Laurie's Blogs.

So, I thought I’d make this blog about a case of my own, and some dogs I saw while in Norway this past week.  So all of these cases are chronic

One, was attacked by another dog, He’s a border collie that grabbed up over his withers and shaken.  That was 2 years ago, and he’s still having issues: internal, external, and mentally.  So, he’s been referred to me in order to condition him after his most recent surgery.  And while that can be done, I think his fascial restrictions are at the root of some of his underlying issues on all levels.  He has palpable thick scar tissue over the withers, and when you lighten up and lift his skin, you can feel the fascial restrictions at a more microscopic level as well.  

Two, was a dog with a 3-year-old fracture / avulsion of his left C6 transverse process.  So his current issue is a ‘screaming hot’ left supraspinatus tendon.  But because of the fear of this transverse process avulsion, everyone has been afraid to touch anything around C6, and now everything on the left side is stiff and tight, and I’d put money on the fact that the supraspinatus has come about because of all of the muscle & fascial restrictions on the left side.  So C5 and C6 were stiff, rib one was only mildly tender, but the scalenes were tight, the hyoid bone had drifted to the left, and I’m sure if we had spent any of the time on class on fascial, I’d have found umpteen more fascial restrictions.

Three, was a dog that had slipped and fallen about 3-months previously, his head was crooked and he had begun to walk almost on his tippy toes.  His issues ended up being a rib one problem and a C1 issue (atlanto-occipital & atlanto-axial joints).  So honestly, with that dog, I only had the chance to look at the joints, but any time there is a long-standing issue, fascial restrictions are bound to occur.

And so my take-away learning from all of these dogs has been the realization of how much can go wrong if a problem is left to linger for too long.  Fascial restrictions occur, internal issues may occur, new musculoskeletal issues occur, strange gait patterns may occur, postural issues can occur, and what else might be going on if these four-legged patients could talk?  Likely plenty more!

The other take-away should be to look for the connections and myofascial restrictions that are bound to accompany a long-standing lesion.  So go out there and try lifting the skin, doing some slow stretches, and assessing some fascia (yep, that’s a topic for a training video or really, a whole course one day! But until then, Cheers!