27/01/2022
All creatures great and.... SMALL!
As veterinarians we are very privileged to work on a wide variety of species. This makes our day-to-day job very interesting.
Even within a species, we deal with so many variations which poses it’s own set of challenges.
This was the case with Buttons, the most adorable 4 month old Yorkshire terrier.
IMAGE 1: Buttons with Baldivis Veterinary Advanced Surgery Centre nurse Meg.
Buttons (all 2.7 kg of him!) was outside playing with the other family dog and was later found to be non-weight bearing his back leg.
X-rays taken by Baldivis Vet Hospital revealed that the poor little guy had fractured his tibia, clearly an accident however it can happen easily with little bones such as his.
Image 2. The tibia fracture can be seen clearly on this view.
Luckily, although it's still not nice to go through, this was not a bad fracture as far as fractures go. The bone had broken into 2 neat fragments and the pieces would fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The fragments had also not displaced too badly making it easier to put back together.
So what might be so challenging? This little bone only measures 5 mm in diameter, and is only 68 mm in length (see the post-operative x-rays to appreciate the small size)!
The challenge is trying to find implants (plates, screws, pins etc.) that are small enough to fit on this bone without further damaging it. Yet the implants need to be strong enough to last the healing period.
Following some careful planning it was decided to repair this little bone with a rod down the central bone shaft and some orthopedic wire. The biggest pin we could fit down the shaft of this bone only measures 0.8 mm!
Images 3 and 4. Here the fracture has been repaired with an intra-medullary rod and orthopedic wire. Note the size of the bone compared to my reading glasses!
Buttons has now gone home and is currently making great recovery!
