The canine spine is sometimes approached as though it were a series of separate regions: cervical, thoracic, lumbar and lumbosacral. These divisions are anatomically useful, but the living spine does not experience movement in such neatly defined sections.
As the dog walks, turns, lowers its head or transfers weight between limbs, movement is distributed throughout the axial skeleton. The spine must provide stability without becoming rigid and mobility without losing control. It responds to the action of the limbs, the position of the head, changes in speed and direction, and the internal demands of breathing and postural regulation.
A spinal finding therefore rarely exists entirely on its own. The greater challenge is deciding what that finding may mean within the function of the dog as a whole.
During locomotion, the spine does more than connect the forelimbs and hindlimbs. It helps to transmit force, manage rotation and adjust the position of the body as the limbs move through their respective phases of gait.
This relationship works in both directions. Altered spinal movement may influence limb use, but altered limb loading can also change how movement is expressed through the spine. A dog protecting a hindlimb may reorganise the pelvis and lumbar region. Restricted forelimb excursion may influence the thoracic spine, rib cage and cervicothoracic junction. Even the position of the head and neck can change the distribution of load through the rest of the body.
This makes spinal assessment particularly interesting and potentially misleading. The most noticeable area of tension or restriction may be clinically important, but it may also represent the place where the dog has successfully created stability in response to another difficulty.
Rather than immediately asking how to remove a restriction, we may first need to ask why it is present.
A useful spinal assessment begins with active function.
How does the dog carry its head when walking? Does the trunk move fluidly, or appear held through a particular region? Is the pelvis able to rotate and translate during gait? What happens when the dog turns, changes pace, sits or moves from lying into standing?
These transitions can reveal features that are less visible during straight-line walking. A dog may avoid turning in one direction, move the feet repeatedly before settling into a sit or use momentum to rise. None of these observations is diagnostic in isolation. Together, however, they begin to show how the dog is organising movement around the demands placed upon it.
Breed, age, conformation, training, environment and previous injury all influence this picture. The aim is not to compare every patient with an imagined model of perfect movement, but to understand what is characteristic for this dog and what may have changed.
Assessment of the spine also requires palpation. This includes more than identifying areas that feel firm, uneven or sensitive. Interpretation depends upon the depth and direction of contact, the dog’s position, the tissues being assessed and the response of the patient.
Muscular tone may vary for many reasons. It can reflect activity, anticipation, postural effort, discomfort or apprehension about being touched. An apparent asymmetry may be functionally relevant, naturally occurring or created by how the dog is standing at that moment.
For this reason, palpatory findings should remain provisional. We can compare adjacent and related regions, reassess after the dog changes position and consider whether what we feel corresponds with the active movement we have already observed.
The dog’s response must also be part of the assessment. A change in breathing, facial expression, muscle tone or willingness to remain in position may provide important information. Equally, a reaction to contact does not automatically confirm local pain or dysfunction. It prompts further enquiry rather than completing it.
Passive and accessory movement assessment can help us explore the quality and distribution of spinal motion. Yet the objective is not simply to decide whether a segment “moves” or “does not move.”
The practitioner is also considering how resistance develops, whether neighbouring regions participate, how the surrounding tissues respond and whether the dog remains comfortable throughout the assessment. Findings may alter with positioning, muscular engagement or the animal’s sense of security.
Segmental assessment is therefore most valuable when it is reintegrated into the wider clinical picture. Does the finding help to explain something observed during gait? Could it relate to altered limb loading, rib mechanics or postural strategy? Does it remain consistent when reassessed, or does it change as the dog becomes more settled?
The skill of spinal assessment lies not in collecting the greatest number of findings, but in deciding which findings matter.
This requires us to hold several possibilities at once. A region may be contributing to the presenting problem, adapting to it, protecting another structure or simply reflecting the dog’s normal variation. Our conclusions should remain proportionate to the information available and responsive to veterinary history, clinical signs and changes over time.
Where spinal pain, neurological change, trauma or progressive loss of function is suspected, timely veterinary investigation is essential. Manual assessment should support safe clinical decision-making, not attempt to replace diagnosis.
When approached thoughtfully, spinal assessment becomes less about searching for isolated lesions and more about understanding relationships. It allows us to consider how the dog is balancing mobility, stability and protection and how the spine participates in the continually changing process of keeping the whole animal moving.
For practitioners and advanced students who would like to explore and practise this process in greater depth, our face-to-face Enhancing Clinical Assessment of the Canine Spine CPD event considers functional spinal anatomy, observation, palpation, movement assessment and the integration of findings into clinically reasoned decision-making. Further details are available on the AOI course page.
If you would like to stay in touch and get first refusal on courses we run online and live, sign up today.
©️Herdwick & Goose Limited. All Rights Reserved.