|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 5, 2014 23:57:01 GMT 10
Hi tom, I have a puppy of 13 months has the gastrocnemius muscle of smaller than the left leg right leg, right leg tarsus in this weak area, has instability when walking. the question is that can cause this, you can recover the muscle? and if you can solve this problem. Greetings att. jose
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom Meulman on Apr 6, 2014 1:58:23 GMT 10
Hi Jose,
This situation normally only occurs when a severe break with bone separation occurs in the higher end of the fibula in that leg, or the growth plate of the tibial crest breaks away.
The bone breaks, no one notices, the pup stops using the leg, the bone heals badly, and the muscle tissue around the area withers and virtually disappear.
Once the muscle tissue withers severely in that area of the leg it is extremely difficult if not impossible to build it up again, and then there is the underlying bone problem to deal with. Mate I am sorry but the few pups I have seen where this occurred never recovered well enough to be able to race, and became pets instead.
Cheers,
Tom
|
|
|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 6, 2014 5:49:53 GMT 10
tom thanks for your quick response, it is possible that the puppy has never been lame? I've never seen stop using your leg ... with an X-ray can be seen this problem?
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom Meulman on Apr 7, 2014 6:06:36 GMT 10
Hi Jose, Young pups when they do have bone damage such as a fracture in a high fibula that results in a non union, or a tibial crest avulsion in the growth plate, often don’t show any dramatic changes in their behaviour to the untrained eye. They will still use the leg and take it through the running motion, but without placing any real pressure on it, and therefore the muscle tissue withers from disuse. The original bone damage and the calcification caused in the healing process will still be visible in an X-ray. Cheers, Tom This page shows a couple of nice clear X-rays of a Tibial Crest Avulsion both before and after surgery |
|
|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 8, 2014 1:27:47 GMT 10
thanks for your reply tom
|
|
|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 15, 2014 3:14:44 GMT 10
This is the image of the x-ray of the leg as you see tom?
|
|
|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 15, 2014 3:20:14 GMT 10
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom Meulman on Apr 15, 2014 19:53:52 GMT 10
Hi Jose Maria,
I’m sorry mate but that X-ray is certainly not clear enough to come to any conclusion other than to say that the pup appears to have had some bone damage in the region of the tibial crest growth plate that has not healed cleanly.
However it appears in that fuzzy X-ray more like bone damage that may have occurred by the knee hitting a gate post or the edge of a doorway at speed rather than the growth plate breaking away.
Unfortunately I’m severely limited in being able to provide any advice as to how to proceed from here by the fact that I can’t physically examine the injury nor the extent of the muscle wastage.
Cheers,
Tom
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom Meulman on Apr 15, 2014 20:02:54 GMT 10
This is the image I linked to in a previous post and as you can see all the bone details are clearly visible.  And this one of the same area of the limb without any bone damage.  |
|
|
|
Post by Jose Maria on Apr 16, 2014 0:11:37 GMT 10
thanks for your reply tom
|
|
