Daisy the working collie and her broken leg.

Daisy is a working collie on a local beef and sheep farm. She had an altercation with a tractor and this mismatch resulted in a broken radius and ulna. We originally repaired this with a metal plate and screws. Daisy was not the most co-operative of patients although very well suffering, she escaped from the jeep when she saw sheep to bring in and refractured the metal plate!!

We had to re operate and this time bone graft was harvested from her shoulder and an external fixator was applied. The bones were lined up and metal pins were drilled into the bone and lined up with connecting bars and clamps on the outside of the skin.

In this picture the elbow joint is at the bottom and the carpus (wrist)is at the top. You can see the pins inserted in the bone and the connecting bars on the outside. The callus is where the fracture has healed with new bone.

This is a lateral (side) shot of the fracture. After 10 weeks Daisy was anaesthetised again and the metal implants were removed. The holes were flushed and cleaned up. We have enforced another 2 weeks of rest. Daisy is looking forward to getting back to work. The farmer is too as he is tired of chasing the sheep about the field on his own !!!