Dog Massage for Lymphatic Drainage

Video Transcript

"In this segment we're going to talk about how to do lymphatic drainage. When you're doing dog massage, older dogs or dogs that have been ill, their lymphatic system may be slowing down, and when a dog walks they're naturally pumping their lymphatic drainage. And the lymph is a clear fluid that goes through the body that carries the white blood cells that act as the doctors in their systems to keep them healthy. So a simple thing that you can do to help a dog move their lymph forward is bringing your hand right into the dog's armpit. And if you cover the whole armpit and just start squeezing, you're not going to miss, and this is one of the two easiest sites to do the lymphatic drainage. In this same motion you can do this on their hind area. And get, again, into this area that's called the "flank", and bring your hand in and gently squeeze. So what you're essentially doing with your hand is just pumping the lymph through the system and you're helping all those little white blood cells travel through the system faster. And this is going to help your dogs heal from surgery, it's going to help keep older dogs healthier, if they have cuts it's going to get those white blood cells flowing to where they need to to help your dog heal and stay healthy."