Broken leg

[Echo24]

My poor boy broke his leg nearly three months ago after my pony stamped on him. He was operated by an orthopaedic specialist and his leg was pinned as he broke two bones in his hock near the joint, one of which was a very small bit of bone held by a pin so he was on strict crate rest for 8 weeks. He was xrayed and apart from the small bone which was healing slowly, they were happy for him to start gradual exercise. He ended up at the emergency vets for two days due to haemorrhagic diarrhoea and his broken leg ballooned. Vets said it could be fluid build up but since the swelling has gone down his leg looks lumpy! I was a bit concerned and sent photos to the surgeon who wasn't worried as he will walk on it and weight bear and there's no signs of limping. He has suggested that if he seems in pain to have the pins removed but otherwise to keep them in. Doing some research it seems to indicate if I was to remove the pins it's better to do it sooner rather than later. He is 7 and I'm worried he may develop OCD and DJD soon (we are currently supplementing with YuMove). Anyone have experience with dogs with broken legs? Did they have their pins removed or have they stayed in their leg and still had a good quality of life?

 

[sarah.oxford]

Not exactly the same thing, but my friend has a whippet who has a small metal plate in his hind leg, and it doesn't seem to bother him at all.
The only experience I have of the pins was when a cat we had , got run over and she also had to be very restricted for 6-8 weeks, we kept her in a reasonable sized crate, she was furious! I know that she had the pins removed, it sticks in my mind as they were much bigger than we expected, thicker than you would think for a tiny cat.
I don't know if leaving them in was ever a possibility, it was a few years ago.

 

[Echo24]

Thanks Sarah. His leg is quite big in comparison to his other one and we were told this was due to the amount of metal work around the hock joint. A friend is a hydrotherapist and asked if the metal work would be removed. It's been such a long recovery process the other dilemma is whether to put him through another big op and two months of crate rest once the pins are removed. I also wonder at his age am I better doing it now and not when he gets older and will struggle to recover from such a big op.

 

[CorvusCorax]

My old female broke a front leg and was pinned before she was a year old and lived to 14 (large breed) back in the days when the surgery was pretty experimental. Only difference was that she couldn't flex the left leg as well as the right. The metal stayed in for life.

Having said that, this doesn't sound ideal. I do know of a harlequin Great Dane who had a rear leg amputated after complications and lived to a right old age and still very active.

 

[Moobli]

One of my husband's sheepdogs broke his leg (snapped femur) a year and a half ago and his leg was pinned. The metalwork is still in his leg. Even after the strict crate rest and slowly building him back up for work he would limp intermittently on the other leg (not the one he broke) so he saw a canine physio every week for around 12 weeks with very little improvement. Hubby then took him to hydrotherapy - not the usual type of swimming, but where the dog's joints were manipulated in warm water, and it was found he actually had a front shoulder out, which was manipulated back into place and he has been fine (touch lots of wood!) since.

Obviously ours is a different case to yours, and I would be slightly concerned about how you are describing your dog's leg - but if you trust your vet, and they have reassured you it is fine then I would probably wait a while and see how things progress.

 

[Echo24]

Thank you for all your replies. At the moment he appears happy and pain free (although he has a very high pain threshold, vet was shocked at how he coped with his broken leg when he was first admitted) so we might just see how he progresses with the hydrotherapy. We have been told he will develop arthritis in that leg (always been one of my biggest worries) but I guess we will have to manage it.

Obviously ours is a different case to yours, and I would be slightly concerned about how you are describing your dog's leg - but if you trust your vet, and they have reassured you it is fine then I would probably wait a while and see how things progress.

That was my concern, before he was admitted to the vets for his pancreatitis his leg didn't look lumpy so my concern is something has happened to the screws and pins. I hope with the fact that he will weight bear and stand on it to cock his leg means he isn't in too much pain and no damage has been done to it. Unfortunately we are maxed out with the insurance (it has cost us £6k and counting with hydro) so another op will probably push it to the £10k mark!!

 

[yhanni]

My EBT broke her leg last September and was pinned. She was also crated for 8 weeks and then had a slow rehab. I was advised to have the pin removed as apparently it can move and irritate the surrounding structures, which it did on one occasion. She wouldn't weight bear and I rushed her back to the vet where she was X rayed and that was deemed to be the likely cause. The next day she was perfectly fine again. The pin was removed in January (just in for the day) and she was then supposed to have a fortnight's crate confinement with controlled on lead exercise. She was having none of that and after the first 24 hours, she was spinning in her crate!! Currently, she is, to all intents and purposes, back to her usual jolly self and shows no signs of lameness even after walking for hours and charging around the garden chasing pigeons and squirrels! BTW, the pin removal was about £250 - can't remember exactly.

 

[cremedemonthe]

My lurcher did this

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she went to Fizpatricks (supervet on tv) and he put the plate rod and pins in as below.
She was crated for several weeks. He said that if the rod moves up to the point that we can feel it coming up out of the end of the femur then he'd remove it but it never has and she runs like the wind now and has no problems with it.

[/URL]

 

[Echo24]

Wow! That is impressive and what a horrible break! My worry is that the rods have moved but I'm not a trained vet and they believe it's fine and not to worry. That's lovely yours will still have a good run around!

 

[cremedemonthe]

Wow! That is impressive and what a horrible break! My worry is that the rods have moved but I'm not a trained vet and they believe it's fine and not to worry. That's lovely yours will still have a good run around!

Thanks, she's getting up to speeds of around 40 mph (saluki x whippet) and I have given up watching her tear round our meadow (full of holes where the cows have walked) incase she breaks the other one!

 

[yhanni]

Crikey CdeM!! She made a proper job of that! Fantastic mending though, as you'd expect.

 

[Echo24]

Thanks, she's getting up to speeds of around 40 mph (saluki x whippet) and I have given up watching her tear round our meadow (full of holes where the cows have walked) incase she breaks the other one!

How old is she? My boy is 7 years old and used to tear around but sadly I don't think he ever will after this break.

 

[Echo24]

Bad news unfortunately, my dog wouldn't weight bear on his leg this morning and it looked more swollen so whipped him to the vet (not the specialist). She thinks the pin has in fact moved and he needs an xray with the plan to most probably remove the metal work by the specialist when he's back in. Just hope it's not an infection and hopefully it will heal properly. Potentially another two months of crate rest