East Midlands Clinical Canine Massage & Rehabilitation Therapies

22/12/2024

🎄Wishing all my clients, both human and four-legged- a very Happy Christmas!

🐾 It’s been a wonderful year and as always it’s been a massive pleasure and honour to work with your dogs.

I look forward to seeing you in 2025.

🙏 Thank you for your continued support

21/12/2024

✨My role as your dog’s Canine Musculoskeletal Therapist✨

I will always say I have the best job in the world, and I do. It’s a calling and a blessing to work with your dog and I will always consider myself so lucky to have the best job ever.

You may see me treating your dog at the Clinic but did you also know there’s many facets to my role as your dog’s therapist? My commitment as your dog’s musculoskeletal therapist is to be the best therapist I possibly can be for your dog and as such I’m always trying to enhance my skills & knowledge.

~Last year I did over 800 hours of Continued Professional Learning in canine studies mainly in canine osteopathy, veterinary pain practitioner course and other techniques. With next year new practitioner programs planned.

~We’ve also just set a local association for canine professionals for physios and musculoskeletal therapists so we can enhance and share our knowledge to improve clinical outcomes for your dog.

~ I spend hours a week liaising with other canine professionals including your Vet, so your dog will have the best possible all round care.

~Hours researching new products/equipment to update my clinic to try to improve treatments/rehab programs

~ Work with clinical vet behaviorists/behaviourists to ensure your dog can settle in a clinic environment so your nervous/anxious dog can deal and process the treatment sessions, giving each dog the respect and space to settle into their sessions.

My commitment as your dog’s musculoskeletal therapist is provide the best treatment and care I can within my scope of practice.

🙏For trusting me and allowing me to treat your dogs.










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21/12/2024

Does your dog get enough sleep?

🌲Christmas can be a stressful time for dogs, especially if there’s significant changes in household activities. New routines/activities, heightened noise, and different people in the household; all this can lead to stress and sleep deprivation for your dog. According to the Kennel Club 40 % of owners notice a change in their dog’s mood during the Christmas period and sleep deprivation can be a major cause of this

✨How you can help your dog to get sufficient quality sleep at Christmas time ?

Adequate and quality sleep is crucial for a dogs' physical health and cognitive function. Part of this comes down to creating a comfortable sleeping environment that will help your dog to sleep well.
To help ensure your dog sleeps well, you can:-

💤 Provide a cosy bed or crate that is suitable for their size and breed, and ensure this is away from noise and other distractions. Let them have a break and a quiet space away from all the festive activities.

💤 Consider an orthopedic bed that gives them the right amount of comfort and support. A true orthopedic dog bed must be able to conform to the dog’s body, distributing their weight evenly across the surface. This eliminates pressure points on the joints, helping to relieve the pain

✨How much sleep does my dog need?
💤Dogs require a significant amount of sleep, even more than we do. However, the total amount of sleep a dog needs can vary depending on a range of factors. Puppies need around 11 hours a day and adult dogs between 8.5-13 hours, senior dogs may need more.

Did you know that sleep deprivation and poor quality sleep can escalate your dog’s pain?
if your dog is in pain and suffering from painful conditions such as osteoarthritis, consider that they need adequate and good quality sleep. Let sleeping dogs, sleep!

💤 Heightened Pain Sensitivity
Researchers have found that lack of sleep causes low levels of a neurotransmitter called N-arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA) within an area of the brain called the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), resulting in heightened pain sensitivity, medically known as hyperalgesia.

💤 Lowering Dopamine Levels
During sleep deprivation part of the brain which is responsible for dopamine production becomes suppressed lowering the levels. Low dopamine levels in your dog can make them less motivated, is linked to depression, and It is associated with escalating the responses of pain.

💤 Increase Joint Inflammation/Accelerate Joint Damage
Not only can joint pain cause sleep loss, but sleep deprivation makes joint pain worse, and can even accelerate joint damage. Allowing your dog to get a deep restful sleep is crucial for helping to reduce inflammation; it lowers the levels of inflammatory proteins in the blood that have been implicated in OA pathogenesis.

💤 Lowers Your Dogs Immunity
Sleep deprivation means your dog’s immune system doesn’t have the chance to repair. Low immunity reduces the protective cytokines and infection-fighting antibodies which are important proteins and essential for fending off pathogens that can lead to disease.

🙏Many thanks to Lauren Davis - The Sleep Vet

20/12/2024

✨Susceptibility to arthritis ✨

Arthritis tends to be a genetic condition; a dog is more likely to develop it if either of their parents had it. As well as genetics, possible causes include:-

* Obesity, which puts additional pressure on a dog’s joints
* Over-exercising, especially on hard surfaces or when the movement is repetitive
* Old injuries e.g. a previous car accident or bone fracture,
* Underlying joint disease such as Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia or OCD
* Some breeds are more predisposed to arthritis, including the German Shepherd and Labrador Retrievers
* Senior dogs are to be affected. According to Canine Arthritis Management it affects 80% of dogs over the age of 8 years old

🤔If you are worried about your dog and want advice on how you can help your arthritic dog please get in touch

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

17/12/2024

Think Pip enjoyed her treatment today 💤

16/12/2024

Obesity in dogs is can be a great health problem. Excess weight not only puts pressure on your dog’s heart & lungs, but also increases the risk of developing osteoarthritis and joint degeneration, leading to poor mobility and pain.
🙏Canine Arthritis Management for this post

Obese patients have more pain than normal weight patients
(Elma et al., 2022).

Elma, Ö., Brain, K., & D**g, H. J. (2022). The Importance of Nutrition as a Lifestyle Factor in Chronic Pain Management: A Narrative Review. Journal of clinical medicine, 11(19), 5950. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11195950

Large clinical cohort studies identified that obese patients had, in general, a worse pain profile than the normal weight patients, for example, a higher pain intensity, an increased pain interference, and more constant pain.

The term 'malnutrition' conjures up motivating images of emaciation and poor welfare. But malnutrition also includes overweight and obesity, where there is less attention to action. Strange!

15/12/2024

✨Is Your Dog In Pain? ✨
Dogs can be in pain for a variety of reasons, be it injury or illness. When the pain is due to an injury or trauma it’s often easy to see where the problem lies. Broken bones, cuts and scrapes, torn ears, bleeding paw pads, injured eyes etc. are pretty obvious. However sometimes the cause of pain is not so obvious when it’s chronic pain, or as we call it maladaptive pain.

Chronic Pain in dogs can often be overlooked. This is pain that has been ongoing for awhile, such as arthritis in dogs.

Dogs are very stoic animals and hide their pain very well, so it’s important to learn to recognise even the most subtle signs of pain. We need to get to get away from this myth that if your dog is not crying whimpering or whining that they are not in pain.

If you’re worried that your dog is in pain I run a CAM Veterinary musculoskeletal pain assessment clinic the first Saturday of the month which includes:-

* palpation of muscles and joints, assessment of joints at rest and during movement/exercise, posture & gait analysis

* Completion of observation-based owner questionnaires and clinical measurement instruments (CMIs) to assess your dog’s pain.

* Advice on environmental changes, diet, activity, and exercise regimes.

* Weight and Body Score Check & Measurements, & weight management advice.

* Advice on OA and management

*Ongoing advice & support.

For the treatment of pain, a multimodal approach is necessary. A full report to your dogs vet and behaviourist (if applicable) is issued.

If you’re worried your dog may in pain, and would like advice, and/or wish to book a musculoskeletal pain assessment by a CAM veterinary pain practitioner, my details are below. ⬇️
I’m here to help.

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

14/12/2024

✨My dog isn’t in pain - but consider that they may be!

Many Owners tell me that their dogs aren’t in pain, but often they are missing the subtle signs of chronic pain and are in denial.

Some of the answers I get when asking my clients to consider that their dog may be in pain include:-

* My dog isn’t in pain, I have just run 10 miles with them
* My dog isn’t in pain, they are not vocalising
* My dog isn’t in pain they are still playing and chasing the ball
* My dog isn’t in pain we’ve just spent the weekend competing in agility
* My dog isn’t in pain, they’ve been playing with the grandchildren all weekend.

✨And my favourite✨
* My dog isn’t in pain, they would tell me!!

And the list goes on!
Now I understand what you’re saying really. How can my dog be in pain if they can do all these activities? Surely they wouldn’t? But YES they would. Consider though your dog could be in pain and still do all these activities.

Now please don’t go away thinking that ALL dogs are in pain and that you must book a visit to your Vets straight away to get your dog checked, all I’m asking is for you to be aware of pain and look for subtle changes in your dogs such as:-

* Struggles when jumping on/off furniture, reshuffles to make the jump/ has near misses/ or is even unable to perform this jump)

* Gait Change (e.g. slower, stiffer, shorter strides, sways hips when walking, lameness, skip in a stride, bunny hopping, unsteadiness)

* Posture and Physical Appearance Change (e.g. losing weight of back end, pulls hind limbs under torso, saggy topline, roached back, overdeveloped shoulder and chest region)

* Capability Change (e.g. slowing down on walks, not able to perform daily tasks like they use to)

⬇️⬇️⬇️
Please remember that pain is what the patient perceives, and physicians should assume that patients experience more pain than they observe (Verson et Al., 2014).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC425

✨If you’re worried that your dog may have musculoskeletal pain and wish to book an assessment or want advice, I run a Veterinary Canine Arthritis Management musculoskeletal pain assessment clinic the first Saturday of the month, my details are below. ⬇️
I’m here to help.

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

13/12/2024

What is Clinical Canine Massage?

Clinical Canine Massage is a holistic therapy that treats the dog’s entire body, ensuring that all potential injuries are identified and any areas of overcompensation or referred pain are also treated.
It provides numerous benefits, although massage works primarily on the skin & muscular system, it influences all of the dogs physiological systems.

The key benefits are:-
* Non-invasive therapy
* Reduces pain - by releasing endorphins (the body’s own morphine-like chemicals) into the bloodstream causing relaxation and pain relief with none of the side effects of a medications
* Improves mobility
* Reduces lameness
* Alleviates stiffness & lameness associated with orthopaedic conditions
* Works either as a standalone therapy or alongside others like hydro and acupuncture as part of pain management

To find out more about my services please visit my website;
🌐 https://www.emccm.co.uk

🌍 Based in Nottingham and covering surrounding counties; Derby, Leicester, Lincoln., Northampton.

If you would like to book or discuss how I can help your dog, my details are below. ⬇️

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

12/12/2024

✨ Coat Changes in your Dog & Myofascia Pain
Does your dog’s coat flick up in a place it doesn’t usually? This can be an indication of localised pain in the fascia known a Myofascia Pain

🐕‍🦺 This is Cooper. He has Myofascia restrictions exhibiting as altered coat patterns around the areas of his caudal thoracic and lumbar regions; (please see red arrows in photo). The multifidi muscles are in this region and are often referred to as the erector spinae muscles, their function is to fix and rotate the vertebral column.

If you look at the photo on the left, this is before treatment and you can see the wavy coat patterns. These “coat flicks” are an indication for Cooper that these muscles are tight and he has reduced function/mobility in his thoracic/lumbar spine.

The photo on the right is after direct myofascia release techniques, these muscles have been lengthened and have greater elasticity improving mobility within the vertebral column.

✨What is Myofascia?
Myofascia is a network of connective tissue that spreads throughout the entire body. It connects your muscles, joints, and bones. It also provides support to your organs, helping to keep your dog mobile and healthy. It has an amazing qualities, involved in proprioception, the body's sense of its position in space, and nociception, the sensing of pain, I could go on and on regarding the amazing qualities of fascia ….. and then on some more!

✨And myofascia pain…
Myofascia pain is a condition originating from a muscle (often groups of muscles) and surrounding fascia and is common among canine patients with musculoskeletal dysfunctions such as arthritis, trauma, surgery and often arises as “overuse” or compensatory issues due to a musculoskeletal dysfunction.

✨Why do these coat patterns occur ?
These patterns often form in the dogs coat and can mirror the shape of an “injured” muscle and restricted fascia underneath the skin. If the fascia is being pulled, sore or dysfunctional, then the overlying coat hair will be affected and then the dogs coat can look like it's not lying completely flat, it can look curly, it can stand up, it can have a kick, or in some cases it can be unusually flat.

✨What does this mean for my dog?
Coat changes can often signify an underlying source of dysfunction, either with the muscle and other soft tissues or the joint, or both.
Often accompanying muscle knots called trigger points can cause areas of coat changes or coat kicks, either over the area or close by. Often this is accompanied by your dogs skin twitching, juddering or flinching.

✨How can you help your dog with Myofascia Pain?
Clinical Massage can help. As a Canine Musculoskeletal Therapist, I’ve been trained in Myofascia Release Techniques (MFR); direct/indirect.
These techniques work by creating distance and space in the connective tissues so the fascia can ‘slide and glide’ allowing mobility and fluidity in the fascia. The ultimate result of improving mobility and reducing chronic pain in your dog.

Canine Massage Guild therapists are trained in the Lenton Method™ of myofascial release techniques. The Lenton Method™ has been validated by Wi******er University and Sparsholt University in the world’s first ever clinical trials in canine massage therapy.

If you would like to book or discuss how massage can help your dog, my details are below. ⬇️

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

11/12/2024

Drakey loving his Christmas maintenance session

09/12/2024

After a busy day of treatments, think I’m being told I’ve one more !

09/12/2024

Ellie Hopewell-Brassington relaxed for her treatment today at East Midlands Clinical Canine Massage & Rehabilitation Therapies

09/12/2024

Canine Osteoarthritis .
Now the colder months are here, you may notice your dog struggling more. Have you considered they may be showing signs of osteoarthritis.

Canine osteoarthritis is a progressive and debilitating disease affecting approximately 20% of the canine population and up to 80% of patients over 8 years old It requires continual assessment with appropriate updating and modification to the treatment plan as the disease evolves.

OA is characterised by inflammation of the synovium, degeneration of cartilage and formation of osteophytes at joint margins. Clinically, it manifests as stiffness or lameness due to joint pain and on clinical exam veterinarians may notice a reduced range of motion, joint effusion, muscle wastage and thickening of the joint.

There are many ways to manage osteoarthritis and a multimodal approach is necessary for the best outcome for the patient. The goals of managing arthritis are:-

-Recognising the clinical signs as early as possible in the disease process
-Alleviating the dog’s discomfort and avoiding sensory ‘wind up’
-Minimising the occurrence of further degenerative changes
-Restoring the affected joint/joints to as near a normal and pain free function as possible

If you think your dog may have arthritis or you’d like advice, please get in touch.

I’m here to help.

📧 [email protected]
📞 07418 082 240

References
Johnston SA. Osteoarthritis. Joint anatomy, physiology and pathobiology. Veterinary Clinics of North America. Small Animal Practice 1997; 27: 699-

08/12/2024

What to do on my day off! A bit of scent work of course !

Most of you know it’s a passion of mine to get us all “to do stuff with our dogs”

Over the years my dog and I have participated in various activities. We’ve achieved great things in agility and Canicross. But as my dog is now approaching her senior years we’ve had to replace these physically demanding sports with hoopers, mantrailing, scentwork and gundog training.

So why not try scentwork?
Not only does it help keep your dogs brain active, and improve the bond with your dog(s), it’s a great way to mentally stimulate them and great when your dog is on restricted walks or after surgery

🙏to Aura from Belvoir Paws and Claws for the last few months of scent work training and to all the other amazing trainers that have helped us on our sporting journey