Pins and wires

We regularly get cats referred for treatment of fractured jaws after being injured in road traffic accidents. We have been doing at least one of these cases every week for a month or two recently.

Fracture through the weaker cartilage growth plate that is situated at the end of the femur (thigh bone) is relatively common in juvenile cats. These can occur following trauma within the house with the high-jinks that young cats get up to, or after accidents outside, such as road traffic accidents etc.

Dodo, an 8 month old French Bulldog, suffered a fracture of a forelimb during play. The bones of the forelimb are the radius and the ulna, and the fracture affected the growth plates of the radius and the ulna, from which these bones grow.

Ralph, a 5 month old Yorkie pup, suffered a fracture of the proximal (top) end of his tibia (shin) bone just below his stifle (knee). This fracture involved the growth plate, the cartilage zone from which bone grows and which appears as a black line on x-rays near the ends of the long bones in growing dogs.

Pablo, a cat presented to us with a tricky fracture of the femur (thigh bone). The bottom end that forms part of the knee joint was comminuted (multiple fragments).

Nellie a 5-month-old female Border Collie, destined to be a working sheep dog, managed to break the ball of her femur off the rest of the femur. The fracture occurred through the growth plate.