Exercises for dogs with hip dysplasia
A is a well-known health problem that affects a lot of dogs in the world, it is usually hereditary and degenerative, so it is important to know what it is and how to best help our dogs.
- If your dog has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia and wants to help you with exercises or massage techniques.
- You’re in the right place!In this article by Animal Expert we explain the exercises for the dog’s hip dysplasia.
In addition, we’ll give you some helpful tips and tricks to help your puppy better manage this disease.
Hip dysplasia is an abnormal formation of the hip joint: the joint cavity or acetabulum and the head of the femur do not connect properly.This is one of the best known conditions of the dog, most often affects dogs of certain breeds:
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.
Several factors can contribute to the development of hip dysplasia: a diet with excess energy or protein, medium or large dogs, very fast growing, too much exercise, or running or jumping to the dog in some intense way when you are too young All these factors are negative and can contribute to the development of hip dysplasia.
This genetic malformation should always be diagnosed by a veterinarian through x-rays, but the signs that will alert the owner are: a dog that has trouble standing after snout a long time or a dog that gets very tired of the visits.Of these symptoms, you should consult a professional to confirm whether it is hip dysplasia.
There are several techniques you can apply to help your dog suffering from hip dysplasia, always with the aim of strengthening and relaxing the muscles (especially the buttock muscle mass, essential for the stability and mobility of the hip) and eliminating or relieving pain.
Here’s what exercises you can do to help your dog with hip dysplasia.Read!
A dog with hip dysplasia tries not to hold the affected leg and may therefore suffer muscle atrophy from that leg.Dog massage promotes muscle recovery and corrects poor spine postures.
We need to do a relaxing massage along the backbone of our dog, we have to do the massage in the direction of the hairs exerting a slight pressure, you can also perform circular movements on both sides of the spine. The muscles of the rear room should be rubbed with friction.
If your dog has short hair, you can also massage it with a ball of spine in the opposite direction to hair growth, as this stimulates blood circulation and prevents extreme atrophy.
Also, it is important not to touch the column and always be on both sides of it and never on it.
If your dog has been operated on by hip dysplasia, you can carefully move the affected or operated joint one week after the procedure, always in accordance with the instructions of the veterinarian, for this you should place your puppy on a soft bed or pad the affected hip.
Passive movements are ideal for correcting joint disorders such as hip dysplasia, but these exercises should not be performed by a healthy dog.
The dog owner must perform all the movements on the dog and the dog must be lying on its side, relaxed and calm. 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 the side, lying with the left side touching the ground and with the left hin leg perpendicular to the trunk.
It is important to make sure that the lower leg rests on the ground and does not rise by pulling.For both types of movements, we need to make sure that only the hip joint moves passively, but only this one.
As in the massage, it is necessary to develop the sensitivity of the dog, make small movements always slow at first to allow him to relax and that the treatment does not become unpleasant, it is important to always limit the pain of the dog to the maximum!
Stabilization exercises are good both for a dog with hip dysplasia that cannot stand long walks as a conservative treatment to avoid surgery, and for a dog that has undergone hip dysplasia surgery as muscle rehabilitation.
These exercises can be performed at 3 weeks of the operation, depending on the size of the dog, after talking to the veterinarian.When used in conjunction with massages and passive movements, the use of the stand and trampoline should be left for the end, but the same techniques described below can be applied.
If your dog likes it, swimming is a great way to strengthen his muscles without straining his joints. There is hydrotherapy equipment that allows walking under water, the dog walks in the water which helps to preserve its joints, this technique must be performed by a physiotherapist.
For more advanced techniques, you can consult a physical therapist who, in addition to the above, can apply other techniques such as thermotherapy, cryotherapy and heat application, electrotherapy, ultrasound, laser and acupuncture.
Remember that throughout this process your dog will need more attention than usual, so do not hesitate to consult our article with everything related to hip dysplasia to be able to provide the right care to your best friend.
Does your dog also suffer from hip dysplasia? Do you want to recommend another exercise to another reader ?, so feel free to leave your ideas or tips in the comments, other users will thank you.
This article is for informational purposes only, in Animal Expert.com.br we cannot prescribe veterinary treatments or make any type of diagnosis, we suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case of any condition or discomfort.
If you would like to read articles similar to Exercises for Dogs with Hip Dysplasia, we recommend that you visit our Degenerative Diseases section.