Understanding Skeletal and Muscular Disorders in Dogs

Just like you and me, dogs also suffer from various ranges of many muscular and skeletal disorders that might be a mild one that has negligible symptoms to a severe one that might involve extensive treatment. Few muscular and skeletal disorders might be lethal, particularly when you don’t get those treated well.

If you want to understand how the muscular and skeletal disorders work, then first you should understand the basics like how the muscular, skeletal and nervous system work in a healthy and normal dog. Like you and me the dogs are mammals and we have so many things in common when we are talking about basics like how muscles work and skeletal configuration.

The skeletal system of the dog

Dogs have a rigid skeleton that serves as coverage for vital organs like lungs and heart. It supports the weight of the dog as well. Simultaneously, there is another fact that the skeleton is not fully rigid rather it is flexible as it makes your dog jump, run, climb and carry each kind of agile activities.

In your dog the bones inside have collagen that is a protein based fibres. In these fibres, phosphorous and calcium salts gets deposited making the bones more rigid and stronger. In the skeletal system of your dog, phosphorous and calcium are the two essential minerals, but for this you should not feed your dog with excess of food or supplements that are rich in phosphorous and calcium.

Your dog has two different kinds of bones: trabecular bone and cortical bone. The 4/5 of the bones in your dog’s body is a cortical bone that is very compact and the rest 1/5 part is trabecular bone known as spongy bone as well that is found inside the protective and strong cortical bone. All through the life these bones will be replaced constantly by newly formed bone. The old bone cells of your dog are removed and formations of new bone cells take place.

Muscular and skeletal disorder types

There are few skeletal and muscular disorders that I know commonly occur in dogs and they are Osteoarthritis, Hip dysplasia, Elbow dysplasia, Luxating patella, Osteochondritis dissecans, Panosteitis, Legg-Calve-Perthes syndrome, Back Pain, Congenital vertebral anomalies, Craniomandibular osteopathy, Hypertrophic osteopathy, Spondylosis, Hypertrophy osteodystrophy, Matiscatory muscle myositis.

Every disorder has a different cause. But in treatment of some skeletal and muscular disorders there are Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) that are given to the dogs. Hence, you can read whether these drugs have any side-effects or risks for your dog.

You can prevent your dog from various problems and from these drugs by providing them organic food that is described in our next article.

Have you had the chance to read the other articles in our series about dog health problems?
Signs of Serious Dog Health Problems
Your Dog’s Life is in Your Hands (side effects of NSAIDs in dogs)

Try a dog treat that helps promote healthy hips and joints – Dogswell Happy Hips for Dogs, Chicken Breast,15-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 3)