Ashanti is a beautiful 3 year old female Saluki that was taken on as a rescue by her owners in January of last year.

She presented to us one Sunday in December after her owner reported that her leg had become caught and she was limping & crying.  On presentation it was obvious she had fractured the radius and ulna bones of her right foreleg.

Radiographs were performed which revealed a previous surgical repair on the same limb carried out when she was under the care of another practice.  Ashanti’s leg had now fractured at the end of the original surgical plate. This would have been the weakest point of the limb and therefore took the force of the stress or impact upon the leg.  The presence of this previous implant would cause further complications for surgery – the screws and their holes that were previously implanted had caused fusion between her radius and ulna bone and led to marked bone loss from the top of her radius.  Images 1 & 2 below show this.

Martin took on Ashanti’s care and performed her surgery assisted by Penny Barnard-Brown.   A surgical treatment plan was made and discussed with her owners, including potential complications.  The owner’s gave consent and surgery was scheduled.

At the time of surgery the old plates and screws were removed including removal of any fibrous tissue which would affect the new plate positioning.  Her bones were reduced to produce good alignment and a bridging plate was secured to keep the bones together whilst they healed.  A bone graft was taken from her humerus as a donor site and packed at the fracture site to aid healing.  Post operative radiograph is shown in image 3.  Recovery was smooth and Ashanti remained hospitalised with us until 3 days post-operatively when she was discharged home to her owners with medication and absolute strict rest.

By 8 weeks post operatively Ashanti was walking well with no lameness or pain associated with the limb.  She was admitted for follow up radiographs which revealed good new bone growth at the fracture site and that the implants remained in a suitable position.  This is shown in image 6.  Ashanti could now, slowly, start to build up exercise once again.

The last image shows her visiting our Meopham grooming salon with her sister.