One of the best things about our new practice in Bridlington is that all our small animal services are under one roof. This has shown its value to our customers and their pets time and time again, even in the short months since we opened late last year.
One patient who benefitted from this was Penny, an absolutely delightful springer spaniel who came into the practice after an eventful outing and an incident with a fence, resulting in a fractured elbow. It’s fair to say people throughout the Aldgate team have got to know her very well over the past few weeks.
A complex fracture for a dog
Penny was admitted straight away at our Bridlington hospital where her injuries were assessed – a clearly broken leg requiring some pain relief and then imaging to assess where the fracture was and to help our team plan how best to treat it.
Gill, one of our directors and vets, said: “Penny was radiographed that morning, revealing a markedly comminuted Y/T distal humeral fracture. In layman’s terms her elbow at the bottom of her humerus bone was in lots of pieces! In the words of our consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Patrick, who reviewed her radiographs (below) the same day, ‘This is quite possibly the most complex fracture a spaniel can sustain’.”
Based on the severity of the fracture, we went ahead and had a CT scan (above) performed on both her elbows using our in-house facilities. The report showed the full extent of the fracture but also a possible fissure in her right elbow which meant there would be a chance it could fracture in the future.
Penny stayed hospitalised in our 24/7 facilities for seven days until she had surgery on her left elbow by Patrick. He did an amazing job as there were so many fragments we were close to making the decision to amputate. However, he was able to plate and screw everything together (see x-rays below).
Post-operative complications
The next six weeks were challenging: she remained in the hospital for a further few days before arriving home. She was limited to strict crate rest and structured lead walks. Six weeks after the operation, Penny was doing tremendously well, despite a few complications, which required some assistance from our rehabilitation team.
She delivered a seroma (fluid under the skin at site of surgical wound), requiring laser treatment and extended pain relief and a course of antibiotics. It turns out Penny is quite sensitive to suture material and over six weeks her body slowly rejected the sutures and we had to remove fragments as they came to the skin surface. This complication delayed her trip in the underwater treadmill with our rehab team. However, after her six-week post op x-rays, we were able to remove the rest of the stitches under anaesthesia, and she was then good to go.
Bouncing back like only a spaniel can
Patrick had recommended a further six weeks of lead exercise but was happy to insert a screw in her elbow to address the fissure and hopefully prevent her from fracturing this leg in the future. Poor Penny then underwent her fourth general anaesthetic for her second surgery with Patrick. She bounced back from this as if nothing had happened, which proved challenging. Imagine trying to keep a bouncy springer spaniel on restricted exercise for another six weeks!
Gill said: “We are now four months on from her initial accident and she is an absolute joy, loved by all the staff at Aldgate as she has been through every department. She is now on rehabilitation treatments once or twice a week with laser therapy, physio and exercise on the underwater treadmill to build up her muscles. Her lameness is markedly reduced and muscle strength is building back up.”
To find out more about all the services on offer to small animals at our Bridlington hospital, visit the small animal page or call us on 01262 677269.
