Crating your dog for healing
 

Veterinary medicine is experiencing a culture shift in the treatment of http://www.veterinarypracticenews.co...puncturespinal cord injury and disk disease With more veterinarians incorporating integrative physical medicine treatments (i.e., acupuncture, laser therapy and rehabilitation) into their practices, the standards of care for spinal cord injury could well be changing. [B]Research is illustrating that the standard approaches of surg.ery, cage rest or steroids no longer have a rock-solid grasp as the best or only options.
Cage rest, for example, has no evidence in favor but is accruing evidence against. This includes the physical (not to mention, mental and emotional) deterioration brought about by living in a small box with little movement or freedom day after day.1
As stated by the authors of a recent paper on immobilization in paraplegics, “Mechanical loading and movement are essential for the maintenance of the integrity of skeletal tissues including articular structures and cartilage. Prolonged immobilization after spinal cord injury (SCI) has been suggested to be a cause of contractures, periarticular osteoporosis, heterotopic ossification, osteoarthritis and periarticular connective tissue alterations. Lower extremity articular cartilage needs some regimen of joint loading and motion to maintain its native physical and biochemical properties.
As more becomes known about the drawbacks of forced stillness, why do we continue to keep dogs from benefiting from assisted stands and slow, careful walking? Surely, we should be able to monitor and modulate their exercise with sufficient supervision and instruction to keep them moving and strong while they heal.

I am a wee bit confused by this post. Are these your thoughts or a combination of a web post and your thoughts...or just a web post? The link you shared does not work so I cannot quite figure it out.

I posted on your thread yesterday about strict crate rest being the standard for IVDD and I guess this is your response because you wish to justify why crate rest was not mentioned in addition to the strychnine ( some Chinese "herb" ) your vet recommended?? I don't care what you do with your pup, but I am posting here for anyone interested. IVDD is a very serious condition.

I don't believe ANY reputable veterinarian would advise against crate rest on a dog with IVDD (which is what I was referring to and thought perhaps your pup had). I spend a lot of time at the veterinary hospital/specialists and I can tell you that I have seen no change in recommendations for the care of a pup with IVDD. A friend of mine just had a pup at the neurologist recently for IVDD. Crate rest does NOT mean "living in a small box with little movement or freedom day after day". The objective of crate rest is to be sure that a pup does not reinjure him/herself and end up in worse shape. The possibility of paralysis is always there with spinal issues. It is advised that they are leash walked when out of the crate .. or otherwise prevented from running and jumping. They are not going to LIVE there. If a person can keep a pup with them 24/7 then I suppose a crate isn't needed; but, I would definitely either crate rest or find a small area where they could not jump up or down when I was not able to closely supervise. Paralysis is only a hot minute away from happening sometimes and then there often is no going back. I think a short time in the life of a pup spent in a crate to be healthy and prevent possible paralysis is better than a lifetime of paralysis because someone thought they would suffer some unimaginable harm from being in a crate to prevent injury.

And, let me add, that crate rest is never advised for IVDD for the length of time it would take for the adverse effects mentioned in your post to occur....."contractures, periarticular osteoporosis, heterotopic ossification, osteoarthritis and periarticular connective tissue alterations"
I am quite frankly astounded that anyone would even THINK of putting an animal in a small crate and leave it for the length of time it would take for those things to happen.
Crate rest for IVDD is 2- 4 weeks usually and does not involve just ignoring a pup in a crate.

Above link is incorrect.

This is an opinion piece. The one comment that person makes in the section on invasive treatment was astounding to me. I don't know of any reputable veterinary neuro surgeon who would, to quote the author, "rush a “down dog” into surgery, especially when she or he has lost pain sensation". A dog like that is unlikely to benefit from surgery. That is well known. They don't rush into surgery without doing appropriate diagnostics.

BUT, aside from all of that, this article is not about treatment for IVDD. It is about animals/humans who already have progressed to paralysis and are either para or quadriplegic. Crating a dog that is already paralyzed isn't what I am referring to...absolutely they need movement so that they don't develop contractures. The article REALLY is about acupuncture.

You can find opinions all over the internet. They are just what they are named: opinions, the author(s) thoughts, not necessarily fact.

This article/opinion is also referring to human patients as their basis. The human spine and the animal spine recoveries can be very different. Dogs recover faster from spinal surgery because they don't stand upright...but I am merely saying that because I don't see the value of comparing the two.

I hope I can say this without further inflaming a difference of opinion over one pup’s medical care: we need to be careful not to create a situation where a reader might generalize one vet’s opinion about the appropriate care for one specific set of medical issues (spinal cord injury and/or degenerative spinal disease) to the appropriate care for other kinds of medical issues. I suspect a lot of dog owners come here looking for information about their dogs’ health issues, and some of those dog owners might not be as knowledgeable or experienced as some members here. They might see a thread labeled “crating your dog for healing” — which contains a paragraph expressing concerns about possible physical, mental & emotional deterioration from being confined in “a small box” and another paragraph about the drawbacks of “enforced stillness” — and inappropriately generalize that opinion to questioning whether their dog should be put on crate rest in other situations — recovering from sprains, injuries, surgeries, etc..

I’m not criticizing anyone here. I’m just suggesting that all of us need to be careful not to say things that could be dangerous if taken out of context.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Yes! I would hate to think someone might read this and let their dog with IVDD run around out of a fear of damage from crate rest. I didn't respond to this post to specifically point out the care of one person's pup.....I did it because of my concern that it was not valid and/or safe information for all pups.

I have had so many pups who needed "crate rest" for various reasons...I have used strollers so that I could move them easily from room to room; and if they are adverse to being crated, I pad a bathroom well and restrict to a small area. I have also leashed them to my desk chair so that they can be still and be with me.

Crate rest is crucial in dogs with IVDD, during heartworm treatment, and after surgeries.

I would like to give my opinion for other readers who might see this. Crate rest doesn't mean keeping your dog in a small tiny crate and never letting them out. Callie had 3 surgeries where she had to be on crate rest anywhere between 8-12 weeks each time. I used baby play pens and the exercise pens that you can adjust to make different squares. I would adjust the size to slightly bigger as the surgeon thought it was ok. I would also because I am short would get in the pen and sit with her. I also stole the idea from Linda of putting her in the dog stroller which she loved anyway and I could take the stroller with me if I was doing something in a different room, or in front of her favorite window or even for a little outside stroll. Also with most cases they encourage small walks on the leash getting a little longer as then heal. I have seen many people have their dogs re injure them selves by not doing the crate rest and many have to redo painful and expensive surgeries. Luckily with Callie I had great surgeon, great physical therapist and great people like Linda with experience about this stuff. Just for reference Callie had one surgery on one knee for a partial ACL/CCL tear and Luxating Patella, then Luxating Patella surgery on the other leg and then the same leg that just had the LP fixed the ACL/CCL tore about a year later and she had to have surgery for that.