What are muscle injuries?

Muscular injuries are common in dogs and any dog regardless of their breed, size, age or activity levels can sustain a muscular injury. Understanding what muscles do, how an injury may occur and how a dog recovers from a muscular injury can help owners to recognise problems early and support their recovery.

What is a muscle?

It might seem an obvious question but have you every stopped to think about what a muscle is and what it does?

There are three different types of muscle tissue – Skeletal, Smooth and Cardiac and for this blog we are going to concentrate on skeletal muscle.

Dogs have approximately 700 skeletal muscles that are attached to about 320 bones – this is dependent on the length of their tail and these muscles account for approximately 45% of a dog’s body weight.

The structure of muscle tissue is complicated. Individual muscle cells called myofibrils are bundled together into a sarcolemma and a sarcolemma is bundled together to form a fascicles. Fascicles are further bundled together to form the main belly of the muscle. All of these individual components are wrapped in fascia - a highly sensitive connective tissue. Each muscle tapers down at each end into a tendon and it is the tendons that attach the muscle to the bones. Within each myofibril are proteins called Actin and Myosin and these proteins bridge together to cause a contraction. When all of these components collectively contract the muscle contacts as a whole.

The main function of skeletal muscle is to create movement but it has other functions too – it helps to maintain posture, they generate heat and they provide stability to joints (alongside other structures).

Muscles require a constant supply of oxygen, nutrients and nerve signals in order to function normally and when there is an injury to a muscle these are often disrupted.

Types of muscle injuries in dogs.

Muscle injuries can vary in type and severity. Some may occur suddenly during an activity and others may develop slowly. More than one injury can occur at once and when an injury happens the tissue becomes damaged. This damage can occur in the following ways:

• Strain – the muscle fibres are stretched beyond their normal capacity and will often tear, either partially or fully

• Muscle contusions (bruising) – bleeding within the muscle tissue – usually due to trauma.

• Trigger Points – hyper irritable bands of focal point tension where the muscle fibres remain in a contracted state.

• Adhesions – bands of painful scar tissue that build up and cause muscle fibres and fascia to adhere (stick) together resulting in restricted movement.

• Spasms – a sudden involuntary and painful contraction of a muscle causing it to tighten.

• Hypertonicity – an abnormal increase in muscle tone

• Hypotonicity – an abnormal decrease in muscle tone

• Atrophy – a loss of muscle fibres within the muscle resulting in a decrease in size, strength and mobility of a muscle.

How do injuries occur?

There are many reasons why a muscle may injure, including:

• Sudden sprinting, jumping or intense activity

• Slipping during play or exercise – uneven terrain, slippery floors

• Overexertion during training or sporting activities

• Trauma such as collision or falls

• Poor conditioning

• Fatigue

• Lack of warm-up before exercise

• Previous injury or weakness in surrounding tissues

What are the benefits of clinical canine massage in dogs with muscular injuries?

Clinical canine Massage is an excellent modality in helping dogs with muscular injuries. Massage focuses on the health or muscles and other soft tissues and when performed by a trained therapist it can help to support recovery by:

• Improving circulation, helping to deliver oxygen and nutrients and removing waste metabolites

• Aiding lymphatic drainage – reducing swelling

• Reducing muscular tension, stiffness and spasms

• Breaking down adhesions

• Releasing trigger points

• Improving flexibility, joint range of motion and movement

• Encouraging relaxation so reducing discomfort

• Reducing pain

  
  

Massage treatments are targeted to a dog’s specific needs and improvements to a dog’s muscular health, pain management, mobility and exercise levels are often achieved in just 1 – 3 sessions. In clinical trials with Winchester University 95% of dogs responded positively to clinical canine massage therapy and typically improvements are seen after the 1st treatment.

In the next few blogs I will delve a little deeper into these muscular injuries in a little more detail, explaining what they are and how massage can help.