Brilliant Beau’s Knee Surgery
By: KellyBeau’s Knee Surgery Story
This is a story about a little lady called Beau, a 7-month-old terrier cross, and her big knee surgery! So, with all the doom and gloom that fills our social media we wanted to spread some puppy love!
Beau came in to see us at Bright Side Vets in February after becoming painful and unable to bear weight through her right back leg.
Beau sustained a significant but relatively common injury in young dogs called a ‘Tibial tuberosity avulsion fracture’. This occurs when the force of the patella ligament pulls suddenly and abnormally on the top of the ‘shin’ bone. This causes a piece of bone to become dislodged upward causing lots of pain and instability of the knee joint.
The image to the right includes two photos of Beau’s before and after X-rays. Beau’s knee before surgery with the piece of bone dislodged and Beau’s knee after surgery with pins and wires to keep the bone stable.
When assessing Beau with an examination including x-rays, the diagnosis was made and Beau was scheduled in for her big knee surgery.
The surgery itself involves using orthopaedic wires and pins to secure the bone back into place. This then relieves pain and instability in the leg. At Bright Side Vets we see and perform an array of tricky orthopaedic surgeries, such as Beau’s knee surgery. We can do this as our wonderful Head vet Kelly is a surgical certificate holder and advanced practitioner!
Beau, the brave soldier, can be seen here receiving cuddles from our wonderful nurses. The post-operative period after a big surgery involves huge amounts of care from our nursing team. This includes making sure the patients are safe, turned, massaged, and warmed correctly.
Each orthopaedic surgery is very different. Our nurses are there to help owners with the strict exercise and physiotherapy program required afterwards. Beau’s owners have been very good in making sure this has been done during the 6 weeks of recovery. This is all so important to help make the surgical outcome as successful as possible.
Beau has been seen back several times for vet and nurse check ups and follow up x-rays to check all is healing well.
