fourleg.com

Hi
I have a question about 1st rib. I am seeing more agility dogs, and find 1st rib pain on one side/other/both on nearly every dog! Is that common? Not v common to be bilat, and I refer those for imaging. Not finding that much shoulder dysfunction, although I always say what David said- if we have to fix 1st rib more than 3x we need to image shoulder.
Apart from shoulder conditioning which I discuss in detail, is there anything else I can do (apart from fix it which seems to be working ok). I tell the Os to do the brachycepalicus stretch at home.
Thanks
Kriszty

Hey Kriszty,

I have to say that I have some degree of pride in reading this.
1) That you know about first rib issues.
2) You are attempting to fix them
3) You also know the correlation with 1st rib
And these things, I don't think are talked about outside of here!

Okay... so other than the 1st rib correlation, I have always taken 1st rib to be a result of excessive jumping / landing. So, other than sporting dogs, I tend to see it in small dogs that jump down from couches or beds (etc).

I'd have them routinely stretch the scalenes (you said brachiocephalicus... which would be a similar stretch)... but that muscle doesn't attach to the first rib.

Bilateral 1st ribs, I always think neck C7. But I address that by mobilizing and/or traction.

All in all, I think you are doing everything you can. I would bet you that if the dogs stopped agility, then you'd see far less 1st rib issues. But during the time that they are doing the sport, this will be a recurrent issue. So I think of it as the 'nemesis' that plagues those particular dogs. Every athlete has 'something' that they have to manage.

Just keep on doing what you're doing.

Cheers,

Laurie

Thanks for the reply Laurie
Yes, you are the only person talking about it, no one else has heard of it.
It's a pretty cool magic trick.. fixed one dog who had not been able to hold her weaver entry for years, to nailing every one. That was fun!

<3

Love this!