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Cramp
Aug 24, 2017 21:55:21 GMT 10
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Post by Nick on Aug 24, 2017 21:55:21 GMT 10
Gday tom, I've got a dog who cramps in his whole body when hevraces, I have been playing around with calming paste and white-e with selenium as advised by the vet, He gets magnesium every day, 1tsp of potassium chloride every second day. Bc2 paste 24 hours prior and in his pre race feed I feed him half his normal feed 30-45 minutes before kennelling him He also gets some neutradex in his pre race feed, Additionally to all of this he gets an electrolyte drink prior to kennelling
He is a very handy dog who is being held back because of it.
Do you have any advice on what I could give him or what I could change that might help.
Cheers
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Cramp
Aug 25, 2017 4:53:05 GMT 10
Post by Tom Meulman on Aug 25, 2017 4:53:05 GMT 10
Hi Nick, It's a very frustrating situation to be in when something like this happens, and when you give a greyhound a quality diet and all the various recommended additives that should fix the cramping problems, but don't, and in some situations can actually make it worse. Unfortunately I have no simple solution, and to be quite honest it's impossible for me to provide you with any worthwhile advice as I just do not know enough about the circumstances or possible illness that lay at the root of the problems, and for systematic cramp to occur every time the dog really gets stuck into it there has to be a cause. All I can advice you to do is to pull the dog out of the racing program, change its diet from a racing diet to a rearing diet, and just give the dog a couple of short handslips a week for at least four weeks before putting it back into hard work. The main cause that I have seen for a situation such as this to occur has been diet related, especially if the diet includes both lean meat plus a complete meal high protein dry food, and most of the time only occurs after 12 to 18 months on such a diet, and then generally with older dogs where kidney function is not optimum. Cheers, Tom Stress what is it? What does it cause? And why?
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Cramp
Aug 26, 2017 18:13:34 GMT 10
via mobile
Post by Nick on Aug 26, 2017 18:13:34 GMT 10
Thanks tom. I have very recently had his blood work done and it didn't show anything amiss.
When you say a rearing diet what do you mean?
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Cramp
Aug 27, 2017 4:21:02 GMT 10
Post by Tom Meulman on Aug 27, 2017 4:21:02 GMT 10
Thanks tom. I have very recently had his blood work done and it didn't show anything amiss. When you say a rearing diet what do you mean? Hi Nick, I'm surprised that a full blood profile did not show anything out of the ordinary, as you would know yourself that systemic cramping during or after strenuous exercise does not happen without a reason, in particularly problems relating to liver and or kidney function or a major electrolyte imballance. In regard to a rearing diet, all I meant was for the dog to go onto a high fat meat/chicken and bread diet, which is basically what pups are reared on and without any additives other than calcium and in this case also a half a teaspoon of potassium everyday. What I did forget to mention previously that under no circumstances should a product such as Neutradex be given prior to a trial or race, in fact I hate the stuff as these types of "kidney flushes" have caused more long term problems with racing greyhounds than they ever solved, and I for one would be happy to see it and similar products taken off the market. The other thing I should have mentioned as a possible cause of severe cramping is that the regular use of pulsed magnetic field treatment all over the dogs body as a means of reducing or treating soft tissue injuries will in the long term invariably result in systemic cramping similar to what is happening with your boy as a result of an electrolyte imballance caused by the pulsed magnetic field. Cheers, Tom
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