What is "dropped a shoulder muscle"?

[GreyhoundGirl]

I have never heard of this before and just read it on a petfinder page...

Mazio dropped a shoulder muscle which ended his racing career, but will in no way impair his ability to be a normal happy companion for some very lucky family !

So what is dropping a shouolder muscle?

I'm trying to learn about all the different racing injuries, because if I do adopt a greyhound, there's a high chance that he would have been injured in one of his races. And I wouldn't want to bring back an old injury from doing agility with a dog that was injured once.

[borzoimom]

Originally Posted by GreyhoundGirl

I have never heard of this before and just read it on a petfinder page...



So what is dropping a shouolder muscle?

I'm trying to learn about all the different racing injuries, because if I do adopt a greyhound, there's a high chance that he would have been injured in one of his races. And I wouldn't want to bring back an old injury from doing agility with a dog that was injured once.

Not totally sure, but usually it means the muscle band between the shoulders was pulled to the point of permanently unable to " contract". Sort of like pulling a hamstring on your calf, but its in the shoulder. It means the dog can no longer extend in a full open run like sighthounds do. Or it could mean the muscle detached.. But they should be able to explain the extent of the injury.

[GreyhoundGirl]

Thanks for the info Michelle. You'd think they'd just call it pulling a muscle instead of dropping one.

I'm not really interested in this particular dog, lol I was mostly just wondering about the injury. Years from now I might rescue one that has the symtoms but the rescue organisation didn't know what was wrong.

[borzoimom]

Some strains are permanent as far as being able to completely heal. Considering they have to have a health check before a race, its probably the reasoning behind this. "Pulled" means just a temporary problem- something that will heal. " Dropped" means it over extended..

[borzoid]

Dropping a shoulder is a description of what the dog does when there is a shoulder injury. Basically it's a limp in the front leg of that shoulder

[GreyhoundGirl]

So this is a perminant injury that would never heal? Or would it be not perminant, but likely to "relapse" as the dog ages?

[borzoimom]

Some ligaments once pulled too far, never totally go back to " normal".

[GreyhoundGirl]

Okay thank you. This will be a very annoying subject when I go to adopt. Trying to find a grey that was retired for something other then an injury (hey maybe I'll get lucky and get a 0 pery drive grey that just wouldn't run ) may be difficult. But thanks again for the info