Osteopathy

I was at an Agility Summer Camp with Minnie for 3 days last week. As part of the camp activities we had a qualified Osteopath give a short seminar. I spoke to her at some length afterwards about Minnie and SM.

She told me that she is currently treating a Cavalier who has been diagnosed with SM and who is not on medication with great success. Apparently the dog has presented with instances of lameness and as soon as these occur she undertakes "Cranial Massage and Manipulation" which she said increases the blood supply to the head and neck area and also assists in allowing the spinal fluid to flow more readily. She is working in conjunction with the dog's Veterinary surgeon.

Would be interested to know if anyone else is using this treatment to alleviate symptoms?

I am due to see Clare Rusbridge for Minnie's review next month - so will also discuss this option with her. Minnie is currently on Trocoxil and Zitac.

Also Minnie did very well at camp - no signs of any symptoms during the time we were there or afterwards. She came 8th in the Agility competition and that was only because she stopped halfway through for a sniff at something interesting on the ground.. But the team we were in won the dog and human tag race.:-D

I do not know anything about manipulations as a treatment for SM but I wanted to say how great that you are still doing Agility with Minnie and that she is secure enough to stop and smell the roses when she feels like it !

COngrats on the great results! :

"Cranial Massage and Manipulation" which she said increases the blood supply to the head and neck area and also assists in allowing the spinal fluid to flow more readily

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:sl*p:

I know from previous conversations on this that Clare actively advises AGAINST using anything that involves head or neck manipulations for any dog with SM. Massage, perhaps. I do know this is the only thing she says is Ok from osteopaths and chiropractors. The only complementary technique she has ever seen help SM dogs is acupuncture (which also has been shown to help pain in some proper trials). She notes this on her website.

This is such total pseudoscience nonsense though -- CSF cannot not flow more 'readily' due to a head message or twisting a neck around for SM dogs. While CSF does circulate in connection with bloodflow, increasing blood flow will do zilch to help CSF flow for SM dogs. As a matter of fact the LAST thing an SM or CM dog needs is increased CSF flow! Massaging and manipulations will not move syrinxes or remove the brain from where it blocks the opening into the foramen magnum. If you cause the CSF to flow more readily, you *increase pain* as the fluid encounters those blockages and is squirted past them -- which is believed to cause SM in the first place. That osteopath needs to keep her hands off dogs that have a specialist illness she so obviously is utterly clueless about. Such misguided (and moneymaking!) nonsense can only make these poor dogs suffer further. :x It makes me shudder to think of people manipulating the necks of dogs with SM. Sorry but this kind of garbage just makes me so furious. If SM was so easy to address through bending and twisting, why aren't these people flooded with SM sufferers? Because it does nothing, and in some cases creates more pain and problems (don't even get me started on the brain-damaged friend of a good friend, who got that way thanks to a cranial manipulation by a very well known chiropractor here. The only reason he isn't a vegetable is he was able to ring his girlfriend who rushed him to hospital).

Karlin said:

This is such total pseudoscience nonsense though -- CSF cannot not flow more 'readily' due to a head message or twisting a neck around for SM dogs. While CSF does circulate in connection with bloodflow, increasing blood flow will do zilch to help CSF flow for SM dogs. As a matter of fact the LAST thing an SM or CM dog needs is increased CSF flow! Massaging and manipulations will not move syrinxes or remove the brain from where it blocks the opening into the foramen magnum. If you cause the CSF to flow more readily, you *increase pain* as the fluid encounters those blockages and is squirted past them -- which is believed to cause SM in the first place. ).

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Karlin, that was my thoughts exactly, as a layperson with a dog that has only just been diagnosed, I could not see how osteopathy could help. Thankyou for confirming this.

I got a little suspicious about how much she actually knew about SM when I spoke about Minnie being under the care of Clare Rusbridge and she didn't know who I was talking about.