Warning: This album contains a photo which some people may find upsetting.
Meet Rusty, a 4-year-old male farm dog. Rusty presented to the clinic late at night after getting his back leg caught in a large mower behind a tractor. He was initially given pain relief, antibiotics and his feet were bandaged. The next morning Rusty was given a general anesthetic to closely examine his feet. His back left leg had deep wounds filled with grass and dirt and he also had two broken metatarsals (long bones in the foot). We flushed the wounds and packed them full of manuka honey. For his broken metatarsals, we placed his leg in a splint and bandage. His back right leg had been severely damaged. His toes were just hanging on by a piece of skin and thankfully one was still attached. Our only choice of saving his right foot was to cut all the damaged tissue and bone back to fresh tissue and suture it closed so he would have one toe and his main foot pad to walk on.
Rusty was given multiple antibiotics as the wounds were contaminated with so much dirt etc, lots of pain relief, endless cuddles and all crossed our fingers that infection wouldn’t take hold or the wounds would start to break down. His bandages were changed every 4-5 days and at every bandage change, we held our breath and prayed his wounds would be healing. And at every change, we were amazed at the power of the body to heal itself. Three weeks after his initial accident, his right leg was taken out of his bandage for the final time.
One week after that his left leg which had deep wounds and broken bones was taken out of its splint but placed back in a bandage for extra support. Then a week later his bandage was removed for the final time. Ten weeks after his initial accident we are happy to report Rusty is back running around full steam on the farm. It has been an absolute pleasure having Rusty as a patient and to help him along on his journey back to full health.
