BORZOI with hind end lameness

[lehughes]

Dear Laurie,

I am after a little advice and knowing you have this breed yourself I thought you could be the best person to ask!

I have been referred a 5 year old Borzoi who yelped on rising 8-9 weeks ago. Intially lame on LH ++. Saw vet 1 week later who prescribed rest and rimadyl. They suspected CCL so x-rayed and draw test but both were negative. X-rays were unremarkable at stifle and hip and Lx. He was referred to a ortho specialist but they couldn’t see anything further on x-rays and palpation was unremarkable except pain on palpation of iliopsoas on Right side but hip extension was fine. After 6 weeks of rest and anti-infammatories he is actually worse rather than better and so has been referred to us for physio!!! On our assessment he was 4/5 lame on first movement and then improves to 2-3/5 after 2 or so mins. In stance he offloads the left hind. FROM through the hip and stifle with no pain reaction and even with combined hip extension and abduction he was ok. There was some sensitivity and triggerpoints through the thorocolumbar region and we found pain reaction on palpating BOTH the iliopsoas – there is even musculature both sides.

We have been treating with LASER, gentle stretches and massage etc over the illiopasoas insertion where we get the pain reaction over the last 2 weeks but he doesn’t seem to be responding. The next step is for An MRI obviously but the owner is keen to avoid this. The owner is doing 5 mins controlled lead walking only now.

Have you come across this kind of presentation in Borzois or other breeds before? We are wondering about possible sciatic nerve involvement but he doesn’t appear to have any lumbar spine issues form x-ray.

Any help would be gratefully received!! The fact he has got worse and the severity of the lameness is worrying.

Many thanks
H.

[lehughes]

Hi H!

Oh my goodness, yes! I feel like I could have written this description for a Borzoi I once treated!

I’m going to put my money on Lumbosacral Nerve root impingement (not so bad as to be a L-S stenosis, or DDD, or DJD, etc) but a PINCH causing an inflammation / irritation of the nerve root. Which, when the dog goes to get up = another pinch and pain and lameness that sorts itself out with a bit of movement. I’ll bet you have an SIJ dysfunction as well that is perpetuating the pinch / nerve irritation.

Assessment:
Press on each side of the L7 spinous process
(Check out Video Training 82 & 83 for lumbar spine & Video Training 17 for SIJ)

If nothing more, add laser and tail pull traction to your treatment repertoire and I think you’ll start to see improvements.
If you find a decrease in muscle tone down near the caudal L/S then e-stim could be beneficial.
And if you need to work with the SIJ, then you’ll want to assess and possibly treat for a motor control & timing issue ( Video Training 16).

All the best! I’m sure you can help this poor boy!

Cheers,

Laurie