It’s a Vet’s Life! Dr Nicky Hallows BVMS MRCVS, Clinical Director at Nute Veterinary Surgery in Wadebridge. Welcome back to your quarterly update from Nute Vets. I’m writing this after a glorious day out on farm visits. It doesn’t seem to work like that very often. When the sun shines I seem to be inside and then I’m outside when it starts raining. Ah well, that’s what waterproofs and wellies are for. We have had several cruciate injuries in the surgery of late. Those of you who follow sport may well be familiar with a ruptured cruciate ligament as it’s a common
injury amongst sports men and women. It’s also sadly a pretty common injury in dogs and occasionally cats. The cruciate ligament holds the femur (thigh bone) steady and in line with the tibia (shin bone). It can get torn or ruptured through a sharp twisting motion. Footballers will commonly rupture theirs when they turn quickly on the ball and dogs similarly can rupture it chasing after a ball as they turn to bring it back. Because of the shape of their bones, certain breeds such as labradors and westies
are particularly prone to the injury. It is probably one of the most common orthopaedic conditions we see in practice. There are a few different ways of repairing it. For smaller dogs we can put in an artificial ligament. For larger dogs we need to create a ‘bionic’ knee. We put a special implant in the top of the shin bone held in place with a pin and plate which stabilises the joint removing the need for the ligament altogether. Below is an xray of a dog that we operated on recently. Down on the farm we have been doing a lot of pregnancy testing lately. It’s important for farmers to know which of their cows are in calf and which aren’t; as for dairy farmers it’s critical for keeping the milk flowing and for beef farmers it’s the next generation of stock to fatten. There’s nothing so delicate as peeing onto a strip for cows, instead it’s time for the vet to don their long gloves. For big cows you can literally be in it up to your armpit! It’s a messy job either feeling or using a scanner for signs of a calf but rewarding to hopefully be able to tell the farmer that either his or the bull’s hard work has paid off!
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