Orthopaedics

Sky, an active young lurcher, luxated (dislocated) her right shoulder.

Hips can dislocate (luxate) because of trauma, or sometimes because of underlying pathology (hip dysplasia).

Harvey, a gentle, elderly crossbred male, who had serious elbow degenerative joint disease (DJD) – “osteoarthritis” was bought to us at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals in Burton-Upon-Trent.

A Spinone Louis was unlucky enough to get an osteosarcoma aggressive bone tumour in a hind limb in 2012. He had a hind limb amputation with us, and his likely survival time with this and chemotherapy was about a year. There is an information sheet on osteosarcoma on our West Midlands Veterinary Referrals website under the section for owners (and the one for vets), in the subsection of “fact sheets”.

Jagger was a 3 year old, 65kg, gentle giant of a Mastiff. When his cruciate ligament ruptured in his left stifle (knee) joint, he needed surgery which was done at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals.

Rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament is one of the commonest problems that is referred to us. The rupture of this ligament can be partial or complete and the cartilage in the knee can be damaged because of the instability that results.

Poppy, a 6-month-old Labrador puppy, sustained a fractured radius and ulna, bones in the forelimb. These were already healing by the time we saw her. As well as healing to themselves, they also unfortunately healed to each other as well. So the two bones were now linked in a “synostosis”.

Flexor tendon contraction in pups is reasonably common and can be pretty upsetting for owners as the pups look “crippled”.

Bailey is an 8-year-old Labrador. He has had chronic right elbow degenerative joint disease and lameness, but a left elbow lameness was recently evident. A mobile blob of cartilage and bone was visible on x-ray and palpable in the joint when he was under GA.

Total hip replacements are going from strength to strength at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals. We use a cementless system (Kyon and Biometrix). Doing plenty and getting a slick system and team in place is the key to minimising complications with this procedure. We are doing one a week. THRs take a lot of preparation – infection prevention is critical for success – but the results can be really satisfying.