Cramp

[MissRhianL 70]

Just looking for a bit of information - one of my dogs now and again suffers with cramp now and again in his leg, i do massage it to ease it off and does tend to work but any reason as to why it cramps up and anything you can do to prevent it from happening?

[iworkwhippets 12,730]

vitamin c, ascorbic acid

[sandymere 8,263]

From back along.

 

Cramping, some thoughts on hypocapnia.

 

Thankfully Cramping is not an overly common occurrence in dogs but

there are those that seem to suffer unduly and any dog can get cramp. To

my mind there are two common types, neither of which are very well

understood. The commonest is likely due to over exertion, an example

would be me mountain biking on Exmoor and doing a lot more than I’m

used to so getting wicked cramp in my quads. A couple of months later

doing the same route at a faster pace no cramp, the difference

preparation in the form of two months training, Dogs suffer in much the

same way.

 

The actual cause of the electrical impulse that causes the muscles to

spasm is not well understood but this relatively common form of

Cramping, as with EIB and rhabdomyolysis, can be reduced significantly

by appropriate preparation. There is another circumstance where Cramping

is a major problem, this in spite of good fitness, but this tends to be

seen in track dogs although lurchers can suffer. In these cases it would

seem temperament is a major contributing factor, to examine this

particular problem I’ll go back to my early days.

 

Many years ago a fellow brought me a fair little track bitch for a bit

of a sort out, her problem was that she would cramp badly if kenneled

for any length of time prior to racing. This was a classic example in

that she would get herself very het on the way to the track and in the

kennel whilst waiting. There were and still are many causes proposed for

this problem and as many remedies that supposedly help, most of which

had already been tried without much improvement in her case.

 

I started with the basics of road work and gallops to improve fitness

and used electrolytes and vitamin E as these were thought to redress an

imbalance that was a contributing factor in these cases. After six weeks

I took her to a little permission and slipped her behind a hare. She ran

like a good un and although had no hope of success she certainly had

pace. With no Cramping and nothing beyond a little stiffness over the

following days we were soon off to the flapping track at Huntingdon for

a trial one Sunday morning. The journey was reasonable short and she was

in the traps within a few minutes of arriving, again she flew no

Cramping and a good time! I was well chuffed and booked a trail at

Henlow the next weekend. This time the journey was a little longer and

she was kenneled at the track for a while prior to trapping. For the

third time she flew but alas locked after the last bend with a major

cramp.

 

She went on to be a reasonably good flapper but never made it beyond

that, the owner took her back and I believe he continued a Huntingdon. A

well known trainer had had her prior to being brought to me and they’d

tried every supplement known to man but neither they nor I could find a

cure. Perhaps with more time we would have been able to better

acclimatise her to the racing experience and so reduced the stress that

was at the heart of the problem but the owner didn’t wish to invest in

a lengthy course of action for what was only ever going to be a middle

grader.

 

Traditionally lactic acid and or an electrolyte imbalance were blamed

in these cases but with the recent change of thought on lactic acid,

it’s now seem as part of the process and not the bad boy rather an

integral part of the energy cycle, it’s unlikely to be a causative

factor. Then as these dogs don’t seem to have any ongoing electrolyte

imbalance, this bitch had had bloods and they showed normal values this

theory also seems implausible. The stress response was a major clue but

at that time neither I nor my peers had any idea of the biochemistry

involved and just blindly followed a set course of adding electrolytes

etc.

 

Now anyone who has left a stressy dog in a car will have seen the

condensation that accumulates on the windows due to the excessive

panting. This tells use they are losing water, as this is via vapor from

breath we also know that they will not be losing a large amount of electrolytes, boils a pan

of salt water and the water will evaporate as

vapor and the salt will be left behind. Some salts may be lost in drawl

but not an excessive amount. Consider an hours car journey followed by

an hour in the kennel and you can imagine how much fluid might be lost,

this can also be a couple of hours for a lurcher on the way out lamping

etc. So fluid loss must be having an effect but it’s hard to put the

whole thing down to this.

 

Next we should look at the electrolytes, muscles work via electrical

impulses and electrolyte are the way this is carried out so they must be

playing a part. This combined with the pH of blood needing to be in a

very narrow band, outside of this electrolytes become unbalanced, we may

have a clue as to what is going on. Respiratory alkalosis, in this

situation a self limiting short term effect that could easily be masked

by lactic acidosis or missed if blood was not tested directly prior to

racing, could be the answer.

 

In every day terms hyperventilation, breathing to fast, for an extended

time will lead to the body blowing off to much carbon dioxide, as this

is an acid in the blood the blood will become less acid, more alkaline,

which leads to a reduction in serum potassium and calcium, this could

well be the reason for Cramping. Add to this the sudden change from

alkalosis due to, hypocapnia, to acidosis 2nd to lactic acid and maybe

the buffering systems just can’t cope.

 

Perhaps this is why the remedies don’t work in these cases, boosting

electrolytes such as potassium etc will not help as the body just

excretes the excess, there isn’t a true underlying deficit, the same

with bicarb, so the serum levels always go back to the set mean. It’s

the hyperventilation that brings about the imbalance so it’s more down

to behavioral intervention than supplementation. So proper introduction

to racing/working to reduce the stress response coupled with proper

physical training to prepare for the exercise to be performed and one

should get a reduction in the incidence of cramp, (in theory).