Laurie's Blogs.

Well I didn’t know what to write about today… so I started to just look around my office for things to inspire me. I picked up the proceedings from the VEPRA conference in Italy… and read a passage about thermoregulation. 

Effective thermoregulation (heating or cooling of the body) is reduced in the aging dog.  I have found with a quick PubMed search that special care should be taken intra- and peri-operatively with geriatric patients in regards to thermoregulation… and that got me thinking about thermoregulation for geriatric patients that we exercise or prescribe exercise for:

• Do we need to spend a couple of extra minutes in warm up or cool-down with exercising geriatric dogs?
• Do we need to caution owners of older dogs about using jackets (for their dogs) when walking in the winter (especially in cold climates - i.e. Canada, Sweden, Northern USA, or on Mount Everest)?
• Do we need to advise on post-exercise cooling strategies for older dogs (wet the hair or provide a colder area to recover) after exercising in the heat OR multiple SHORT exercise bouts during heat-spells, OR avoiding mid-day exercise - sticking with walks in the early morning or later in the evening when it's cooler?
• Do we need to spend a few minutes of rest / lower activity or speed during an exercise session (i.e. therapist-led or in the UWT) with a geriatric patient?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject.  Do you routinely make special considerations when exercising your geriatric patients, or do you watch them and 'play it by ear'?

Now, secondly, during my short little stint on Pubmed I also found some interesting abstracts that discussed lower body temperatures in obese dogs as compared to lean dogs! (Piccione et al 2011)  The authors queried whether there was an enhanced metabolic efficiency in the obese dogs that was achieved by regulated lowering of body temperature.  A review paper by Landsberg (2012)pointed out that many mammalian species utilize regulated decreases in temperature, such as hibernation or shallow torpor, as a means of energy conservation. Inherited forms of rodent obesity (ob/ob mouse, fa/fa rat) have lower core temperatures and withstand cold poorly. Obese humans, however, have normal core temperatures.  And where this got me thinking was:

• Is there any way to harness or control the dog's internal body temperature in order to aid in weight loss?  (I found an article about dogs wearing spandex suits… and the suits didn't actually cause an increase in body temperature - go figure!  Guess I won't get rich by sewing dog leotards!)
• But what about simply increasing activity more frequently?  Would 6 x 5-minute walks be more beneficial than 1 x 30-minute walk?
• Maybe the obese dog would be better to do some exercise in hotter temperatures.  (I don't know!)

Okay… so that's the blog for this week… just a bunch of thoughts!  I'd love to hear what you have to say!  Share with me your ideas, knowledge, and experiences!

Until next time… Cheers!

Laurie

Laurie@FourLeg.com