Pet of the Month

Gus is an 8 year old working kelpie. In January during the fires on a Sunday, Gus was helping to move a mob of sheep past the shearing shed. The mob looked like it was going to break on the left, so Gus headed around the mob to control the break. Unfortunately, with his concentration on the mob and moving at top speed, he failed to see a parked tractor with attached hay forks that were raised about 30cm above the ground directly in his path.   Gus became impaled on the hay forks!   One prong, sharp on the end but about 50mm in diameter and over a metre in length, pierced the outer thigh of his right leg, smashed the femur and exited on the inside. Gus was moving at such speed that he slid up the entire length of the prong until he reached the hay fork frame.

Gus’s owner rang the Clinic after hours line and Dr Greg Johnsson and head nurse Camila Aerts immediately prepared and set off to see what could be done. After reaching the farm,  Gus was given a very heavy sedation and was extracted off of the prong. The leg was bandaged to stabilise it and control bleeding, antibiotics and pain relief were administered and he was then taken back to the Clinic where full anaesthesia was induced and the large wound was flushed and cleaned as much as possible.   Xrays revealed the full extent of the damage – the femur was in a number of pieces directly communicating with a very contaminated penetrating wound. Fortunately there was no nerve damage so the decision was made to attempt to put the leg back together again.  

A few days later, Gus underwent a 4 hour surgery in which the area was opened and cleaned, bone fragments were repositioned and a supra condylar plate and screws were applied. The team at the Clinic were hoping for the best knowing that Gus had a number of things going against a successful recovery. Two days later Gus was standing on his leg and a week later he went home.   Gus has continued to make good progress. A couple of weeks after getting home he slipped his chain and went for a 10km run! It will take at least 12 weeks for the bone to fully heal and for Gus to return to normal work and there may be issues yet to come, but at this stage everything is going as well as could be expected.  

Over the last few months we have seen a number of dogs with fractures caused by falling from moving vehicles or accidents such as this one with Gus. Whilst our success rate putting broken legs back together is pretty high, we prefer that these injuries did not occur. Please think about what might happen if you don’t restrain your dogs on moving vehicles or leave implements positioned in a manner such as was the cause of Gus’s injury. A little extra time and thought could save you and your dog money, time and a painful accident down the track.