Laurie's Blogs.

 

15
Nov 2019

Puppy Troubles Averted

Puppy Wagon

Here’s another ‘true events’ blog.  This one comes from a recent litter assessment.  Oh, let me tell you how fabulous litter assessments are.  Puppy squeezing and kissing!  Who could resist that?  Okay, so I digress.  Here’s the scoop.

 

One of the puppies had a painful first rib.  First rib, okay, that’s a common finding.  BUT not in a puppy of this age.  These little ones were about 7.5 weeks old.  I usually blame first rib issues on jumping down, jumping over, excessive or aggressive pouncing… alternately, there seems to be a correlation with medial shoulder issues.  So, why in a puppy?  (PS.  Yes, I checked the shoulder – nothing, all good!)

 

While I worked on the rib – scalenes stretches and mobilizations – my brain kept thinking, Why?

Why?  Why?  So weird!  I’ve never seen this in a puppy this age.  Why?

 

So, after treating the rib.  (It required a manipulation.)  The breeder said, “That’s the little guy that had the abscess in the salivary gland. “ (On the same side as the rib.)

 

BINGO!!!

 

Follow my thoughts:  So, if baby puppy has a sore neck/jaw region while he was even smaller.  He may have kept his head & neck in a slight side-bend.  He may have avoided bending to the opposite side.   

 

THEN he grew.  And puppies grow fast.  So, then it could be that the scalenes became shorter and/or didn’t elongate at the same rate as the other muscles during his ‘sore period’.  Then, that tight scalenes draws up on the first rib.

 

Now what?  So, I think this little guy needs a few months of follow up – stretch the scalenes, stretch brachiocephacus, stretch sternocephalicus… and then, we mitigate troubles in the future.

 

Fascinating!!!  

 

What would have happened had that little one not come in?  Score one for puppy checkups!

If you don’t offer them, start now.

 

And that was my big epiphany last week!  Hope you find it useful!

 

Cheers,

Laurie

 



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