Acquisition of Involuntary Spinal Locomotion (Spinal Walking) in Dogs with Irreversible Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Lesion: 81 Dogs

Abstract

Background: Spinal walking (SW) is described as the acquisition of an involuntary motor function in paraplegic dogs and cats without pain perception affected by a thoracolumbar lesion. Whereas spinal locomotion is well described in cats that underwent training trials after experimental spinal cord resection, less consistent information is available for dogs.

Hypothesis: Paraplegic dogs affected by a thoracolumbar complete spinal cord lesion undergoing intensive physical rehabilitation could acquire an autonomous SW gait under field conditions.

Animals: Eighty-one acute paraplegic thoracolumbar dogs without pelvic limb pain perception.

Methods: Retrospective study of medical records of dogs selected for intensive rehabilitation treatment in paraplegic dogs with absence of pain perception on admission and during the whole treatment. Binary regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze potential associations with the development of SW.

Results: Autonomous SW was achieved in 48 dogs (59%). Median time to achieve SW was of 75.5 days (range: 16-350 days). On univariate analysis, SW gait was associated with younger age (P = .002) and early start of physiotherapy (P = .024). Multivariate logistic regression showed that younger age (≤60 months) and lightweight (≤7.8 kg) were positively associated with development of SW (P = .012 and P < .001, respectively). BCS, full-time hospitalization, and type and site of the lesion were not significantly associated with development of SW.

Conclusions: Dogs with irreversible thoracolumbar lesion undergoing intensive physiotherapic treatment can acquire SW. Younger age and lightweight are positively associated with the development of SW gait.

Keywords: dog; pain perception; paraplegia; physiotherapy.

Figure 1

Selection of the dogs' population.

Figure 2

Distribution of different site of lesion in SW and No‐SW dogs. SW: Spinal walking group; No‐SW: group of dogs that did not achieve spinal walking. Figure shows that the most frequently site of lesion was at the level of Th12‐Th13 in both groups (20 and 13 dogs in SW and No‐SW dogs, respectively). No significant association was found between the site of lesion and the development of SW (P = .93). Nine dogs of “SW group” had multiple sites of lesions; 6 dogs of “No‐SW group” had multiple sites of lesion.

Figure 3

ROC curve of age. Figure shows the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve used to select the optimum cutoff value of age to discriminate dogs with SW gait from dogs with No‐SW gait. It shows that dogs aging equal or less than 60 months had higher possibilities to achieve SW, with a sensitivity of 72.9% and a specificity of 60.6%. (95% CI: 0.53–0.75).

Figure 4

ROC curve of weight. Figure shows the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve used to select the optimum cutoff value of weight to discriminate dogs with SW gait from dogs with No‐SW gait. It shows that dogs weighting equal or less than 7.8 kg had higher possibilities to achieve SW, with a sensitivity of 54.2% and a specificity of 93.9%. (95% CI: 0.63–0.83).