External fixation

A deformed dachshund puppy is now back on her feet after corrective surgery at a leading veterinary referral centre in the Midlands with West Midlands Referrals.

External fixation is a way of fixing fractures that sometimes troubles owners but rarely troubles their pets! Pins come out through the skin and are joined to a connecting bar by a series of clamps.

Beau, a gentle middle aged Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch, was mauled in the park by another dog in an unprovoked attack that left the accompanying owners with bite wounds.

This young dog suffered a tricky distal tibial fracture with limited soft bone at the lower end of the tibia (shin bone). It was fixed with a hybrid external fixator using a circular ring.

Kwazii presented to us at West Midlands Referrals with a comminuted (shattered), open (soft tissue wounds connecting the fracture to the outside) fracture of the radius and ulna (bones of the forearm).

Dressings/casts/splints often seem like a perfect, economical, minimally invasive and straightforward way to immobilise fractures. Still, some issues relating to casts or splints make them less than ideal: We have delved into the issue surrounding their use at West Midlands Referrals.

A 2y old, 30kg racing greyhound presented after sustaining an injury on the track. X-rays showed a slab fracture of the right central tarsal bone, and of the medial proximal corner of the 4th tarsal bone (T4) too.

A 12y female cat presented to us ar West Midlands Referrals with a 3-week-old tarsometatarsal fracture luxation.