21/05/2024
Meet young Missy - a 7 month old cross breed bitch, a sweet natured young, wrinkly foreheaded thing with a nervous disposition and a rather large problem for such a young dog.
Missy was a rescue dog, born and raised in the rescue centre and spayed at 8 weeks before she was released to her forever home.
She was brought into my canine clinic a couple of weeks ago because her owner had been told that canine osteopathy could help with her pooches incontinence problem, and to be sure, we did!
At first the lovely new owners thought that she had just got puppy issues of uncontrolled p*eing- on the couch in the evening and always wetting her bed in the crate overnight. It soon became apparent that this was a little more than ‘puppy potty training”
A veterinarian suggested lifelong hormone therapy and whilst it can be an effective intervention it does little to address the often underlying causes
Of the incontinence. Please do not take this as a vet bashing paper, this is far from my intention,vets do an incredible job! It is just my hope to educate people not just about the effects of early spaying on the bladder or the overall health of your dog but the why and how Osteopathic treatment and mindfulness practice can help.
The nerve supply of the bladder is fairly complicated in dogs primarily being supplied by nerves emerging from the upper lumbar spine and sacrum.Simply put anything that affects these areas of the spine may effect the functioning of the bladder. What complicates the picture is that the bladder is also supplied by sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nerves( our flight, fight or freeze primal survival reactions)which in a nutshell means that the bladder is majorly functionally affected by Trauma, fear and excitement.
It’s not really rocket science to see that majorly invasive surgical intervention at such an early age would have impactful implications. Imagine a female human baby having a complete hysterectomy at 8 weeks of age. The outcry!!
The full biopsychosocial impact of spaying an 8 week old dog is a bit beyond this article but please rest assured that the impact is massive. Of course it may vary depending on the sensitivity of the dog,breed, the care of the veterinary surgeon etc .
Let's look at this from a holistic viewpoint for a minute.
Firstly from a physical viewpoint the puppy will be sedated when it has only just arrived here in the world, the invasion of injections, drugs, surgery…… Whilst the mind might not remember the events of surgery be absolutely sure that body tissue will hold the perfect memory of the intervention. The contraction of fascia in fear based response to threat The tightening of core muscles(cowering) Fascilitation of the sympathetic nerve supply to the bladder meaning that the dog will p*e itself more easily just like any scared person, hence the saying ”I pi**ed myself”.
Also visualize the scars created in an 8 week old puppy. Scars don’t stretch, the puppy will literally grow around its scars.
Now from an emotional point of view imagine a tiny puppy having been taken away from its mother, it’s carers and put into a surgical situation where it has no safe person or animal with it. It doesn’t matter how nice the vet or vet nurse is at this point the puppy is in a very scary alien environment and it has no idea that it will survive, the trauma may be and often is completely overwhelming and may have a very powerful emotional, physical and mental implications. I see this alot in my practice.
Mentally the puppy may now step into overthinking, looking for danger everywhere,becoming hypervigilant, essentially similar to human PTSD.
I dare to call it spiritually but it steps into the realm of other…..A few moons ago a wonderful author called Peter Levine wrote an illuminating book called ‘Waking the tiger” it talks about how the spirit can leave the body in the event of trauma. Psychologist call it dissociation. It is a way in which beings can escape their bodies in the advent of catastrophic events to avoid feeling the full impact of trauma. It is a wonderful mechanism but the problem with it is that if the being survives the trauma the memory of the event is absent. Healing is a homeostatic mechanism which happens when the body recognizes that something ‘unhelpful’ has occurred, it sets about to rectify the imbalance. The body has innate and possibly infinite ability to heal itself. The problem arises as in most illnesses and disease when the body doesn’t realize that it has a problem and so its autofix doesn’t kick in.
Enter osteopath and trust technique practitioner.
My role is to first and foremost create a safe environment for my patient. It is so very important not to force any treatment or intervention. The first job is to create a peaceful environment in which an animal and their human can feel safe and relax. I use mindfulness to create the feeling of safety and a process of regarding the animal to hear all of their reasons why they can’t possibly be peaceful. This dance between inviting them to be peaceful and then listening to why they can't be will eventually result in a relaxed animal that builds trust and confidence in me. We can then get hands on. So often associated with bladder issues there will be a significant sacral disturbance which can be corrected gently using a variety of techniques from articulation, mobilization, fascial release, cranio-sacral therapy. Upper lumbar spinal dysfunction or segmental facilitation needs to be addressed and then there is the more global effects of fear and trauma to work with.
I feel nervous to talk about this aspect but I will. The spiritual abandonment of the body during and after trauma is a very real thing but as a scientifically minded person it is a difficult thing to quantify. However after many years of experience in the field including studying and implementing shamanic healing(the oldest form of healing known to man) I am feeling brave enough, at last to talk about the subject. Robert Bly once described newborns as 360 degree beings. Describing a gradual process of loss of self as a process of traumatic events affecting our lives. As a therapist I see part of my role is to reinstate the 360 degree view. Basically I am encouraging the spirit to re-embody, to become aware. Awareness is the key to healing. Once the body is aware it can rectify itself.
This is the story of Missy and how she regained self awareness, the rest as they say is history. After 2 treatments she is no longer having accidents on the couch or in her bed at night. I do just want to add however that sometimes things can appear worse before they get better, this is all part of the increased awareness and not a worsening of symptoms but it can so often be a reason why people quit treatment too early.
I have spent almost a lifetime studying, practising and perfecting my art and I look forward to helping you and your beloved pets
