Normal and Abnormal Muscle

Healthy muscles are the foundation of sound movement in dogs. As a veterinarian or veterinary technician, you’ve likely felt the difference between supple, responsive muscle and tissue that’s tight, ropy, or tender. This section of the Canine Myofascial Therapy Course focuses on teaching you to differentiate normal from abnormal muscle tone, texture, and responsiveness.

Why This Matters in Practice

Dogs can’t tell us where they hurt, but their muscles reveal the story. Abnormal muscle can result from:

• Injury or trauma
• Overcompensation for joint pain
• Chronic neurological issues
• Postural adaptations from poor conformation

If left unaddressed, these changes often perpetuate pain and reduce function, even if the original injury has healed.

What You’ll Learn

In this course module, you’ll develop hands-on palpation skills to:

• Recognize normal resting muscle tone
• Detect early signs of dysfunction
• Identify fibrosis, atrophy, and hypertonicity
• Understand how muscle condition reflects overall biomechanics

By learning to feel these subtle differences, you’ll catch issues sooner and design more targeted rehabilitation or pain management plans.

Treatment Implications

Spotting abnormal muscle is the first step to applying therapies such as myofascial release, targeted stretching, electrotherapy, or rehabilitation exercises. This knowledge helps you:

• Treat the root cause of gait changes
• Prevent secondary injuries
• Improve recovery outcomes for surgical and non-surgical cases

CEU Credit & Quizzes

This section earns you 9 CEU hours and includes interactive quizzes to reinforce your skills.