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View Previous Case of the
Month Reports- click here
 Jake
is an 8 year old chocolate labrador retriever who took a nap in the
wrong place!
Last week, Jake decided to find a bit of shade under his owner's truck
and fell
asleep. The owner started up the truck and ran over Jake as he headed
off. Fortunately,
he felt the bump and heard the dog scream and backed off of him quickly.
They scooped Jake up in a blanket and rushed him into the clinic. When
they arrived, they relayed what had happened. The owners reported that
he had been able to stand on 3 legs prior to their
transporting him in. He was unable to use his right hind leg however.
When they arrived, Jake was
shocky, his gums were pale and he was panting in pain.
After a thorough physical exam, it was clear that the right thigh bone
was fractured. We admitted Jake to the hospital and did a series
of tests (blood tests, x-rays, and electrocardiogram) to determine the
extent of his injuries. We administered IV fluids and drugs to fight
against the shock and pain. Within a few hours Jake was resting more
comfortably and
we were sure that his only major injury was the broken femur.
Pre operative radiographs of
the broken femur
When pets are hit by cars,
they frequently sustain internal injuries which may not be apparent at
first exam. Therefore, we allowed Jake to stabilize for 24 hours and
then took him to surgery. Looking at the radiographs above, you can see
that this is a complex fracture with 3 major fragments. Once we opened
the leg, we found one of the smaller fragments was not stable enough to
rebuild a stable bone. Therefore we had to apply a strong plate across
the fracture site which will allow the bone to fill in the gap left by
the shattered fragement. We harvested a bone graft from the shin bone
(tibia) and packed it in the wound to help facilitate bone growth. At
the end of the surgery the bone looked very stable:
Whenever a bone breaks, there
is a lot of hemorrhage and bruising. Post operatively, the leg was
swollen and bruised, but Jake was able to move it and toe-touch when
walking. He stayed in the hospital for a few more days and was
discharged with instructions to keep him strictly restrained for 8 weeks
while the bone heals. We will be checking Jake every week during the
healing phase and repeating radiographs of the leg at 2 and 8 weeks.
Jake has a very good prognosis for regaining full use of the limb.
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