Limping German Shepherd

[lehughes]

Dear Laurie
I hope this finds you well.
I am the Swiss Australian dog Physic who attended a two day workshop with you in Zurich 4 years ago. Maybe you remember me… I use the learnt stuff regularly on my patients. But as you write on your site, often I don`t know for
sure, if what I^m doing is correct.
To my case:Yesterday I saw a German Shepard, f, 3 yo. I hope you can watch the short video. Symptoms of limping front l. (?) and giving way front r.(?) started 2 years ago after dog school, after the dog had the leash bound around the thorax as restraint against pulling, done by the teacher. She pulled vehemently twice on the leash. However, symptoms subsided a few days later. Approx. 2 weeks ago the symptoms showed again, this time worse, and they didn`t go away. There was no known event that elicited them, according to the owner.
The dog presented herself very tense, breathing very rapidly (tachypnoic), salivating extremely, and sweating profoundly on the paws. The symptoms get worse with a harness or collar, leash attached. Owner says, Kasha also drags r. front leg often (she hears it). Claws were slightly shorter right front. PMH: dog had ED right-operated-infection-metal out,… (all together 7 anaesthesias in her short life). Vet has not been able to find out anything. I tried to mobilize the first ribs, but got no reaction. Pas Tx and Cx mobs difficult, as dog was not too relaxed. Ah: owner also confirmed, that Kasha holds her head forward and down often.
My questions: Disc? Where shall I put my focus? My gut feeling tells me, cervical or upper thoracic, but I couldn`t really get a positive reaction.
Maybe you can help me with some hint or suggestion. I have only seen the dog once so far.

https://youtu.be/cF7QBtgpuNo

I am hoping very much to be hearing from you. Thanks a lot for your help.

Kind regards

U.S.

[lehughes]

Hello!

So nice to hear from you! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you!

What an interesting case!

So, from a physical assessment standpoint, I’d check the following:
[*]Entire C/S
[*]Cranial T/S (T1 -4) - I find you have to push really hard to get a cranial T/S reaction
[*]Ribs 1 - 4
[*]Medial shoulder instability
[*]Biceps tendon
[*]Might as well check suprapinatus and all of the rest.

And if you can’t seem to make sense from there, then I’d think an MRI might be in order.
Because if it’s not straight forward and one of these things… then you have to think about more complicated issues that might be at play in and around the C-T junction.

Sorry again for taking so long to reply!

Laurie