Lilly Turner
Miss Lilly is a happy and vibrant 10 month old female Shepherd mix. She
presented to Post Pet Hospital for her first visit this past February to have a limp checked. Lilly had been limping on her left front leg for about 1 month and had a wound on the top of her left front paw.
Dr. McReynolds diagnosed Lilly with brachial plexus avulsion, a tearing away of the nerves in the brachial plexus. This is usually a result of some type of trauma like being hit by a car. The brachial plexus is a combination of multiple forelimb nerves. The severity of symptoms is dependent on which nerves are damaged. In Lilly's case the nerves that supply the triceps muscle were affected causing her to limp on that left front leg and her paw to knuckle over.
Treatment for this type of injury is daily physical therapy, to prevent tendon and muscle contraction. Regrowth of injured nerves is slow and may take months. A sock, boot or bandage is recommended to protect the paw and prevent abrasions, which Lilly already had.
In worse case scenarios amputation is considered if there is self mutilation or no improvement in motor abitilies.
Lilly's wound in her paw bacame a source of infection and after bandaging at home the skin began to necrose causing an open wound that was beyond repair and an amputation was recommended.
One month after Lilly's initial visit an amputation was performed by Dr. Grosser. For Lilly he decided to remove the whole front limb- shoulder blade, upper arm as well as lower leg. If the shoulder blade or part of the upper arm bone (the humerus) were left on Lilly her continueing muscle atrophy (loss of muscle tissue) would cause those bones to protrude and possibly come through the skin. By removing the bones we plan to leave her with a smoother contour to her chest and less weight to carry on her right leg. This technique allows the surgeon to remove the leg without having to cut through the bone thus decreasing operating time and post op pain.
The operation involves - cutting the muscles that attach the shoulder blade to the body wall. The nerves to the leg are cut and the blood vessels are tied off. The muscles that attached the scapula are sutured back to the muscle that attached to the opposite side of the bone. The skin is then sutured closed and we put on a chest wrap for the first few days.
Lilly was up and about within a few hours of surgery. She was feeling much better with the removal of the necrotic (infected) tissue. She walked out on day 2 wagging her tail.
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