Rocky Skateboarding
Rocky, a young Yorkshire terrier, was involved in an unfortunate and rather unusual accident: he had fallen off a skateboard and consequently broken both his forelimbs. This is not an uncommon fracture, in fact fractures of the radius and ulna (the bones in the foreleg) are the third most common fractures in dogs. The incidence of these fractures is particularly high in small and miniature breeds of dogs, like Yorkies.
Initially his own vet had tried to mend the fractures by stabilising the bones with a splint. Since young animals heal rapidly, a padded plastic splint is often enough to stabilise a relatively stable fracture. It normally has to stay on for 4 to 6 weeks. However, in Rocky’s case the fracture fragments failed to unite and heal in this time, and he ended up with a so called non-union fracture.
Rocky was then referred to Nantwich Veterinary Hospital to see Tom, one of our orthopaedic surgeons. He explained to the owner that small breeds of dogs are particularly prone to the non-union of fractures of the radius and ulna. In around 85% of these cases the forearm fractures do not want to heal. This could be due to several reasons: one of those is that small dogs have a poor blood supply to the lower part of the radius bone, so healing can take longer than other bones in the body.
Tom opted for a surgical approach to warrant a successful outcome. Rocky was anaesthetised, and Tom meticulously stabilised the fractured bones with plates and screws.
This time Rocky’s bones healed well and Rocky is back to his normal self.
But…. no more skateboarding for Rocky!!!