Laurie's Blogs.

Because I’ve had a bit of communication and dialogue with other therapists around the world subsequent to the last few blogs, I thought it would be timely to share some of the correspondence and thoughts in THIS blog!

1. The blog of Dec 1st, 2018:  https://www.fourleg.com/Blog/384/Water-Walking-Research

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from one of the co-authors of the paper I had discussed in that blog, and she sent me the full paper to read!  Thank you Gillian!  So, as you recall, water at higher levels reduced activation of Gluteus Medius and Longissiumus Dorsi.  The Gluteus medius & Longissimus Dorsi displayed an increased workload only when water was at the level of the tarsus.

And the golden nugget that I didn’t have before, without the paper, was the Discussion.  Well here is my favourite paragraph.  I think it sums it all up perfectly!

Implications for practice

The results suggest that WT exercise at higher water levels would be appropriate during the early stages of canine rehabilitation regimes where stability is prioritised as a key goal over strength. As rehabilitation progresses and the challenge to the patient needs to be increased to facilitate greater muscular action, then tarsal water height would be recommended. However, it is important that practitioners consider the clinical history and fitness of individual dogs when designing rehabilitation regimes. The water depth used must be selected with sound clinical reasoning and be altered according to presenting movement patterns and post hydrotherapy response. Therefore, post-exercise, reevaluation of gait and assessment of clinical signs of pain or fatigue should be used to inform progression within rehabilitation regimes.

2.Do you remember the blog from Dec 8th, 2018 – Lend me your poop?  https://www.fourleg.com/Blog/385/Lend-me-your-poop!

In this blog, I talked about fecal transplantation.  Subsequently, I received an e-mail from Meagan.  And I have to say, I think she is amazing!  

Hi Laurie

I love the story about the faecal transplant. I have a guinea pig who has been struggling to fight pneumonia- he has been several months on strong combinations of antibiotics. The vet was very reluctant to use such strong antibiotics and for so long because they will knock out the bowel bacteria so quickly in these little guys, and if a herbivore’s gut isn’t working well they die pretty quickly. So I decided to feed him some poop from the other healthy guinea pigs- I mush it up with water and syringe between 2-3mls of it each day into his mouth when I do the critical care feeding. Even if most of the bacteria get killed in his stomach, if at least a few get through, I was hoping it would make a difference. When I asked for guidance on how much to give the vet said there are no protocols. I’ve combined this with CST for his immune/sympathetic systems, and the vet is amazed he is still alive.

Thanks for sharing your story!

Meagan

3.Lastly, was last week’s blog: https://www.fourleg.com/Blog/386/Athletic-dog-with-excessive-stifle-rotation

It’s an interesting case.  I did receive on bit of feedback in regards to thoughts on this case.

Hey Laurie!

So, your latest blog post (THANK YOU again, btw, for FourLeg) about the pup with increased “laxity” into tibial IR…gosh, I’d love to see video of him doing the cutting/tight turns type movements to see what he looks like then. I’d also want to check ROM of joints above/below (I’m assuming she did that for hips and tarsi!) as well as his pelvis/SI joints, LS, etc…and muscle length throughout the caudal trunk/pelvis/HLs (anything that might be tight at end-range limb movement, leading to compensatory IR at that poor intermediary stifle joint).

Great idea about the activity log. For goodness sakes, I NEVER think of having owners do that…could likely be helpful, even for the non-sporting dogs (because, really, most younger dogs are athletes anyway and could be getting “over-trained” simply because owners think they have to keep the pup super active so they don’t eat the house...). Thanks for that, I’m adding it to my to-do list.

Anyway, you asked for thoughts, so there you go. Hope Italy was fantastic, travel home was smooth, and that you’ll take some time OFF for the holidays!

Thanks again!

Krista 

Okay… so there you go… everyone can benefit from the responses I received about the most recent blogs!  Thank you everyone for helping FourLeg come alive in some way or another – activity on the forum, e-mail replies back, questions, feedback, etc.

On that note… enjoy your Christmas, Holidays, and the last few days of 2018!  Catch ya next week!

Cheers!

Laurie