Canine Sports Medicine Part 3: Common Conditions & Injuries
- Tiffany Downing, RVT & Lauryn Harker, CCAT, CCRP, RVT, CAPM
- Apr 20
- 10 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
*** The tips and recommendations within this article may not be right for your dog. As all dogs are unique individuals, we recommend that you consult with your Veterinarian and/or schedule a Fitness Consultation with the Physical Rehabilitation Specialists here at Canine Rehabilitation of Orange County to discuss what is right for your dog.***
To help reduce your Canine Athlete's risk of injury, check out our first two Canine Sports Medicine articles!
It doesn't matter if your dog just dabbles in dock diving on the weekends or if they are a full-time TSA Officer. Dogs live to please us, sometimes to their own detriment, so it's up to us humans to keep them safe and physically sound. We're digging into injuries commonly experienced by Canine Athletes in hopes that they can be avoided or identified so your dog can continue to perform and thrive in their work.
Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture
Often compared to the human Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), rupture of the Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) is the most common injury in pet and sporting dogs. While dogs do not have an ACL, the CCL is also a stabilizing ligament between the femur and tibia. In young dogs, rupture typically occurs with fast & forceful movements but in older dogs, rupture occurs over time with chronic wearing away & fraying of the ligament.
Careful conditioning helps reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of injury by keeping the muscles, tendons, & ligaments flexible, supple, & balanced. Cross Training to avoid injury involves slow, controlled exercises & a focus on enhancing stabilizing structures like the Patellar Tendon.
Iliopsoas Injury
The Iliopsoas (pronounced ill-ee-oh-soh-az) is a grouping of muscles in the groin that flexes and rotates the dog’s hip in addition to stabilizing the lower spine. It is comprised of two separate muscles; the Iliacus and Psoas major which originate in different spots on the spine and pelvis but fuse into a common tendon on the femur. Highly active or sporting dogs are frequently affected by this type of injury since the activities they participate in are high intensity like jumping, sprinting, or rough play. Injury to this muscle group usually happens when it is overstretched during activity & if left untreated can become a chronic source of lameness & pain. There are some conditions that can make your dog more likely to experience an Iliopsoas injury like Hip Dysplasia, Intervertebral Disc Disease, or Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture but a dog’s overall fitness level & lack of preparation for high intensity activity can also be primary causes. Thermotherapy, massage, & stretching are particularly effective to reduce risk of this injury.
Repetitive Motion Injury
The dog equivalent to human Tennis Elbow or Swimmers’ Shoulder, the repetitive movements, even low-impact ones, gradually wear down & inflame the soft tissues & joints. This condition is common in Search & Rescue dogs but can occur in any working or competing canine. Even dogs at home that pace along the backyard fence are at risk! This type of injury is preventable & the likelihood of occurrence can be reduced by taking breaks, cross training, training for good ergonomics, & practicing “opposite” movements.
Soft Tissue Shoulder Injury
The most common shoulder injuries in working dogs are Medial Shoulder Instability & Biceps Tendinopathy. Both can occur as Repetitive Motion Injuries.
Medial Shoulder Instability is the result of the degeneration or breakdown of stabilizing structures within the shoulder. This injury is chronic & progressive in nature; as the shoulder joint becomes increasingly unstable, arthritis will develop and luxation (dislocation) of the shoulder joint can occur. This injury is common in water sports, like swimming and dock diving, as well as frequent jumping down or even poor landings in fly sports. Mild shoulder lameness is usually the first sign, followed by pain on extension of the shoulder joint.
Biceps Tendinopathy involves the Biceps brachii muscle, which is responsible for extending & stabilizing the shoulder, as well as flexing the elbow. When the tendon that attaches the biceps brachii muscle tears or becomes strained, dogs become lame, painful, & have reduced range of motion in the shoulder. Strains or low grade tears require significant amounts of rest since this is an exceptionally slow healing and frequently recurring injury. Severe tears/ruptures require surgery & sadly, retirement from most sporting activities.
A good warm up routine, cross training, & regular breaks can help prevent these injuries. No-pull harnesses are also known to exacerbate shoulder injury because of where they apply pressure to the shoulder, thus their use should be avoided.
Carpal Strain
High impact and repetitive activities create weakness and excess laxity of the carpus (your dog’s wrist). It happens most often with jumping down activities like jumping out of vehicles or off of furniture, but it can also happen when a dog pushes off a surface with too much force or with frequent ball play. The force of falling and the impact on the ground are initially absorbed by your dog’s front legs with the biggest impact on the carpus. Flyball athletes often experience this injury just from the force of slamming into the ball box at the end of the course.
This is a cumulative injury, adding up over time, and permanent damage can result.
Compensation for carpal pain and referred pain are common, as is osteoarthritis formation. Regularly practicing balance work and using cross-training to strengthen the ligaments and tendons of the forepaw may help reduce injury to the carpus. In situations where jumping down is not strictly necessary, such as when a ramp or stairs can be used, it’s best to utilize those tools to minimize impact forces whenever possible. If your Canine Athlete must jump down from things, do what you can to make the landing surface “impact friendly”.
Metacarpophalangeal-Interphalangeal Joint Disease
The CROC Team refers to this as “Polar Bear Paw” because bony changes within the carpus, metacarpals, and phalanges cause the front paws to resemble that of a polar bear. This is a repetitive motion injury often associated with frequent games of fetch, acrobatic movements with hard landings on the front paws, and dogs that live exclusively on hard surfaces like tile and concrete. Most of the cases we see are dogs that repetitively run along a fence or property line. Their intense speed followed by abrupt, sideways stopping results in chronic abuse to the tiny joints within the paw, causing osteoarthritis formation and thickening of those joints. These permanent changes often cause pain, reduced range of motion and loss of flexibility within the paw and toes.
To prevent this injury, try to prevent repetitive, high impact activities and focus on building strength in the forearms and paws to support the joint. This might mean mixing in other games besides fetch or in the case of fence running, training to modify your dog’s behavior. Adding softer surfaces with better traction can also be helpful. For example, you can add grass outside and rugs or yoga mats inside.
Dental Injuries
Canine Athletes can experience premature wear, chips, fractures, & even lose teeth. Tennis balls are known to be extremely abrasive, wearing through enamel & down into the pulp of the tooth. As the tooth is worn away, it can be extremely sensitive and painful to eat, drink, or even pant. Tennis balls are so abrasive, that many veterinarians can look at a dog’s mouth and extrapolate that the patient is a “ball dog” from the pattern of wear on the teeth.
Frisbee dogs often experience chips & fractures when catching hard frisbees. In such an intense and fast-paced sport, Canine Athletes are often so focused on making the jump and catching the frisbee, that no attention is given as to how that frisbee is caught. Even in minor cases of damage to the enamel, that still opens up the tooth to more significant dental disease.
Dogs performing bite work, like Police K9's, often fracture or lose teeth during their work. We’ve all heard of Police K9's getting titanium implants and seeing those impressive silver chompers! Fractured teeth are extremely painful and invite infection to quickly take hold. They often cannot be salvaged, thus requiring extraction. Having a healthy tooth knocked out of their mouth is exactly as painful as you’d imagine.
Regardless of your Canine Athlete’s profession, make sure to have their teeth examined by a Veterinarian on a regular basis & use softer, less abrasive balls, frisbees, & other toys whenever possible.
Cuts, Abrasions, & Avulsions
Canine Athletes are often so focused on their work that they are completely unaware of these small injuries until all the excitement dies down. Proprioceptive exercises can help with some of these, but more than anything, your attention to the environment and your dog’s body will make the biggest difference in your dog’s safety. Torn toenails can happen to any dog but can be avoided by ensuring your dog’s nails are kept at an appropriate length and are free of any cracks or flaking.
Pay attention to the surfaces that your dog will be performing on. Some dogs can be prone to paw pad avulsion (tears of the paw pad) just from too much intense exercise on concrete and we are all very aware of the painful burns dogs can experience just walking on asphalt. If your dog is too weak, tired, or spatially unaware to properly lift their paws over obstacles, they are likely to incur abrasions on the top of their paws. If your Canine Athlete is expected to perform on sharp, abrasive, or particularly hot/cold surfaces, they may benefit from booties to protect their paws. Most injuries of this type are not severe and can benefit from rest and standard wound care.
For deep cuts or serious abrasions that keep bleeding after rest and compression, a vet visit is likely necessary for suturing or bandaging.
You should never attempt to bandage your dog’s legs or paws without veterinary medical supervision.
Improper bandaging technique can result in permanent damage to or even complete loss of the limb. It sounds extreme, but it is sadly a very common occurrence and is a devastating result of good intentions.
When to Call the Professionals
Even with all the training and conditioning in the world, accidents still happen. Sometimes rest and stopping all activities for several days is all it takes to recover. However, depending on the severity of the injury, your dog may need medical attention. Some injuries and conditions require prompt veterinary care to avoid long term pain or loss of mobility, so it's always best to have your Canine Athlete examined sooner rather than later. If there are clicking sounds, swelling, instability, limping, or pain, it’s important to speak to your Veterinarian right away.
After speaking with your Veterinarian, formal Physical Rehabilitation services should be considered if:
Activity is Limited
Rehab can help your Canine Athlete stay conditioned while they recover by providing safe and controlled exercise. The body heals during periods of rest, so taking a break from sports is integral to recovery. The problem is that when the body stops working, its strength, flexibility, and stamina will decline. In as little as 72 hours, muscles that you've worked very hard to build can begin to atrophy, or waste away! Veterinary Physical Rehabilitation specialists have the medical knowledge to safely exercise your dog and help them heal better and faster than they would have without therapy. Once your dog is recovered enough to return to work, if their physical conditioning has not been maintained, they will have to slowly ease back into their work or risk re-injury. If their physical fitness has been safely maintained during their recovery period, they will be able to return to work sooner and be less likely to suffer a subsequent injury.
Limb Use is Reduced
Limping means pain! If there is lameness, limping, or changes in your dog’s gait or stance, your dog is in pain! Dogs will deliberately try to minimize use of a painful limb, so don’t ignore this crucial signal. In addition, when a dog minimizes use of one limb, that means they are transferring the load to the other 3 legs. At this point, the entire body becomes imbalanced and failure to resolve this imbalance promptly can result in even more pain and potentially additional injury. This imbalance may initially present as tension of the neck and back muscles as the body compensates. Long term imbalance will put excess wear and tear on the healthy limbs which can accelerate Osteoarthritis or Cranial Cruciate Ligament rupture. The sooner your Athlete’s lameness is diagnosed and treated, the less strain is put on the rest of the body.
Pain is Not Well Managed
No one can perform well while in pain and sometimes prescription medications aren’t enough to control pain. Canine Rehab of OC’s Veterinary Medical Physical Rehabilitation specialists utilize therapies originating from human Physical Therapy that have been modified and clinically-proven to be effective and safe for dogs. Laser Therapy, Acupuncture, Electrostimulation, & Therapeutic Ultrasound may be helpful options. Physical Rehabilitation should only be provided by licensed and certified Veterinary Medical Physical Rehabilitation professionals, as some therapies can be dangerous if used inappropriately. Chiropractics, in particular, are not recommended for use in animals.
There are no peer-reviewed studies to support the safety or efficacy of Chiropractic and we frequently treat dogs that have suffered permanent injury as a result of Chiropractic treatments.
If you are not convinced that Chiropractic is harmful and wish to pursue forceful spinal manipulations, we strongly recommend meeting with a Veterinary Neurologist first to confirm that your dog does not have any spinal abnormalities that could be made worse by applying force to their spine. Radiographs (x-rays) of the spine can help rule out conditions like Spondylosis or Intervertebral Disc Disease; both conditions that would be made significantly worse and more painful with the application of Chiropractic manipulations, potentially even resulting in temporary or permanent paralysis.
When looking for Rehab services for your athlete, look for providers with any of the following certifications:
Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP)
Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist (CCRT)
Certified Companion Animal Rehabilitation Therapist (CCAT)
Certified Canine Rehabilitation Veterinary Technician (CCRVT)
Mobility is Compromised
If your Canine Athlete is having difficulty getting around on their own, Physical Rehabilitation will be necessary to heal faster, get stronger, & restore mobility. Treating pain is always the top priority, but medication will not strengthen the body; only exercise will do this! Pending the severity of your dog’s condition, they may need to completely cease all work/sports activities and instead focus that energy on Rehab in hopes that they can recover enough to safely return to their sport of choice. The right exercise at the right time coupled with therapies to promote healing and reduce pain, will give your Canine Athlete the best chance of recovery.
