Pioneers in Canine Performance Medicine

The Sams Clinic provides comprehensive musculoskeletal diagnosis and treatment for canine athletes, working dogs, and highly active companions, from acute injury and lameness to recurrent, unresolved, or complex performance-limiting conditions.

Common reasons for evaluation include:

• Shoulder instability, biceps disease, supraspinatus injury, iliopsoas injury, tendon, ligament, and muscle injury
• Cranial cruciate ligament disease, meniscal injury, intra-articular inflammation, cartilage injury, joint instability, and osteoarthritis
• Carpal, tarsal, digit, and load-bearing injuries associated with jumping, turning, braking, impact, and repetitive work
• Lumbosacral, pelvic, compensatory, and load-bearing pain patterns affecting movement, power, or performance
• Reduced speed, power, endurance, confidence, precision, stride and movement quality, or task performance
• Persistent lameness, recurrent injury, delayed recovery, or failure to return to previous performance
• Complex, unresolved, or previously treated cases requiring advanced orthopedic and sports medicine evaluation

Evaluation is individualized to your dog’s condition, history, and performance demands to identify the anatomic, pathologic, and biomechanical factors responsible for pain, instability, dysfunction, or performance limitation.

• Objective quantitative gait analysis to detect subtle abnormalities
• Musculoskeletal ultrasound for dynamic evaluation of tendons, ligaments, muscles, joints, and other soft tissues
• Arthroscopic and needle-scope evaluation of intra-articular disease
• Review of prior imaging, treatment, rehabilitation, and performance history
• CT and other advanced imaging when indicated
• Interpretation in the context of sport, work, workload, conditioning, and performance demands

Treatment recommendations are specific to your dog’s diagnosis, clinical condition, and performance requirements, with the goal of restoring durable function through the least invasive medically appropriate path back to safe performance.

Treatment may include:

• Arthroscopic and other minimally invasive treatments
• Ultrasound-guided therapeutic procedures
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP), bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC), adipose-derived cellular therapy, and other orthobiologic treatments
• Performance-focused rehabilitation, conditioning, and therapeutic exercise
• Orthopedic repair, reconstruction, and stabilization when indicated
• Coordinated expertise in surgery, sports medicine, rehabilitation, and regenerative medicine

Return-to-performance planning is specific to your dog’s recovery, functional readiness, and the physical demands your dog must safely resume in sport, work, service, hunting, or active life.

Planning may include:

• Objective assessment of movement quality, biomechanics, and functional recovery
• Performance-readiness evaluation based on the demands of your dog’s specific sport, work, or activity
• Graduated return-to-sport, return-to-work, and return-to-duty progression
• Strength, conditioning, workload progression, and performance capacity development
• Sport-, work-, and task-specific performance planning
• Long-term performance preservation and reinjury risk reduction

Performance care does not end after treatment, because the demands of sport, work, service, and duty continue as your dog returns to activity and performance evolves over time.

Long-term support with The Sams Clinic may include:

• Early evaluation of new, recurrent, or compensatory concerns
• Performance monitoring over time
• Performance preservation and injury-risk assessment
• Management of chronic orthopedic or mobility-limiting conditions
• Guidance as training, competition, duty, workload, age, or career demands change

The Sams Clinic’s specialists helped pioneer, validate, teach, and advance many of the methods and technologies that define modern veterinary sports medicine.

• Pioneering canine arthroscopy, needle-scope technology, and minimally invasive orthopedic techniques
• Advancing diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound and precision localization in veterinary sports medicine
• Developing and validating orthobiologic and regenerative treatment applications
• Translating human orthopedic, sports medicine, rehabilitation, and performance science into veterinary practice
• Advancing the profession through foundational research, publications, and education
• Training surgeons, sports medicine specialists, and rehabilitation veterinarians through specialty colleges, procedural laboratories, and international education