SMART clinic first visit

Well yesterday was our first visit at the SMART clinic in cardiff (www.smartvetwales.co.uk) and here is how we got on:

Jemma:
Well she went just because I wasn't happy with the extension in her hips. What they found was that this is because her abdomonal and intercostal muscles are tight, but they also found that she has an s shape when she stands - ie she doesn't weight bear evenly and that her muscles aren't evenly developed, apparently this runs right from the tip of her nose to the base of her tail and it is not a very common problem. She weight bears in the front end and has very little weight in the back end. Also when she walks she puts more weight on oneside but this is opposite to when she is standing and she stands rotated as well as uneven with her weight!!! Apparently because of this uneven weight distripution she finds it very difficult to turn corners/do circles and this is probably why we have had so many problems in obedience with her turns!! They also looked at her carpal joints and were shocked at how little range of motion she has in them and said if I hadn't done anything about it she would probably be lame on them within a year/18months and there is nothing they can do to fix them, scary thought!!!! They reckon she is going to be an interesting case to follow!! After assessing her she had some acupuncutre which she wasn't very impressed about to start with put soon just went to sleep in the corner!! She then went on the water treadmill to see how she really walks, and this just enhanced what they had seen outside - when she did it properly!! She did get the hang of it quite quickly but then thought she would try and cheat by putting her feet on the bit that wasn't moving, cheeky madam!! I have been given some exercises for her to do at home which involve slow walking and weight shifting exercises and we are back again next week!

Elliot:
Well, where to start, mr elliot has lots of problems!!! He has very little muscle and what muscle he does have has very little tone. When walking and infact with most of his movement they said he tucks his bum up and almost looks like he is going for a poo!! His main area of pain/tightness is his neck and shoulders and apparently it has been known before that this can cause hind leg problems so for now this is his main area of focus for the work that we are doing. However after his acupuncture, when he went in the water treadmill he was extremely unco-ordinated and couldn't do it, he kept trying to sit down when it was moving and they had to keep it very slow because he wasn't striding out very much bless him!! There is a slight concern that there is a neurological cause but for now we are goin to do the same sort of exercises as for jemma but with shorter periods of walking. This walking will be on a new harness they have given me which comes in front of his chest and you control from both sides so as to try and get him walking without pulling so he puts less strain on his neck/shoulders - this is probably why he hated the head collars so much!! Apparently neck tightness is quite a common thing in epileptic dogs, but they aren't normally this bad at the back end!! I have also been told to get him to have a massage on his neck/shoulders in the next few days.