This Month's Topics

This was a fractured tibia -  just above the hock (ankle) joint in a cat - the fracture is shown by the arrow.  There was not enough bone below the fracture for conventional pins or plates to be used.  In addition one of the fractured bone ends has penetrated the skin increasing the risk of infection at the fracture site.

Therefore an "external fixation" technique was used - pins were inserted through the bones, and attached to an external framework to support the fracture and stabilise it to allow healing.  This also minimises the risks of infection at the fracture site in cases like this.

This is what the same "external fixation" looks like from the "outside"

The external fixator technique can be applied to many different types of fractures in many different species;- for example

This Barn Owl sustained a fractured radius of the wing following a dog bite and the skin, muscle and bone had been crushed at the site of the injury. The fracture was repaired successfully using an external fixator (blue arrow) and Boris, as he became known, regained full use of the wing.

This valuable breeding heifer had sustained a fractured tibia which had healed out of alignment causing rotation of the hind leg. The leg was re-fractured and an external fixator was applied to correct the rotation and malalignment.

Hip dysplasia is a malformation of the hips and may be seen in young dogs from six months of age, or younger in extreme cases. It may lead to premature arthritis or can cause lameness, hip pain and instability in severe cases. In dogs where this is diagnosed at an early age, it is possible to operate to realign the pelvis so that the ball of the hip joint sits more deeply in to the socket of the joint, so creating a stable joint and preventing the development of the arthritis and discomfort.

This is the x-ray of a "normal" pelvis and hip joint. The ball of the hip joint can be seen to be set well in to the socket of the joint.

 Note however, that the hip joints are still not perfect because of slight flattening of the ball of the hip joint.

This is a young dog severely affected with a hip dysplasia. The ball of each joint can be seen to be sat outside the socket.

A triple pelvic osteotomy has been performed to align the left side of the pelvis over the hip joint (blue arrow) to bring the ball of the joint within the socket and to create a stable joint. The same procedure can be performed in the other joint (yellow arrow) at a later stage.

Animals may eat linear foreign bodies such as string and they will often pass through the intestines without incident, but if one end of the string becomes trapped at, for example, round the tongue or in the stomach, then the intestines will concertina up along the string and it will cause an obstruction.

This is a radiograph of a cat which has just swallowed a string bag which had become lodged in the stomach and the end of the bag had caused the intestines to become bunched up as indicated by the arrows on the x-ray.

This is the appearance of the intestines at surgery and they can be seen to be inflamed and concertinaed.

The string bag has been removed by incising the intestines and the stomach at various sites.

Injury to one of the salivary glands can cause saliva to collect under the skin. To treat this condition the entire salivary gland needs to be removed to prevent further leakage of saliva.
 

The skin overlying the throat behind the jaw is swollen due to the accumulation of saliva.

The salivary gland is being dissected away to reveal the damaged portion of the gland.

The gland is being removed in its entirety and the patient made an uneventful recovery from surgery.