Dog Getting Cramp

[jhiggins 48]

Took all the dogs for a run round the farm on the quad yesterday and stopped of for a swim half way as it was very humid.

 

My lurcher bitch came out of the lake and started to scream like I've never seen before and rolling around on the floor.

 

At first I thought she had got something in her foot but when I got hold of her leg it was clear that the muscles were as tight as hell so thought - Cramp.

 

Sure enough, after I stretched her out and calmed her down she was fine. We moved off at a steady pace but it wasn't long before she cramped up again. Stretched her out and trotted her home really slow (a good mile) and she seemed ok.

 

My lurcher is no slouch but shes not in peak condition at all. She was swimming very hard in the lake racing the Labs.

 

Anyone had any experience of this before? Will this be a recurring problem?

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

My old red bitch would cramp quite regularly until I added banana to her diet (potassium).

 

Now I give my dogs half a banana most days with their main meal. Sometimes swap the banana for tinned tomatoes.

[2504 92]

I've been told to use the tinned tomatoes before by a top coursing lad,

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

I've been told to use the tinned tomatoes before by a top coursing lad,

Yeh I think it's a good idea if the dog is fed raw anyway. Regardless of wether or not the dog is prone to cramp. There would be a lot of beneficial vitamins and minerals in tomatoes and bananas to supplement a predominantly raw meat diet.

[jhiggins 48]

Thanks guys, I'll give that a try.

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

Thanks guys, I'll give that a try.

A tin of tomatoes between a few dogs will do the trick. Same with a banana spread beetween them.

 

I buy a bunch of bananas. Peel them. Chop them up and freeze them in separate bags. Otherwise they go off before you use them.

[peterhunter86 8,627]

If she won't eat the banana or tomatoes like my dogs won't use some crushed pumpkin seeds

[2504 92]

Nice and easy that gas I think I'll try that myself,

[2504 92]

Ooops gaz, f#####g predictive text

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

Nice and easy that gas I think I'll try that myself,

Yeh give it a bash fella ?

[Anthony Simmons 22]

Could be the cold water that caused the cramp,I might be wrong but I know that's one of the reasons humans struggle sometimes in cold water, can imagine it being the same for a dog as they're warm blooded aswell

[bunnyboiler 1,053]

I can only tell you what worked for me with the lurchers and greyhounds and that's tinned tomatoes

[jcm 2,327]

Tinned tomatos are a must in my dogs diets although they have never had cramp was on old greyhound man who told me this also a knob of lard in there diet as well expecially if you going to be working them that night

[sandymere 8,263]

Cramping is not uncommon as they reach peak fitness as they are right on the border of what their muscles are capable of so can push easily a little to far.

I did this a few yeasr ago........

 

 

 

Thankfully cramping is not an overly common occurrence lurchers but there are those that seem to suffer unduly and any dog can get cramp. To my mind there are two common types, one is reasonable well understood, the other less so. The commonest, and least well understood, is likely due to over exertion, an example would be me mountain biking on Exmoor and doing a lot more than I’m used and 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 excitation that causes the muscles to spasm is not well understood but this relatively common form of cramping, as with Exercise induced bronchspasm and rhabdomyolysis can be reduced significantly by appropriate preparation in the form of training.

 

The second form is another circumstance where cramping is a major problem and, this in spite of good fitness, tends to be seen most commonly in racing dogs although working lurcher can be prone as can any dog. In these cases temperament is a major contributing factor and 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 up on the way to the track and in the kennel whilst waiting. There were 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 out but alas locked within 50 yards 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 at 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 reduce 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 an integral part of the energy cycle and not the bad boy any more 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 those electrolytes, muscles work via electrical impulses and electrolytes are the way this is carried out so they must be laying 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, could be the culprit.

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 more alkaline,
which leads to a reduction in serum calcium, this could well be the reason for cramping. In people cramping is known as a common side effect of low calcium caused by hyperventilation along with dizziness etc, hence why they were given a paper bag to breath into, it made them re breath their carbon dioxide in theory increasing it this certainly answers why the old remedies don’t seem to work in these cases as these were based on supplementation of electrolytes such as potassium etc when there is no real deficit just a shift. It’s the hyperventilation that brings about the imbalance by temporarily shifting rather than there being a true underlying deficit.

 

This leaves us with behavioral intervention rather than supplementation as the best coarse of action.. 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).

 

 

 

 

[MickC 1,825]

Seen a couple of dogs cramp up over the years but that was down to the owner of these dogs insisting on putting glucose in there feed,when he eventually did listen the dogs ran fine.