Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How spinal cord injury affects side paw placement in dogs
By Hamilton, Lindsay et al.·Published in BMC veterinary research·2008·Department of Veterinary Medicine, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Quantification of deficits in lateral paw positioning after spinal cord injury in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with a spinal cord injury was observed to have trouble with the positioning of its back paws while walking. Researchers found that dogs with these injuries had more variability in how they placed their feet compared to healthy dogs. Interestingly, the study showed that even if a dog had a complete or incomplete injury, the way they coordinated their limbs and placed their paws could recover independently. This information could help veterinarians better understand how to treat dogs recovering from spinal cord injuries.
People also search for: dog spinal cord injury recovery · dog paw positioning problems · treatment for dog walking issues
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous analysis of the behavioural effects of spinal cord injury has focussed on coordination in the sagittal plane of movement between joints, limb girdle pairs or thoracic and pelvic limb pairs. In this study we extend the functional analysis of the consequences of clinical thoracolumbar spinal cord injury in dogs to quantify the well-recognised deficits in lateral stability during locomotion. Dogs have a high centre of mass thereby facilitating recognition of lateral instability. RESULTS: We confirm that errors in lateral positioning of the pelvic limb paws can be quantified and that there is a highly significant difference in variability of foot placement between normal and spinal cord injured dogs. In this study there was no detectable difference in lateral paw positioning variability between complete and incomplete injuries, but it appears that intergirdle limb coordination and appropriate lateral paw placement recover independently from one another. CONCLUSION: Analysis of lateral paw position in the dog provides an additional tier of analysis of outcome after spinal cord injury that will be of great value in interpreting the effects of putative therapeutic interventions.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19032742/