This week I'm spending some time in the Sports Medicine Department aka Animal Health and Performance Program. They have all kinds of stuff going on at the same time and it's a totally different world than your standard small animal vet med.
Yesterday, I went with the director of the program (he's a vet) up to their breeding and training facility about two hours north of Auburn. They breed Labradors for their training program so there are loads of cute puppies all over the place. These kids pretty much begin training right away. They are put outside in little fenced in areas while the lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed wackers and all kinds of vehicles are going by to get them used to loud noises and such. Then they literally play on one of those plastic play sets with the slide and clubhouse and what not so that they get used to different surfaces. THEN, when they are a few months old, they are temporarily adopted by a prisoner at a local prison in order to help with socialization and again get used to a new environment. Eventually, dogs are trained to do various jobs depending on which studies are going on or what various government agencies need them for. So you've got dogs that can sniff out bombs in war zones, dogs that sniff out narcotics in airports/cars/buildings, dogs that sniff out fungus that's destroying trees, dogs that sniff out boa constrictors in the everglades that used to be someone's pet but got released by their silly owners and it's destroying the whole balance of the ecosystem in that area and loads of other stuff. There were some military veterinarians at the facility checking out dogs to see if they met various physical standards to become military dogs. The dogs had to be radiographed to check for hip dysplasia and various vertebral issues (like an extra lumbar vertebrae that one of the dogs had...whaaaaat?!?) and they also underwent a basic physical exam and had blood drawn for testing. Depending on how dire the need for dogs is in war zones, the leniency of the standards that these dogs have to meet changes. Verrrry interesting.
Today I stayed on campus to see some of the things that they have going on here in Auburn. They have several studies going on with various breeds of dogs that are being trained to do different jobs. First, we went out to see the dogs that were being "roaded". Roading is a form of conditioning in which metal extension bars are attached to golf carts, the bars hang out over the side of the cart and dogs are attached by lines to these bars. The dogs then run along side the cart while it's driven around for various amounts of time. It seems a little harsh at first, but the dogs are constantly monitored for fatigue and signs of overheating. It is imperative that the dogs be in excellent physical condition in order to do their jobs effectively under various conditions.
At the same time, different dogs are being "imprinted". Imprinting is a dog's initial training to learn to recognize and respond to a specific scent (explosives, narcotics, fungus, etc). Studies have shown that dogs can pick up a scent when there are only a few parts per billion in the air they are sniffing. That could mean that something was buried underground or is in some type of container. In order to imprint the dog, they first have to choose a reward. They are given the option of all types of toys...tennis ball, squeaky tennis ball, kong, doodly bopper, whatever. The dogs choose by seeking out a specific toy when a whole bunch are tossed out for them to pick from. During their training, they are given that toy each time they correctly find and respond to a scent. So there's a line of about 6 wooden boxes on the ground with holes in the top. In one box, there is a petri dish holding whatever it is the dog is to be trained to detect. While the dog is learning, the trainer will tell the dog to sit and then give the reward each time the dog sniffs the box with the target scent in it. The boxes are moved around and this whole process is repeated until the dog sniffs the right box and sits on his/her own. During the process, it's important that the person moving the box with the scent in it around touches several boxes so that the dog is not being trained on that person's scent (that's cheating! and it won't help in a real situation). It's also important that a dog be trained on only one scent. An example where it may become a problem is if a dog were trained on narcotics and say...explosives. So Rex (my imaginary scent dog) is sniffing through a parking lot in Shadyville, USA. Rex stops and sits next to the trunk of an abandoned car, good boy Rex! But, the problem is that we don't know if he picked up the scent of explosives or narcotics so his handler may go open the trunk expecting narcotics and have a bomb explode in his face. Not cool. It's also very difficult to UN-train a dog on a scent so you had better be sure you're using the correct scent to train Rex with or you'll be in for loads of additional training to reprogram his nose.
Ok THEN. I went back and worked with a tech doing some rehab on Bob the greyhound (he's owned by the school so I can tell you his name). Bob tore his ACL while doing a running trial back at the end of April. He had TPLO surgery to repair the injury and he has been receiving different types of therapy and his leg has been in a splint. The type of therapy we did today is called TENS therapy- Transcutaneous (through the skin) electrical nerve stimulation. So we put little pads with electrodes on his leg above and below the stifle joint (where the injury occurred) and we turn the electrodes on and increased the intensity of the pulse they emit until we see the muscles actually twitching. This therapy can be used for various things, but our intention was to decrease pain. I'm not going to go in to the whole science of TENS therapy but you can easily do an online search for more info if you're interested. We did two ten minute TENS sessions and did passive range of motion exercises in between. Passive range of motion or PROM is done to assess and potentially increase the movement of a joint without the participation of the patient. Obviously, that last part is more difficult to get an animal to cooperate with, but we do what we can. After being splinted for several weeks, Bob's joints had a significant decrease in their range of motion. In order for him to regain strength and use of his injured leg, his ROM had to be increased. Two points of concern for me were his stifle (obviously, that was where the injury was) and his tarsus. The tarsus is the joint just above the digits that allows the foot to be flexed and extended. Bob's tarsus had decent ROM in regards to flexion but not in extension. This means that he wasn't able to bend his foot forward in order to place it normally, he was basically on his tippy toe on his injured leg. He was already hesitant to put weight on the leg, but not being able to place his foot normally is a further deterrent that needs to be addressed to get him on the road to recovery. Bob got this treatment twice today AND we took his splint off for good, so hopefully he'll think about using that leg a bit more.
I also got to massage another greyhound, Hannah. She's an old lady (11 years old) and is sporadically having issues with hind end weakness and lameness. The radiographs on her did not show any structural issues, so it's unclear what is going on with her. She started out all wide eyed and stiff, giving me weird looks and refusing to sit or lay down while I worked on her front end (I'm used to this initial reaction). But, I just kept working on her non-affected areas to get her used to the massage and to me. I worked my way back to her hips, lumbar area and hind limbs (weird looks and stiffness continue with moments of relaxation). After a few minutes of working on this area, Hannah laid down on her side on the blanket and became as much of a pile of mush as she could be. She had several areas where, when I applied pressure, the entire muscle body would visibly spasm. I did some stretching and some secret ninja massage techniques and was able to significantly reduce the spasming. I also addressed significant tension in her iliopsoas, quadratus lumborum (most fun muscle name EVER--another band name, Kris??), quadriceps and adductor group (Homework: go ahead and look those muscles up...it's time to learn on your own friends). I probably worked on the kid for 45 minutes and she was ASLEEP and having dream twitches. It was adorable and reminded me that, even with every available technology and gadget out there, a good massage can do wonders and, if you know what you're looking for and feeling it can give you loads of information about your patient. I may be a bit biased towards massage given my training in human and small animal massage, but I'm pretty sure Hannah (and Bob, because I massaged him too) would agree with me.
Ok that's all I have time for today. Hopefully, I will get a chance to post about thermographic imaging and zebras later this week. Yes, zebras. Also, kangaroos and polar bears. (Ooooh, now you're on the edge of your seat just WAITING for my next post aren't you???)
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