George and his painful skin condition - case study

George is a 5 year old miniature Dashund. He initially presented as he had a non resolving skin condition - he was biting his back legs and needed to have a cone on his head all the time. He was on antibiotics, steroids, cortisone creams and still could not be trusted to have his cone removed or he would chew his back legs until he had open wounds.

His owner, a human doctor, noted that the skin lesions on both his back legs were over where she expected his sciatic nerve to run and so wanted a 2nd opinion and to have George assessed for pain. 

On initial examination George had a mildly hunched spine and had wounds over his lateral 5th digits on toes and also over his lateral hamstring muscles where the main sciatic nerve runs. He was also very painful when you touched near the wounds. On a biomechanical examination George had spinal restrictions in his upper lumbars, wasting of his spinal muscles and gluteal muscles. He was also very tight his gluteals and hamstring muscles which was causing nerve entrapment and pain. We updated George's diagnosis from a skin condition to a spinal, musculoskeletal and nerve pain condition. 

George was treated with acupuncture, osteopathic techniques, myofascial release techniques, laser, a natural pain supplement and chinese herbs. Given the very tight muscles creating the nerve entrapment his owner was given a massage prescription. George responded favourably to the massage and it became a daily routine - much loved by George. George only needed the cone when unsupervised after the first visit, and it was removed completely following the second visit. On the subsequent visits his muscles and fascia felt much more relaxed, and we were able to progressively add additional massage techniques and locations to George's massage prescription. 

George is now completely pain free, lesion free and off all pain supplements. I see George intermittently for a biomechanical review and acupuncture to maintain his spine. His owner now does all his maintenance with keeping his legs comfortable with daily massage. I see lots of dashunds with spinal issues and pain but George has definitely been a unique patient.