Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

Chris Zink, Janet B. Van Dyke, Chris Zink, Janet B. Van Dyke

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119380450
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medizin
• Subtopic: Veterinärmedizin

Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

This thoroughly revised and updated new edition offers a gold standard reference for all aspects of sports medicine and rehabilitation, encompassing basic science and integrated veterinary and physical therapy approaches. New chapters cover biological therapies, working dogs, and business management, and every chapter has been extensively revised and expanded with state-of-the-art information—providing an even greater wealth of evidence, expertise, and experience to this complex discipline. Presented in full color, with illustrations and photographs throughout and real-world case studies, the book is a detailed yet practical guide ideal for the clinical setting.

Providing must-have information for anyone working with active dogs or rehabilitation patients, Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation offers enlightening chapters including: Locomotion and Athletic Performance; Canine Therapeutic Exercise; Canine Aquatic Therapy; Conditioning and Retraining the Canine Athlete; Veterinary Orthotics and Prosthetics; Diagnosis of and Treatment Options for Disorders of the Canine Spine; Rehabilitation for Geriatric Canine Patients; The Role of Acupuncture and Manipulative Therapy in Canine Rehabilitation; and much more.

• Presents current, state-of-the-art information on sports medicine and rehabilitation in dogs
• Offers perspectives from an international list of expert authors
• Covers all topics related to veterinary care of the canine athlete and all active dogs
• Includes illustrations and photographs throughout to demonstrate key concepts
• Provides clinical cases that set the information in context

Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is a complete resource for veterinarians, physical therapists, veterinary technicians, and anyone interested in working with canine athletes or in offering rehabilitation therapy in their practice.

1
What Is a Canine Athlete?

Chris Zink, DVM, PhD, DACVP, DACVSMR, CCRT, CVSMT, CVA, and Brittany Jean Carr, DVM, CCRT

---

Summary

Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation is one of the newest specialties in veterinary medicine. It encompasses and integrates a variety of fields, including orthopedics, exercise physiology, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, nutrition, and others. Rehabilitation, which includes regaining and maintaining fitness as well as conditioning targeted toward prevention of future injury, is a critical partner to canine sports medicine. Canine athletes include dogs that compete in performance events as varied as agility trials, obedience trials, and disc dog competitions, as well as working dogs such as police/military dogs, search and rescue dogs, and assistance dogs for the disabled. Principles of canine sports medicine and rehabilitation apply to all active dogs, regardless of whether they train or compete; this comprises a large proportion of the canine population. Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals play a pivotal role in helping canine athletes and working dogs recover after injury or illness. They work to prevent re‐injury while moving the patient back to a state of muscular ability, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility that optimizes their physical abilities. Understanding the physical activities that are involved in different performance events and the jobs that working dogs perform is critical to devising targeted rehabilitation for sports/working dogs after injury or illness, and for retraining them to perform their specific duties. This is best accomplished by attending athletic/working dog training sessions and competitions.

---

Introduction to canine sports medicine

Humans and dogs have been partners for at least 33,000 years (Galibert et al., 2011; Ovodov et al., 2011; Thalmann et al., 2013; Shannon et al., 2015; Frantz et al., 2016). As working companions, dogs have assisted in hunting food, guarding family and property, gathering and moving livestock, patrolling with soldiers, detecting drugs and explosives, and searching for lost humans.

With increases in disposable income and a change in attitudes toward work/life balance beginning after World War II, there has been an exponential growth in the number of sporting events devised by people to challenge their abilities to train their dogs for competition. The field of canine sports medicine began with veterinarians working predominantly with racing Greyhounds. Veterinarians now work with dogs that participate in dozens, if not hundreds, of different canine sports and working roles.

Canine sports medicine is the branch of veterinary medicine concerned with injuries sustained by canine athletes, including their prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The field of canine sports medicine comprises many different aspects of traditional and integrative veterinary medicine as well as nonclinical ancillary roles in canine care such as exercise physiology, athletic training, and others (Box 1.1), and encourages significant collaboration between individuals with different areas of expertise. In addition, canine sports medicine is intimately linked to canine rehabilitation, where veterinarians, physical therapists, and veterinary technicians have an opportunity to work together to return injured canine athletes and working dogs not only to health but to full performance.

---

Box 1.1 Fields included in canine sports medicine

• Anatomy and biomechanics
• Exercise physiology
• Sports conditioning
• Rehabilitation
• Orthopedics
• Internal medicine
• Pulmonology
• Cardiology
• Neurology
• Gerontology
• Nutrition
• Integrative medicine

---

There are many advantages for veterinarians and rehabilitation professionals working with canine athletes and working dogs (Box 1.2). The field involves assisting clients who have invested significant time, emotion, effort, and finances into raising, training, and competing/working with their canine partners. These clients want the best care and the best outcomes for their dogs, so there is substantial opportunity to practice state‐of‐the‐art sports and rehabilitation medicine.

---

Box 1.2 Advantages of working with clients with canine athletes and working dogs

• Opportunity to practice state‐of‐the‐art rehabilitation medicine
• Highly educated clients with significant financial, time and emotional investment in their dogs
• High client compliance
• Healthier dogs than in general practice
• Higher success rate due to dogs’ better plane of fitness
• Measurable success returning dog to training and competition
• Abundant research opportunities

---

Human athletes have teams consisting of health professionals with diverse expertise who work on maintaining and regaining the athletes’ health and fitness. Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals likewise play a pivotal role in helping the clients with canine athletes and working dogs to keep their dogs in athletic condition, prevent injury, and recover after injury or illness. They help move dogs back to a state of muscular ability, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility that allows them to optimize their physical condition.

Clients with canine athletes and working dogs are generally highly compliant. Once given detailed individualized conditioning programs, clients will work with their dogs to perform those exercises diligently. This is a key to success for the canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professional, and brings significant job satisfaction, allowin...