"The pressure walkway is much better at detecting a lameness than a human is-it can pick up on such small changes in a dog's walk that I cannot see," Pinto says. Capturing the kinetic data of the dog's walk allows the researchers to analyze the stance time, stride length, and pressure changes that occur. The walkway is a mat with embedded sensors that detect and measure subtle differences in kinetics as an animal walks on it. To gather the necessary data to identify and describe these gait changes in both healthy and lame dogs on flat, inclined and declined surfaces, Pinto's team at WCVM is using a pressure-sensitive walkway. This change in weight distribution might exaggerate the lameness and make it more easily noticed and diagnosed.
Walking on a ramp shifts the weight of the animal, which challenges the dog's ability to reduce the stance time and force exerted by the sore limb. If researchers were to extrapolate current knowledge about lameness and injuries-if an animal is lame on one limb-it will put less weight or force on that sore limb because it is painful. In addition, incline and decline walking changes how weight is distributed among the limbs.
Walking up a hill, for example, causes hips to bend (flex) more and knees to bend less, while walking downhill causes hips to bend less. Past research has shown that when an animal walks up or down a ramp, hill or stairs-exercises often used in rehabilitation-the angles of the animal's joints and limbs change. The computer screen shows the animal’s footsteps as they occur on the walkway. To obtain optimal gait data, the animal must walk in as straight a line as possible on the walkway, without turning its head or pulling on the lead. Romany Pinto at the end of the walkway to keep the dog focused ahead. The author walks a dog across the pressure-sensitive walkway with Dr. Sometimes, they also obtain X-ray or ultrasound images of the affected limbs.ĭeclines ramp up detection of gait problems Also, equine veterinarians commonly use other tools and techniques to help identify lameness including stressing the joint and nerve blocks.Īfter a distance exam, veterinarians feel the animal for areas that are swollen, painful or inflamed, and assess the limb range of motion.
In equine medicine, veterinarians will run horses at different speeds and in circles. The veterinarian typically observes the animal walking on a flat surface, such as in a hallway, watching for a limp or stagger. Veterinarians diagnose lameness by watching the animal walk and by feeling its bones, joints and limbs. Moreover, mild injuries that cause lameness can be hard to detect using today's standard veterinary diagnostic techniques. However, if the problem does not noticeably change a dog's gait, it can be easily missed. Lameness is a common problem in dogs it can be caused by illness or injury. The study is designed to get at the mechanisms underlying the gait patterns, specifically focusing on stance time (the amount of time the limb is on the ground as a proportion of stride time), stride length (the length each limb moves in a stride), and limb force of healthy and lame dogs to increase the precision and accuracy of the diagnoses of subtle injuries that can cause dogs to become lame. She says the key to the study is "to figure out what changes in their gait cycle when a dog walks on the ramp make the lameness more visible compared to the flat surface."Īdds Pinto: "We want to use this study to understand why those dogs that do not show any lameness on the flat surface are visibly lame on the decline." Gillian Muir is head of the WCVM's Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and a leader on this project. She proposes that walking dogs on an incline and decline exaggerates subtle injuries that cause lameness, making the injuries easier to detect and diagnose.ĭr. "This led me to start a research study that would investigate what happens when healthy dogs and dogs with hind-limb injuries walk up and down ramp," she says. In 2017, she noticed that some dogs with muscle-strain injuries did not limp nor otherwise show lameness on flat surfaces, but were visibly lame when they walked across a ramp. Romany Pinto, a clinical associate in rehabilitation at the WCVM, hopes similar research in dogs will lead to a non-invasive, quick and easy technique that aids in diagnosing lameness in dogs.
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