Hello everyone! Welcome to March’s Pet of the Month. What a few months we’ve had since the last winner – we have met some incredible new patients as well as seeing some of our lovely regulars for routine appointments. This month, meet Colin Percy – a 4-year-old cockapoo who got into a scrap with a car… and somehow won!
Colin Percy (what a wonderful name!) came to see vet Kelly as an emergency on a Saturday afternoon in January. He was clipped by a car and although managing to walk away, was clearly in a lot of pain with issues around his tail. He was transferred to our brilliant out-of-hours provider at MiNight Vet in Castle Donington who performed his xrays which unfortunately showed he had a fracture at the bottom of his spine. Devastating news for Colin and his very worried parents. The worry with a spinal fracture in this position is that it may result in lifelong incontinence and meant that Colin would unlikely ever gain function of his tail again. The next few days were critical and involved Colin being kept on high doses of pain relief and very careful monitoring of his bladder via ultrasound scanning. If his bladder were to get too large and he didn’t pass any urine, Colin would’ve needed a urinary catheter placed. Thankfully, a day later he managed to urinate by himself and even managed to cock his leg for it! After hospital visits from his very concerned owners and a few days of rest, Colin was ready to be discharged back to us.
Colin’s tail had sadly not moved at all since the car accident. Discussions with a neurologist suggested that unfortunately function was ever likely to return and similarly, the nerves to his bottom may have been damaged beyond the body’s ability to repair itself. Colin needed more time to be able to see how much function of the area he was going to regain. In this time, damage to his back end needed to be minimised as much as possible – very difficult when Colin couldn’t feel any of his tail! Due to this, it was decided that Colin’s tail needed to be amputated as close to the fracture as possible.
The accident having happened on the Saturday, Colin Percy was with us having his tail amputated by the Monday. An incredibly stressful few days for both Colin and his fantastic owners who all the way through would do anything to make him feel better. The surgery went smoothly with him coming home that day with some additional pain relief. Every few days, Colin was then in to visit us for his post operative checks. At one point, the surgical site swelled and formed a ‘seroma’. This is a lump caused by a build-up of clear fluid in a tissue, organ, or body cavity. It usually goes away on its own but may need to be drained with a needle and can happen with different surgeries. It did cause Colin to have a rather large bottom for a while but with time and regular check-ups, this swelling reduced hugely.
From thereon in, it was only onwards and upwards for Colin Percy. He continued to improve and was one of our first patients to use the new laser therapy clinic with the lovely Helen from Listen to the Paws. Over 6 sessions, Helen used a medical laser to specifically target Colin’s hips and pelvis. This penetrates the tissues to increase the oxygen supply in the affected area. The aim is to promote faster healing and altering the nerves to result in an ongoing lower perception of pain. If you would like to know more about laser therapy and whether it would be an option for your pet, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Colin Percy continues to do excellently and is always a ray of sunshine when he comes into the practice. Due to his owners quick action and dedication, Colin was able to get all the treatment he needed to make an excellent recovery.