Neutering
You may remember the lovely Jackson, a gorgeous award winning Whippet who is Salters fed.
Well we received a lovely catch up from his owners this week, who filled us in on whats been happening with Jackson.
Jackson started racing at the beginning of 2019 and it was looking like he would continue his form from 2018 in which he concluded by winning the Whippet News Top Ten on only 12 appearances through the year!
Jackson won his first few races in 2019 winning Supreme Dog on at least two of these, what a fantastic achievement!
But sadly after this Jackson picked up a fairly serious injury. He did not seem to perform to his usual standards and so he was checked by The Animal Chiro, Phil Milner.
After a thorough check it was confirmed that Jackson had a small tear in his Gracilis muscle in one of his back legs.
This type of injury can cause racing dogs to retire and time is a great healer.
Initially Jackson had no walking and was kept as inactive as possible to prevent any further damage to the muscle.
After a few weeks his owners started lead walking Jackson, gradually increasing the distance.
Eventually he returned to his normal distance of daily walking to keep his muscles working but preventing any risk of further damage to the Gracilis muscle.
Jackson remained on the lead for 11 weeks after his injury during which time he was checked by The Animal Chiro and also a vet specialising in racing dogs, both of whom confirmed the tear in is muscle had healed which was great news.
After 11 weeks Jackson was allowed off the lead so they took him to the beach where the ground was nice and soft. He had a good time being ‘free’ for the first time in a long while!
Jackson was walked off the lead on a regular basis.
He also started hydrotherapy which is good for working the muscles without any weight bearing.
Jackson was a bit apprehensive at first but soon took to it and has progressed well. He is still going to the hydrotherapy as part of his recovery programme.
Jackson has also started free running and he is stretching out nicely. He has had a few weeks of this now and will soon be hand slipped to run behind the lure again.
During his recovery Jackson has been checked by the Animal Chiro on a regular basis and Jackson’s owners can’t thank him enough.
The Chiro, Phil & his partner Keeley also race whippets which are fed on Salters food… What a small world!
Jackson will not be entering any big races until 2020 although he will still be running as part of his recovery. He has just turned three so is still young.
Jackson was being fed on Salters Energy but when he picked up his injury he was changed over to Salters Maintenance.
A 15kg bag of Salters lasts Jackson and his 4 dog pals, approximately 6 weeks.
If Jackson was the only one of the dogs to be fed on Salters, a 15kg bag would last him over 180 days and this works out to be approximately 37p per day which is great value!!
Kathryn Spark, Jackson’s owner says “Salters food maintains Jackson vitality and appearance”.
We wish Jackson all the very best in his recovery from injury and will keep you updated with further news as we receive it.
With special thanks to Kathryn for providing us with the update.
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