Rhabdo update.

[sandymere 8,263]

Its nice to have something positive to report, this is the 1^st season, for a few, where I’ve not had lads contacting me about dogs with Rhabdomyolysis, perhaps its just luck or maybe I’ve not posted on about it for a while so my name is less synonymous with it as it was, whatever it may be I thought it might be time to do an update.

Hopefully these days the majority of owners know what it is, a serious condition leading to a long lay off or even death, and how to avoid it as much as possible, but that wasn’t always the case. Historically it was called acidosis or running a dogs back off amongst other things and the symptoms were put down to various things like bursting a blood vessel in the bladder, the red or brown urine, or the loss of back and thigh muscles being put down to a build up of lactic acid killing the muscles etc. I personally started writing about it around 10 years ago and although it took a while its seriousness and management is now hopefully well known.

These days we know the red/brown urine is from a substance called myoglobin that is released as the muscle cell membranes rupture and that the muscle loss is due to large amounts of muscle tissue death due to cell wall breakdown. This is brought about by a build up of electrolytes within the muscle cells, mainly calcium, due to a failure in the ion transport system within the cell; it’s an effect of extreme activity and is exacerbated by heat, in simple terms muscles have a breaking point.

Thankfully this is not something I’ve seen in my dogs since I was a lad and in many cases it is avoidable but occasionally, especially at the beginning of the season when it’s a bit warmer, a dog will get behind something that is just a little beyond its fitness and as with the nature of sighthounds they will push their barriers and suffer the consequences.  Heavily muscled dogs tend to have a slightly increased risk likely due to the heat the muscles create due to their increased volume. Once dogs are fit then the incidence drops off and as long as owners are sensible then it should be a rare event.

Most of us know our dogs and how they are doing, we can see the early signs that they’re approaching their limits, we know when to call it a day or night but not everyone does and alas some are more interested in the numbers than the dog. Often in these avoidable cases the problem is with owners that either ignore or just don’t underhand the signs and so through their lack of experience or plain disinterest bring their dogs to the point of suffering unnecessarily with Rhabdo. Thankfully I’m well past the stage of needing big numbers of rabbits  to get some validation, just as well with current shortage of  my way,  and even as a lad I didn’t feel any great need, in truth I would rather have watched a couple of good runs on hares than 50 lamped rabbits but each to their own.

I’m certainly not saying there’s anything wrong with wanting numbers or pushing your dog to get it to its full potential but when you’re going for it you need to make sure the dog is ready to go for it as well. It needs to be conditioned to the task and the owner needs to watch for the possibility that it is struggling and know when to stop, we prove nothing by running our dogs into the ground. There’s a big difference between pushing a dog to achieve its full potential and running a dog into Rhabdo, decent stockmen get to know the signs their dogs are approaching the red line and hopefully we all strive to be decent stockmen and women.  Super fit dogs can perform superlative feats but how many of us really have super fit dogs? When the supposedly experienced ones run a dog into rhabdomyolysis then they need to consider if their vanity in getting the numbers is worth the dogs suffering and potential death?

Good hunting Sandymere.

 

A little further reading.

Rhabdomyolosis and its pathogenesis

WWW.NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV

---

Rhabdomyolysis may cause severe damage to the human body because of acute renal failure, fatal heart rhythm disturbances, hypovolemic shock, disturbances...

 

 

[mC HULL 16,679]

Get one a them galagos on back of a winter hare or 2 this time a year it will return lol tied up lol 

give them abit milk when back keep an eye on piss normally return to  normal keeps pissing blood your in trouble 

[Black neck 17,778]

2 hours ago, sandymere said:

Its nice to have something positive to report, this is the 1^st season, for a few, where I’ve not had lads contacting me about dogs with Rhabdomyolysis, perhaps its just luck or maybe I’ve not posted on about it for a while so my name is less synonymous with it as it was, whatever it may be I thought it might be time to do an update.

Hopefully these days the majority of owners know what it is, a serious condition leading to a long lay off or even death, and how to avoid it as much as possible, but that wasn’t always the case. Historically it was called acidosis or running a dogs back off amongst other things and the symptoms were put down to various things like bursting a blood vessel in the bladder, the red or brown urine, or the loss of back and thigh muscles being put down to a build up of lactic acid killing the muscles etc. I personally started writing about it around 10 years ago and although it took a while its seriousness and management is now hopefully well known.

These days we know the red/brown urine is from a substance called myoglobin that is released as the muscle cell membranes rupture and that the muscle loss is due to large amounts of muscle tissue death due to cell wall breakdown. This is brought about by a build up of electrolytes within the muscle cells, mainly calcium, due to a failure in the ion transport system within the cell; it’s an effect of extreme activity and is exacerbated by heat, in simple terms muscles have a breaking point.

Thankfully this is not something I’ve seen in my dogs since I was a lad and in many cases it is avoidable but occasionally, especially at the beginning of the season when it’s a bit warmer, a dog will get behind something that is just a little beyond its fitness and as with the nature of sighthounds they will push their barriers and suffer the consequences.  Heavily muscled dogs tend to have a slightly increased risk likely due to the heat the muscles create due to their increased volume. Once dogs are fit then the incidence drops off and as long as owners are sensible then it should be a rare event.

Most of us know our dogs and how they are doing, we can see the early signs that they’re approaching their limits, we know when to call it a day or night but not everyone does and alas some are more interested in the numbers than the dog. Often in these avoidable cases the problem is with owners that either ignore or just don’t underhand the signs and so through their lack of experience or plain disinterest bring their dogs to the point of suffering unnecessarily with Rhabdo. Thankfully I’m well past the stage of needing big numbers of rabbits  to get some validation, just as well with current shortage of  my way,  and even as a lad I didn’t feel any great need, in truth I would rather have watched a couple of good runs on hares than 50 lamped rabbits but each to their own.

I’m certainly not saying there’s anything wrong with wanting numbers or pushing your dog to get it to its full potential but when you’re going for it you need to make sure the dog is ready to go for it as well. It needs to be conditioned to the task and the owner needs to watch for the possibility that it is struggling and know when to stop, we prove nothing by running our dogs into the ground. There’s a big difference between pushing a dog to achieve its full potential and running a dog into Rhabdo, decent stockmen get to know the signs their dogs are approaching the red line and hopefully we all strive to be decent stockmen and women.  Super fit dogs can perform superlative feats but how many of us really have super fit dogs? When the supposedly experienced ones run a dog into rhabdomyolysis then they need to consider if their vanity in getting the numbers is worth the dogs suffering and potential death?

Good hunting Sandymere.

 

A little further reading.

Rhabdomyolosis and its pathogenesis

WWW.NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV

---

Rhabdomyolysis may cause severe damage to the human body because of acute renal failure, fatal heart rhythm disturbances, hypovolemic shock, disturbances...

 

 

No chance o mine gerrin that

[mC HULL 16,679]

Can still happen no matter how conditioned a dog is things happen like a gruelling run you might get once a year or dog go’s off one on to another sometimes they have pushed there self to the limited no stockman ship can stop that unless you molly coddle you don’t no how long that next hare is going to go lol 

[Kalibrgun 1,234]

I've only had it once an old import saluki I got gifted had a good 4 min course killed her hare then on the way back to us another lifted she had a grueller about 5 min killing that one I got to the bitch she found a puddle and laid in it started pissing blood after. she came right in the end but I always carry a mars bar and kids fruit shoot bottle with electrolytes in for them just in case they go jelly legged 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Kalibrgun

[Kalibrgun 1,234]

8 minutes ago, mC HULL said:

Can still happen no matter how conditioned a dog is things happen like a gruelling run you might get once a year or dog go’s off one on to another sometimes they have pushed there self to the limited no stockman ship can stop that unless you molly coddle you don’t no how long that next hare is going to go lol 

Just one of them things no man can tell if the next hare is going to the whole hog dragging the dog about for the next 10 min i wish I could tell if be picking the 30/40 sec runs

[mC HULL 16,679]

3 minutes ago, Kalibrgun said:

I've only had it once an old import saluki I got gifted had a good 4 min course killed her hare then on the way back to us another lifted she had a grueller about 5 min killing that one I got to the bitch she found a puddle and laid in it started pissing blood a few min after she came right in the end but I always carry a mars bar and kids fruit shoot bottle with electrolytes in for them just in case they go jelly legged 

I’ve had both dogs lol from just going darkish to blood 

little bitch had one 5 minutes then with in 20secs on a fallow in distance few minutes later she trying it not stop but it was to strong she had blood that time over ten mins running can do that lol

 

 

[mC HULL 16,679]

This bitch wasn’t jelly legged just pissing blood shed would of gone again in 5 mins wouldn’t ever try it like