Laurie's Blogs.

A New Dog Taping Book

A new dog taping book has hit the market (in English)! Traute Schmidt and Yvonne Müller of Switzerland have crafted a lovely book with great pictures and descriptions to empower canine rehabilitation practitioners and dog owners alike to use kinesiology tape to a...

08
Feb 2025

Medial Meniscal Tears and the Posteromedial Joint Line Sulcus

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

It was years, no decades, ago that I learned about the posteromedial joint line sulcus. I had attended a lecture by a local veterinary surgeon. She discussed this area of the stifle joint as being a good landmark to detect subtle joint swelling at the stifle – w...

01
Feb 2025

Cruciate Repairs and the Effects on ROM and Lameness

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

A new research paper came out that looked at ROM in dogs following surgery for cruciate ligament rupture. They wanted to compare the differences in stifle joint range of motion (ROM), both flexion angle (FA) and extension angle (FA), for dogs that underwent tibial tub...

25
Jan 2025

Initial Assessment Neuro Dog & Talking to the Owner

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

Last week I had a big hole in my schedule one day, and I was asked if I might consider seeing a neuro dog, whose owners were really hoping to get in, sooner than their appointment the upcoming week. I said yes. The case was complicated. The dog was a ...

18
Jan 2025

New Canine Myofascial Trigger Point Research

Wondering about the location of myofascial trigger points (MTPs) in dogs with osteoarthritis?So, did a Brazilian group of veterinary researchers. Formenton M, Fantoni D, Gauthier L, et al. Prevalence and Location of Myofascial Trigger Points in Dogs with Osteoart...

11
Jan 2025

Mental Stimulation During Recovery and Rehab

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

This week I received an email question that, after answering, I thought, “This would actually make a fantastic blog!” The question, in a nutshell, was “What would you suggest to help a young active dog recovering from elbow arthroscopy who is la...

04
Jan 2025

Research into Effleurage

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

To go with this week’s Four Leg Rehab Minute, I decided to do a bit of a dive into the research around effleurage massage. This is what I found! Monteiro Rodrigues L, Rocha C, Ferreira HT, Silva HN. Lower limb massage in humans increases local perfusion and impac...

28
Dec 2024

Percussion Massage Before Exercise

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

It is known that static stretching prior to exercise can inhibit athletic performance. (Check out my article in FourLeg Member’s section on Stretching and Injury Prevention). Have you wondered about percussion massage and how that affects performance? Of course ...

21
Dec 2024

Boxer’s Knuckles in Dogs

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

Have you heard of Boxer’s Knuckles? I have to admit, I had never heard of it. I guess, I never treated any Boxers when I was treating people. According to the Orlando Hand Surgery Associates1, it is defined as follows:"Boxer’s Knuckle is an injury th...

14
Dec 2024

Treat the Compensations

Laurie Edge-Hughes, BScPT, MAnimSt, CAFCI, CCRT, Cert. Sm. Anim. Acup / Dry Needling

I believe that when we are given challenges, we are meant to learn from them. Another way of putting this, is ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’. Blah, blah, blah… but seriously my ankle is still bothering me, and by the time I publish this...