the treat/cookie test.  Do this by holding a treat while your dog is standing, and make your dog follow the treat in an arc to their left shoulder, and then back all the way to the right shoulder.  

Lower neck conditions in dogs are a big concern as they can potentially lead to damaging nerve trauma and produce longer recovery times.

If your dog is starting agility or is currently doing agility it is a good idea to have their function in all joints assessed by an animal chiropractor.  

Better function = Better performance.

Low Back Pain in Dogs?

Determining where the root problem in a dog can be difficult.  They can’t explain to you what they are feeling and they don’t have fingers to point where it specifically hurts.

When I see injured dogs as an animal chiropractor, I am usually presented with a dog that has very common symptoms like limping or change in activity levels, but it usually comes with no diagnosis of what is happening… and I totally get why.

Full diagnostic work ups and imaging such as x-rays can cost a lot of money since your dog isn’t covered through OHIP.  Most owners are hesitant to get these tests done because a lot of the time they come back negative.

You spend your hard earned money and get no answers.

Sometimes those tests are absolutely warranted and I usually tell people right away that they need to go to their vet first and get them done instead of seeing me.

However, most of the time it is a mechanical injury such as a muscle strain, or a joint injury that is causing the pain.  This is the perfect time to have an animal chiropractor check your pet.

The bottom line is you don’t know until it is examined.  But in the meantime here are some clues that might help you determine if you should take your dog to the chiropractor for a low back issue.

Lameness - If you aren’t from the horse world, this just means that your pet is not moving normally, ie.  something is disrupting their normal gait. This could be caused by soreness therefore they would limp.  Or this could be caused by weakness, sometimes associated with nerve irritation from the lower spine.

Change in normal activity - You might start to notice your dog, avoiding normal tasks such as going up and down stairs or avoiding getting up from their bed as often as they would before.  Dogs are really resilient but if they are in discomfort they are going to avoid the normal daily activities to lessen the aggravation.

Point tenderness - If you suspect something may be going on with your dog’s low back, don’t be afraid to poke around.  Slowly run a finger down either side of your dogs low back from the ribs down and apply appropriate pressure depending on the dog’s size.  If your dog has a sore spot they will turn their head quickly, they may try to move away or their muscles in their low back will twitch. These are all an attempt to remove the pressure from the sore area.

If you find any of the above in your dog it might now be a bad idea to have them checked by a dog chiropractor.

Why I would never trust a regular chiropractor to work with my dog…

I never adjusted my dog out of concern that his anatomy is different than mine and yours.  I recently completed the first of five modules in a veterinary chiropractic course and let me tell you I made the right decision by not adjusting him. 

Let me give a short explanation why. 

First of all this course goes really in depth in dog and horse anatomy (we even work with and are tested on cadavers).  Let me tell you that although a spine may look like a spine the anatomy of the joints, muscles and other tissues as well as the stress placed upon them is completely different across different animals and are especially unique when compared to us humans.  So needless to say, applying human techniques to animal spines is like throwing darts blindfolded, you might get lucky and hit the board once but by no means is it a detailed systematic approach.

Secondly the health conditions, repetitive strains and traumas animals can face are not the same as what humans deal with.  The obvious is that animals are not vertical structures, they walk on four legs and the result is they deal with shear forces as opposed to compressive forces in their spines which can affect their spines differently.  Also the conditions that can present although similar to some human conditions can present differently. Finally some breeds are highly predisposed to health conditions that if adjusted by a chiropractor could potentially be life threatening to the dog. In essence if a human chiropractor applies human techniques to animals it can not only be dangerous to the animal but it is very naive for the chiropractor to think that it would be effective in the first place.

I hope that puts into perspective the difference animals and humans, as well as the type of training that goes into becoming certified to work with animal chiropractic in Canada.  If you are looking for an animal chiropractor, I will be licensed early 2018.  Also I need work with and present case studies on animals. If you have a dog or horse that you would like to get checked, please reach out to me and we will work together to help them.

In health,

Adam