Content
- What is hip dysplasia
- what are the causes
- What can I do to make my dog with hip dysplasia?
- Massages
- passive movements
- Stabilizing or active exercises
- Hydrotherapy
- Physiotherapy
THE hip dysplasia it is a well-known health problem that affects a large number of dogs in the world. It is usually hereditary and degenerative, so it is important to know what it is and how to help our puppies the best possible.
If your puppy has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia and you want to help him with exercises or massage techniques, you've come to the right place! In this article by PeritoAnimal we will explain the hip dysplasia dog exercises.
In addition, we are going to give you some useful tips and hints to help your dog better cope with this disease.
What is hip dysplasia
Hip dysplasia is a abnormal formation of the hip joint: the joint cavity or acetabulum and the head of the femur do not connect properly. It is one of the best known conditions of the dog, it most often affects dogs of certain breeds:
- labrador retriever
- irish setter
- German Shepherd
- Doberman
- Dalmatian
- Boxer
Although we have mentioned some breeds that are more prone to this condition, this does not mean that a Fox Terrier, for example, cannot suffer from hip dysplasia.
what are the causes
There are several factors that can favor the onset of hip dysplasia: a diet with excess energy or protein, medium-sized or large puppies that grow very fast, exercise is too strenuous, or intensely running or jumping the puppy when he is too young. All of them are negative factors that can contribute to the development of hip dysplasia.
This genetic malformation must always be diagnosed by a veterinarian through radiographs, but the signs that will alert the owner are: a dog that has difficulty standing after lying down for a long time or a dog that gets very tired from walking. Faced with these symptoms, you should consult a professional to confirm that it is hip dysplasia.
What can I do to make my dog with hip dysplasia?
There are several techniques you can apply to help your dog with hip dysplasia, always with the goal of strengthen and relax muscles (especially gluteal muscle mass, essential for hip stability and mobility) and eliminate or relieve pain.
We will explain below what exercises you can do to help your dog with hip dysplasia. Keep reading!
Massages
A dog with hip dysplasia tries not to support the affected paw and, because of that, may suffer from muscle atrophy in that paw. massage the dog favors recovery muscle and corrects poor posture of the spine.
We must do a relaxing massage along the spine of our dog, we must do the massage in the direction of the fur, exerting gentle pressure, you can also make circular movements on both sides of the spine. The hindquarter muscles should be massaged with friction.
If your puppy has short fur, you can also massage it with a thorn ball. Massage against hair growth as this stimulates blood flow and prevents extreme atrophies.
Also, it is important not to touch the spine and to always be on either side of it and never on top of it.
passive movements
If your dog has been operated on for hip dysplasia, then you can carefully move the affected or operated joint one week after the procedure, always according to your veterinarian's instructions. For this, you have to put your dog on a soft bed or cushion the affected hip.
The passive movements are ideal for correcting dysfunctions joints such as hip dysplasia, on the other hand, these exercises should not be done by a healthy dog.
The dog's owner must perform all the movements on the dog and the dog must lie on its side, relaxed and quiet. Before starting the passive movements, we prepare the dog with a massage or by applying heat to the hip area.
If the affected joint is the right hip, we place the dog on its side, lying down with its left side touching the ground and with its left hind leg perpendicular to the trunk.
- Flexion/Extension: With our right hand we are going to hold your left hind leg level with your knee, so your paw rests on our right arm. Then our right hand performs the movements, while the left hand, placed on the hip joint, can feel signs of pain and crackles. We move the hip joint slowly from extension to flexion rhythmically about 10-15 times.
- Abduction/Adduction: Abduction is the action of moving the paw away from the trunk, while adduction consists of bringing it closer to it. Stand behind the dog, pick up its bent knee and do the movements gently about 10-15 times.
It is important to make sure that the paw underneath is flat on the ground and that it does not pull up. For both types of movements, we have to make sure that only the hip joint moves passively, but only that one.
As with massage, we have to develop the puppy's sensitivity, initially making small and always slow movements to allow him to relax and the treatment not to become unpleasant. It is important to always limit the dog's pain as much as possible!
Stabilizing or active exercises
Stabilizer exercises are good for both a dog with hip dysplasia that cannot stand long walks as a conservative treatment to avoid an operation, and for a dog that has been operated on for hip dysplasia as muscle rehabilitation.
These exercises can be done 3 weeks after the operation, depending on the size of the dog, after talking to the veterinarian. When used in conjunction with massage and passive movements, the use of support and trampoline must be left to the end, but the same techniques described below can be applied.
- Supports: We place the dog with its front legs raised on a support, for a small dog the support can be a thick book. This position causes tension in the muscles of the spine and hind extremities.
Support exercises make a dog with hip dysplasia or who has had surgery very tired. 5 repetitions of each of the three phases that we will see below are perfectly sufficient at the beginning.
- Stand behind the dog and hold it for balance, take the dog's shoulder blade and give it a light pull towards the tail (up to you). This movement strengthens almost all of the dog's muscles: extremities, abdomen and back. Hold this position for a few seconds and relax, repeat 5 times.
- Then take the knee joint and pull it up to the tail, you can feel in your hands the relaxation of the muscles of the hip and hind limbs. Hold this for a few seconds and relax, repeat 5 times.
- Hold the knee joint high and this time press it forward toward the dog's head. Hold this for a few seconds and relax, repeat 5 times. Over time, our puppy will support the exercises better and his muscles will progressively strengthen.
- Trampoline: The trampoline is an unknown object for the dog, it is important to progressively get him used to this new object. Remember that performing these exercises with a tense or stressed dog will not work.
It is essential that the trampoline can support a minimum weight of 100 kg, as it will have to go on top of it, that it has a minimum diameter of one meter and that it has the TUV mark. A good way to introduce the trampoline is to climb onto it first and, with the dog safely between our legs, wait a few seconds or minutes to calm down and reward him with a treat when you let him handle it.
- Load the left hind leg first and then the right, slowly. You can perform these active moves 10 times.
- It is important to carry out these alternating movements slowly and carefully. So we can feel how the dog plays with its muscles to maintain balance. This exercise is not visually impressive but in fact it exerts an intense action on the muscles and, in turn, it develops the dog's gluteal muscles, it tires him, so he should not do too many repetitions.
- The owner must always go up first and leave the trampoline last, letting the dog go down first, but without jumping to avoid injury.
- Slalom: When enough time has passed after a dysplasia operation and, according to the veterinarian, running a slalom can be a very good exercise. The space between the cones should be between 50 centimeters to 1 meter depending on the size of the dog, which must travel the slalom slowly.
Hydrotherapy
If your dog likes it, swimming is a great way to strengthen your muscles without straining your joints. There is a hydrotherapy equipment that allows walking underwater, the dog walks in water which allows to preserve its joints, this technique should be carried out by a physiotherapist.
Physiotherapy
For more advanced techniques, you can consult a physiotherapist who, in addition to the previous ones, can apply other techniques such as thermotherapy, cryotherapy and heat application, electrotherapy, ultrasound, laser and acupuncture.
Remember that throughout this process your puppy will need more attention than usual, for this reason do not hesitate to consult our article with everything about hip dysplasia in order to offer the proper care to your best friend.
Does your dog also suffer from hip dysplasia? Do you want to recommend another exercise to another reader? So don't hesitate to leave your ideas or advice in the comments, other users will thank you.
This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.