How Is Iliopsoas Injury Diagnosed In Dogs? How Long Does It Take To Recover From Iliopsoas Injury?
The iliopsoas muscle is made up of a fusion of the iliacus muscles (these attach along the underside of the backbone) and the psoas muscles (these attach on the inner side of the pelvis). The iliacus muscle and the psoas join and form a common muscle called the Iliopsoas muscle. It attaches onto the lesser trochanter of the femur and it allows for external rotation, core stabilization, and the flex of the hip joint.
Iliopsoas injury in dogs occurs when the iliopsoas muscle tears. Ironically, it is very common in dogs but infrequently diagnosed in dogs. When this muscle tears, the dog experiences great pain and even lameness. Commonly, exercise aggravates the lameness of dogs with this condition.
Iliopsoas injury dog: Causes
Iliopsoas Injury in dogs occurs frequently at or near the muscle-tendon junction, the weak link. It is normally caused by excessive training or plays, jumping off an elevated surface, etc.
Diagnostic Tests
It is very common for X-ray to not be used especially if the muscle tear is still in the acute phase, however, the torn muscles may have mineralized densities in the chronic stage thus making it visible under the microscope. Once the muscle involved has undergone changes that are not microscopic, ultrasound can be used to diagnose the problem. Alternatively, the vet doctor might consider MRI and CT scan to help in the conclusive and definitive diagnosis of the problem.
Treatment
Surgery should only be considered as a last resort and only for unresponsive cases. Muscle relaxing medications are used to amend muscle spasms and pain. Other treatments include the administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, applying a cold compress to the groin, exercise restriction, and stem cell therapy.
The recovery period is usually between 2 to 8 weeks depending on the severity of the injury.
Stem cells
Stem cells serve repair functions and are the basic building blocks of the body. There is no cell in the whole of body that possesses such regenerating ability to the point of even generating new cells and stem cells are very widely used in veterinary regenerative medicine.
Preparing for Stem Cell Therapy
It is imperative that your dog does not take any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) at least two weeks before the procedure. It is very easy to prepare as the veterinarian will put give you specific instructions depending on the severity of arthritis.
Stem Cell Therapy Procedure for the Hip
The procedure begins with the vet doctor extracting stem cells from the dog’s bone marrow. The veterinarian doctor will first clean and numb the hip area before inserting a needle into the iliac crest. Bone marrow is then extracted from the pelvic bone using a special syringe and the sample obtained is sent to the laboratory. The extract is spun in a machine for 10 to 15 minutes in order to extract the concentrated stem cell.
Your vet doctor then cleans and numbs the area of your dog’s hip requiring treatment and under the guidance of special X-rays, injects the stem cells into the region. The whole procedure does not take a long period of time.
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