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Post by Ellie on Mar 28, 2020 20:01:52 GMT 10
Hi Tom
Just wondering if you can give some information on my bitch she is getting sore in her chest muscle a lo t and i am at a loss to find out why and if there is a some thing i can do to try and stop the on going problem much appreciate any advice.
Regards
Ellie
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Post by Tom Meulman on Mar 29, 2020 8:08:09 GMT 10
Hi Ellie,
Reoccurring pain to a chest muscle generally has either one of two causes, and these are: an injury to the body of the muscle, or referred pain from the base of the neck/saddle area.
To diagnose which one of the two is causing the pain you need to firstly check for a muscle injury in the chest muscle.
This is done by allowing the dog to stand comfortably on all four feet, straddling the dog, and by reaching down to the chest muscle from behind the front leg. With the fingers to the inside and the thumb to the outside, very gently feel and palpitate the length of the muscle.
Now surprisingly enough damage in the body of a muscle generally causes minimal pain, and can only be felt by detecting a slightly softer of soggier feel to the injured muscle than it’s mate on the other side of the dog. So check and gently feel both chest muscles and compare the two by how they feel compared to each other.
It’s only when it’s an old injury that has partially healed or one that has re-injured, that you will be able to feel a split in the muscle or a long thin area of scar tissue that feels harder than the surrounding muscle tissue.
If an injury is detected normal healing methods apply, such as ultrasound, laser, or massage and liniment.
If no injury is detected in the body of the muscle you need to check for referred pain.
In this instance again reach for the chest muscle, but grab hold of the muscle area that’s just inside and lightly forward of the inside of the front leg.
With the fingers to the inside surface of the muscle and the thumb to the outside of the muscle, palpitate the muscle by very slightly squeezing it between fingers and thumb, and then slide your thumb backwards and forwards a couple of times.
If you are in the correct area you will elicit a pain response thats far more severe than the slight pressure and thumb rubbing should have caused.
This a why more often than not checking a greyhound for injuries by firmly palpitating and squeezing a muscle instead of gently feeling the consistency of the muscle to find an injury, will elicit a pain response but won’t detect many actual muscle injuries.
The treatment in this case is hot packs to the base of the neck and saddle area, followed by firm massage to both sides of the spine next to the saddle muscles and into the base of the neck. Followed by gently rubbing in a warmth producing liniment, and if the weather is suitable rugging the dog.
Three or four days of this treatment once daily should see the pain in the chest muscles disappear.
Cheers, Tom
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