Rhabdomyolsis

[paulus 26]

Plenty of free running all year round keeps most dogs in semi-fit condition. Mine are more likely to strain a thigh muscle than damage their backs when they get on a tough and unexpected run: and this is due to the type of ground mine run on: steep banks, drops, oozy clay, marshes, woodland etc. Far more dangerous than running around on grass land.

mine when fit free run at least an hour a day as i hate road work, even though the dog was recovering from an injury he had still been back freerunning for at least a fortnight prior to this he wasnt unfit by a large margin, whatever routine i was using needs to be moddified as the only muscles effected were loin and stomache so i need to adjust to put that right

[paulus 26]

Feck I’m agreeing with far to many people, must be getting soft in my old age, I need to go and upset some barfist somewhere lol.

theres a hell of a lot of contradiction on this subject the more i read the more i see, i do know that my conditioning routine will change after this. if you think about it most, me included follow the greyhound routine, when in reality the lurcher does far more than run in a line, so more thought will be put into it in future.

 

Ball on a rope does wonders Paul, the sprint, turn, strike etc. But i have noticed you must start this slowly and build up and only after the dog had had a good walk to warm him through If any of my dogs have a niggling injury it will get worse when doing this. Yet it wont on free running/coursing.

got one yesterday my biggest problem is finding somewhere without the chance of an accidental run

[skycat 6,172]

A fortnight's free running is nowhere near long enough to say that a dog is semi-fit. Not criticizing, just stating a fact. I always used to say, when running hares regularly, that no matter how fit I got my dogs with bike and ball work, they needed at least a dozen good hares to really start coming running fit.

[Moll. 1,769]

Feck I’m agreeing with far to many people, must be getting soft in my old age, I need to go and upset some barfist somewhere lol.

theres a hell of a lot of contradiction on this subject the more i read the more i see, i do know that my conditioning routine will change after this. if you think about it most, me included follow the greyhound routine, when in reality the lurcher does far more than run in a line, so more thought will be put into it in future.

 

Ball on a rope does wonders Paul, the sprint, turn, strike etc. But i have noticed you must start this slowly and build up and only after the dog had had a good walk to warm him through If any of my dogs have a niggling injury it will get worse when doing this. Yet it wont on free running/coursing.

got one yesterday my biggest problem is finding somewhere without the chance of an accidental run

 

Go for a walk there first to warm him up anyway, and make loads of noise, keep him on the lead for the majority of it, so if anything does get up.....

Not fool proof as i have the same problem here, but if you keep going back to the same place at roughly the same time, most animals start to stay away

[paulus 26]

A fortnight's free running is nowhere near long enough to say that a dog is semi-fit. Not criticizing, just stating a fact. I always used to say, when running hares regularly, that no matter how fit I got my dogs with bike and ball work, they needed at least a dozen good hares to really start coming running fit.

he had only been layed up for 3 weeks and he was still doing 4 mile a day on the roads,(2 x 2 miles) he was as fit as he has ever been prior to the leg wound.

[paulus 26]

Feck I’m agreeing with far to many people, must be getting soft in my old age, I need to go and upset some barfist somewhere lol.

theres a hell of a lot of contradiction on this subject the more i read the more i see, i do know that my conditioning routine will change after this. if you think about it most, me included follow the greyhound routine, when in reality the lurcher does far more than run in a line, so more thought will be put into it in future.

 

Ball on a rope does wonders Paul, the sprint, turn, strike etc. But i have noticed you must start this slowly and build up and only after the dog had had a good walk to warm him through If any of my dogs have a niggling injury it will get worse when doing this. Yet it wont on free running/coursing.

got one yesterday my biggest problem is finding somewhere without the chance of an accidental run

 

Go for a walk there first to warm him up anyway, and make loads of noise, keep him on the lead for the majority of it, so if anything does get up.....

Not fool proof as i have the same problem here, but if you keep going back to the same place at roughly the same time, most animals start to stay away

i was doing that when this happened

[sandymere 8,260]

Sometimes sh*t happens no matter how careful we are, I had a track dog nearly kill itself running two hares consecutively in a field I used every day for exercise, over the previously two years it had not even produced a mouse.

I go with Skycat in that I tend to free run my lurchers most days when I go for a run myself, there nothing like galloping around on the beach and sand dunes to tone them up without increasing the risk of injuries to much. Having said that I still give plenty of ball work throughout the year that I increase prior to the season starting to polish them up a little. A big beach and a ball thrower soon sorts it, i'm very lucky where I live.

Edited April 25, 2012 by sandymere

[paulus 26]

after more research i got hold of a copy of `training and racing the greyhound` by darren morris. in the section on acidosis he quotes 3 reasons for the onset of acidosis and recomends vitimin E and creatine as they play a role in how efficently the muscles utilize the oxygen within the muscles.as the shortage of oxygen within performing muscles can indirectly increase the likelyhood of acidosis. creatine helps combat the onset of lactic acid. he also recomends for a dog working hard, a mild kidney tonic such as Neutradex to help flush the natural buildup of muscle waste from the system.

[sandymere 8,260]

Remember rhabdomyolysis isn't lactic acidosis, its destruction of muscle cells through the trauma of use beyond capability and the effects of the chemicals the muscle cells release.

Vit E seems to slow race times in greyhounds and creatine will add very little as it is not stored enough to make a deal of difference after a couple of seconds other than increasing body weight. Increasing body weight will have a negative impact, reducing stamina and thereby brining on the resulting muscle damage even earlier. It's one of those things where the science sounds plausible until you take a closer look. Good diet will give the micro nutrients needed for repair and then a good exercise regime to try to avoid in the future as far as possible.

 

The whole thing with lactic acid was based on some experiments in the 50's on dismembered frogs leg that were given electrical stimulation to make the muscles contract, in time the acid built up to damaging levels, in live animals the lactic acid is part of the energy cycle and more importantly muscle contraction stops well before damage from lactic acid starts. Basically what happens in a living animal is different than what happens in dismembered frogs legs.

Trust your judgment of diet and exercise to bring a good outcome rather than give the credit to a bunch of chemicals when the dog recovers.

[paulus 26]

Remember rhabdomyolysis isn't lactic acidosis, its destruction of muscle cells through the trauma of use beyond capability and the effects of the chemicals the muscle cells release.

Vit E seems to slow race times in greyhounds and creatine will add very little as it is not stored enough to make a deal of difference after a couple of seconds other than increasing body weight. Increasing body weight will have a negative impact, reducing stamina and thereby brining on the resulting muscle damage even earlier. It's one of those things where the science sounds plausible until you take a closer look. Good diet will give the micro nutrients needed for repair and then a good exercise regime to try to avoid in the future as far as possible.

 

The whole thing with lactic acid was based on some experiments in the 50's on dismembered frogs leg that were given electrical stimulation to make the muscles contract, in time the acid built up to damaging levels, in live animals the lactic acid is part of the energy cycle and more importantly muscle contraction stops well before damage from lactic acid starts. Basically what happens in a living animal is different than what happens in dismembered frogs legs.

Trust your judgment of diet and exercise to bring a good outcome rather than give the credit to a bunch of chemicals when the dog recovers.

im just intersested in whats written in gerneral on the subject as im unsure as to the reason he suffered it., the thing is my dog was not really unfit, yes he had his leg stiched up 5 week prior but had still done 4 mile a day road work for 3 weeks and then 2 weeks of 1 hour a day free running aswell. and he was super fit prior to that injury. the other thing is his sire was there aswell, he`s 8 year old. he was a bit sore but recovered after a day or two.

[Guest Moscow]

Paulus what diet/food is was he on prior to this happening?

[paulus 26]

Paulus what diet/food is was he on prior to this happening?

minced chicken/veg/pasta and a cup of complete

[Guest Moscow]

Iam wondering if certain foods have any contribution to dogs suffering acidosis? thats why I asked

[paulus 26]

Iam wondering if certain foods have any contribution to dogs suffering acidosis? thats why I asked

not a lot of actual information out there on the subject, intersesting theory on food though all i will say is for the first 2 weeks of recovery from the leg injury, the amount of raw i feed him was lowered and replaced by complete, but was increased bact to normal for the next 3 weeks.

[skycat 6,172]

They used to call it Monday Morning Sickness in working horses: horses that had stood in their stalls all weekend, being fed the same amount of protein when not working, then the back muscles would seize up when they started work again: also called azoturia.

 

http://patricia-dodd.suite101.com/azoturia-in-horses---a-distressing-syndrome-a216466

 

So yes, diet can play a part in the problem, but I do think that certain dogs are more prone to the problem than others. Dogs with a higher percentage of greyhound blood in their breeding from the sounds of it.