Murphy’s story

Murphy is a 10 year old English Springer Spaniel, when he was four years old one day he was out enjoying his walk when his front leg went down a rabbit hole shattering his left leg. Because the bone was shattered it had to be pinned and plated, he spent three days in the Vets.

It was a very long road to recovery for Murphy with just three x five minute walks a day, it took a year for him to get back to normal exercise and being a Spaniel he did not understand the concept of slowly!

Because of the nature of the break and the way it had to be pinned and plated once his leg healed it was left ever so slightly shorter than his right which resulted in him standing on a lean putting more weight on his right side, leaving him with a prominent limp. Over the years Arthritis developed meaning Murphy could be in a lot of pain, his Vet prescribed pain relief to help him and he also attended Hydrotherapy which helped build up his muscles and fitness.

How Clinical Canine Massage helped Murphy

Murphy would stand on a lean due to his injury which was not only causing him issues with his right shoulder, but had affected other muscles in his body, some of the things he was suffering with were;

• Areas of overcompensation - muscles in the body will work harder than they should do to protect the muscles that are sore, causing them to become fatigued and aching.

• Hypertonic muscles - too much resting tone is present in the muscle, it will appear hard and inflexible and can change a dog’s posture, restricting normal movement. This can present itself as stiffness as full range of movement is not possible, fatigue will also occur as even in rest the muscle will have a state of tension not allowing it to relax.

• Myofascial pain – this is when fascia becomes dysfunctional it can restrict movement and cause muscle weakness and it very painful.

• Trigger points - hyper irritable taut bands of focal point tension, fibres in the muscles remain in a contracted state causing chronic pain and restricted movement.

After three treatments Murphy’s owners reported;

• He was standing straighter

• Hydrotherapy had commented that his reach had improved and that he was not so out of breath

• Improved posture and gait

• Appeared more comfortable

Other features from massage that Murphy benefitted from were improving Venous return and flow of Lymph and stimulating his Parasympathetic Nervous System which is known as Rest and Digest, encouraging him to relax, apparently Murphy would enjoy a restful sleep following his treatment.

Murphy’s owners say that Massage has definitely helped him, he also continues to have maintenance sessions.