# Fibrotic Myopathy



## Hunter Allred

Anyone have experience with it? It is confined to almost entirely to working dogs (the vet manual actually says: "dogs involved in tracking-obedience-protection training"). My male has fibrotic myopathy on one side of his gracilis muscle. It doesn't seem to cause pain, nor impact his performance, and was only noticed from a slightly off gait. Presently we are treating with a lot of deep tissue massage of the muscle, and going to begin ultra-sound therapy soon. Immediately following massage it appears much worse (to be expected as the muscle is likely a bit tender after deep tissue massage), and the next day it is actually dramatically better.. often the next day I can't detect any gait abnormality, or minimal abnormality. Surgery seems to have a near absolute failure rate in dogs, but works in humans and horses. Horses spend their recovery standing, and humans are often fitted with devices to keep muscles in extension. It is suggested that the reason it fails is b/c dogs generally heal spending most of their time laying down with the leg in flexion allowing it to heal contracted, and that an orthotic device keeping it in extension... but as far as I can find this has never been tried and only suggested. The ortho we saw said the last case he saw was 14 years ago.

Anyone have any experience? What worked? What didn't?


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## Gillian Schuler

Hunter Allred said:


> Anyone have experience with it? It is confined to almost entirely to working dogs (the vet manual actually says: "dogs involved in tracking-obedience-protection training"). My male has fibrotic myopathy on one side of his gracilis muscle. It doesn't seem to cause pain, nor impact his performance, and was only noticed from a slightly off gait. Presently we are treating with a lot of deep tissue massage of the muscle, and going to begin ultra-sound therapy soon. Immediately following massage it appears much worse (to be expected as the muscle is likely a bit tender after deep tissue massage), and the next day it is actually dramatically better.. often the next day I can't detect any gait abnormality, or minimal abnormality. Surgery seems to have a near absolute failure rate in dogs, but works in humans and horses. Horses spend their recovery standing, and humans are often fitted with devices to keep muscles in extension. It is suggested that the reason it fails is b/c dogs generally heal spending most of their time laying down with the leg in flexion allowing it to heal contracted, and that an orthotic device keeping it in extension... but as far as I can find this has never been tried and only suggested. The ortho we saw said the last case he saw was 14 years ago.
> 
> Anyone have any experience? What worked? What didn't?


I have never heard of it but I wonder whether this is just restricted to "working dogs". Probably it only becomes evident in working dogs. The pet slouchers may never experience it - just wondering.


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## rick smith

you didn't mention his age ... 
is your dog young ?

does the gait look like this gsd's ?
http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/ortho_semitendinosus_myopathy.html


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## Lisa Clark

I have an 8 plus year old SchH3 FH2 female and while I have never gotten an official name, this sounds like what she has. It is only in her right rear. Friend's multiple SchH3 got it later in life, another friend had it in her titled bitch and another has had it in a couple of his multiple SchH3 dogs. These dogs all had it in both rears. While it does not cause pain in my bitch it does restrict jumping. I actually retired her before the change of gait showed up, but she was starting to show even worse jumping in the last year I trialed her (she was already an idiot). Supposedly there is a stem cell treatment, but I don't know of its success rate and I am guessing it is fairly expensive. Since it does not cause pain I just stick to normal exercise and tracking with my bitch. She also sees a chiropractor and gets acupuncture done monthly. She can still jump into the back of my truck and it hasn't progressed to the other rear.


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## Hunter Allred

rick smith said:


> you didn't mention his age ...
> is your dog young ?
> 
> does the gait look like this gsd's ?
> http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/ortho_semitendinosus_myopathy.html


He is about 5.5yrs

Not that pronounced, but yes, thats they fibrotic myopathy gait. Its a result of the knee being unable to extend past a certain point when bringing the leg forward.


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## Hunter Allred

Lisa Clark said:


> I have an 8 plus year old SchH3 FH2 female and while I have never gotten an official name, this sounds like what she has. It is only in her right rear. Friend's multiple SchH3 got it later in life, another friend had it in her titled bitch and another has had it in a couple of his multiple SchH3 dogs. These dogs all had it in both rears. While it does not cause pain in my bitch it does restrict jumping. I actually retired her before the change of gait showed up, but she was starting to show even worse jumping in the last year I trialed her (she was already an idiot). Supposedly there is a stem cell treatment, but I don't know of its success rate and I am guessing it is fairly expensive. Since it does not cause pain I just stick to normal exercise and tracking with my bitch. She also sees a chiropractor and gets acupuncture done monthly. She can still jump into the back of my truck and it hasn't progressed to the other rear.


Mine hasn't shown any drop in performance or pain. I bet mild cases are far more common than is realized in working dogs. My bitch I am now stretching her prior to training, and post training to help prevent (no different than a human athlete warming up). The deep tissue massage to constantly break up the scar tissue has shown improvement.


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## Lisa Clark

No, none of the dogs showed pain, but they all started to show a lack of ability to jump as things progressed.


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## Hunter Allred

Lisa Clark said:


> No, none of the dogs showed pain, but they all started to show a lack of ability to jump as things progressed.


Have you tried massage? A club member also has access to a therapeutic ultrasound that we will begin using hopefully tomorrow


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## Hunter Allred

rick smith said:


> you didn't mention his age ...
> is your dog young ?
> 
> does the gait look like this gsd's ?
> http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/ortho_semitendinosus_myopathy.html


Just read that article. Interesting they say between 8 and 9 months of age, but overwhelmingly the documented cases are in males of middle age doing sport work... i.e., in their prime working the hardest of their lives.


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## Louise Jollyman

I still think this is what is going on with my male Apollo who is 5. My chiro vet says he has torn his semi-membranosus but he has this same gait. We are doing chiro and acupuncture but prognosis is not good. I first saw it this summer, when Apollo refused to jump the schutzhund jump which is unlike him because he loved to jump. I am keeping him active and training for AKC obedience, hoping he will be able to jump 26".

Have done several searches on the internet but not some up with anything much.

Swimming seems to help with mobility, and electro-acupuncture will make the knot inside his thigh smaller but does not seem to affect his gait a lot.


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## Hunter Allred

Louise Jollyman said:


> I still think this is what is going on with my male Apollo who is 5. My chiro vet says he has torn his semi-membranosus but he has this same gait. We are doing chiro and acupuncture but prognosis is not good. I first saw it this summer, when Apollo refused to jump the schutzhund jump which is unlike him because he loved to jump. I am keeping him active and training for AKC obedience, hoping he will be able to jump 26".
> 
> Have done several searches on the internet but not some up with anything much.
> 
> Swimming seems to help with mobility, and electro-acupuncture will make the knot inside his thigh smaller but does not seem to affect his gait a lot.


A knot where the muscle is sounds like fibrotic myopathy. Does the tendon feel like a steel cable rather than a tendon?

Do hard cross fiber and parallel fiber massage with heat compress before and after. Jägers gait is worse for thirty mins or so after this (probably charlie horsed), but the next day the gait abnormality is all but gone. Over all the flexibility is getting better


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## susan tuck

This disease is a new one on me. I hope your dog continues to cope well with his condition.


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## Louise Jollyman

Thanks for the info Hunter. Apollo's knot feels like an egg right at the top on the rear inside of his thigh, I think the vet thinks the muscle tore completely and is just balled up in that spot. But I would like to try massage. 

We are about to move back to New England so will need to find a new vet, needs to be someone brave because Apollo is a right pain in the neck to adjust and deal with.


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## susan tuck

Louise Jollyman said:


> Thanks for the info Hunter. Apollo's knot feels like an egg right at the top on the rear inside of his thigh, I think the vet thinks the muscle tore completely and is just balled up in that spot. But I would like to try massage.
> 
> We are about to move back to New England so will need to find a new vet, needs to be someone brave because Apollo is a right pain in the neck to adjust and deal with.


ugh I hate having to find a new vet, I'm in the midst of that search right now. I have moved to a small community and so far haven't been really impressed by what I've seen. I miss my old vets like crazy.

Louise I wish you good luck in your vet quest and your move, and I wish Apollo a speedy recovery.


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## Hunter Allred

Louise Jollyman said:


> Thanks for the info Hunter. Apollo's knot feels like an egg right at the top on the rear inside of his thigh, I think the vet thinks the muscle tore completely and is just balled up in that spot. But I would like to try massage.
> 
> We are about to move back to New England so will need to find a new vet, needs to be someone brave because Apollo is a right pain in the neck to adjust and deal with.


If you can't narrow it down to an actual injury "event", its probably just the result of no different than someone hitting the gym and pounded one muscle group day in and day out.. as the small tears down have time to heal, they fill with scar tissue. eventually is just what you felt... a muscle that feels like it is in full contraction. If he completely tore the muscle I'd imagine you'd have a clear memory of some period where he couldn't walk or at *least* favored the leg. 

Imagine the muscle is a bundle of strings all parallel to eachother, that had soda spilled on it. The idea is the roll back and forth to break the stickiness between strings, and up and down to keep the full length of the strings from adhering. You do it frequently enough that the soda dries to non-sticky without sticking the strings together. The idea being if you do this daily, when the newly broken scar tissue re-heals, it doesn't adhere together while it heals... There are various massage things that seem to be more effective at massaging the muscle than my non-professionally-trained fingers. I use this thing http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OT07FU/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i00. Don't understand why, but his hair doesn't get caught in those little rolling steel balls.

Looks like this:


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## James Kotary

Depending on the equipment the vet may have there has been some success without surgery in getting working dogs back to work after some rehabilitation training. Low level laser treatments have been used in some with positive effects. Underwater treadmills to lower the impact of rehabilitation are also used in some cases. Massage therapy and ultrasound therapy have been utilized in fibrotic myopathy rehabilitation with good results.
The problem with surgery is the possibility of scar tissue to return negating the surgery. This is because not only is it almost impossible to keep a dog immobilized to let it heal, but working dogs have a drive to keep active. Surgery may be a last resort but from what you say it seems massage therapy and a rehabilitation program of low impact exercises may be the best start.


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## Connie Sutherland

Hunter Allred said:


> Anyone have experience with it? It is confined to almost entirely to working dogs (the vet manual actually says: "dogs involved in tracking-obedience-protection training"). My male has fibrotic myopathy on one side of his gracilis muscle. It doesn't seem to cause pain, nor impact his performance, and was only noticed from a slightly off gait. Presently we are treating with a lot of deep tissue massage of the muscle, and going to begin ultra-sound therapy soon. Immediately following massage it appears much worse (to be expected as the muscle is likely a bit tender after deep tissue massage), and the next day it is actually dramatically better.. often the next day I can't detect any gait abnormality, or minimal abnormality. Surgery seems to have a near absolute failure rate in dogs, but works in humans and horses. Horses spend their recovery standing, and humans are often fitted with devices to keep muscles in extension. It is suggested that the reason it fails is b/c dogs generally heal spending most of their time laying down with the leg in flexion allowing it to heal contracted, and that an orthotic device keeping it in extension... but as far as I can find this has never been tried and only suggested. The ortho we saw said the last case he saw was 14 years ago.
> 
> Anyone have any experience? What worked? What didn't?


I meant to post this link yesterday, but I guess I got distracted:

http://www.gsdhelp.info/neuro/fibroticmyopathyeva.html

I'm not a health professional. I had this saved because it seemed like a detailed overview.


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## Faelan

Hunter Allred said:


> Anyone have experience with it? It is confined to almost entirely to working dogs (the vet manual actually says: "dogs involved in tracking-obedience-protection training"). My male has fibrotic myopathy on one side of his gracilis muscle. It doesn't seem to cause pain, nor impact his performance, and was only noticed from a slightly off gait. Presently we are treating with a lot of deep tissue massage of the muscle, and going to begin ultra-sound therapy soon. Immediately following massage it appears much worse (to be expected as the muscle is likely a bit tender after deep tissue massage), and the next day it is actually dramatically better.. often the next day I can't detect any gait abnormality, or minimal abnormality. Surgery seems to have a near absolute failure rate in dogs, but works in humans and horses. Horses spend their recovery standing, and humans are often fitted with devices to keep muscles in extension. It is suggested that the reason it fails is b/c dogs generally heal spending most of their time laying down with the leg in flexion allowing it to heal contracted, and that an orthotic device keeping it in extension... but as far as I can find this has never been tried and only suggested. The ortho we saw said the last case he saw was 14 years ago.
> 
> Anyone have any experience? What worked? What didn't?


I know it is al long time ago but would really like to know how it developed for your dog.
My working dog has after a trauma fibrotic myopathi and i am very worried about his condition.


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## workinhcghdhg

I have never heard of it but I wonder whether this is just restricted to "working dogs". Probably it only becomes evident in working dogs. The pet slouchers may never experience it - just wondering.


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