My wee sheltie has broken her wee leg in a collision with another dog while playing....she is very fine built and weighs only 5.5kg at 8 months...

Vet has just phoned with her  treatment plan and she is to have an external fixator applied due to her size and location of the break (just above the wrist on her right front leg).

I've never had a dog with a broken leg and am a bit worried about her aftercare....I would like any hints and tips please to make the wee'uns convalescing time as comfortable as possible......and what signs to look out for if things start to go wrong...

Thanks...
J

Ten years ago I had a huge male cat who was struck by a car resulting in beeaks to both legs. One had pins etc in but the second leg required an external fixator. We had to keep him inside for 6 weeks and clean the entry sites of the pins daily. He got used to it quickly enough but I was always worried it would get caught in something. But it worked and 5 months post op, he didn't even have a limp. When he developed a splenic tumour and was put to sleep 4 years ago, lots of tears were shed for our bionic cat:-) .

I had a 7 month boxer puppy who's mother ran into her while rough playing. She fractured her radius and ulna and had a E.Fixator fitted, X rayed frequently and the EF adjusted regularly while she grew.
During this time I swam her in a pool every other day and built up to lead walking.

She lived a normal life but always limped on that leg.
Watch for oedema in the legs in the initial rest period...gentle massage helped.

I can't comment re an external fixator, but we're 8 weeks post surgery for a broken femur, internal pin and wire "wraps". It's been an up and down time for us - at the 2 week post surgery check up, the surgeon was over the moon with her progress, she was using the leg well and it all looked rosey, but she then stopped using it (which was one of the indicators we were told to look out for). To cut a long story short, the bone is healing well, but the pin has moved by about a cm, and they think it's rubbing on the nerve, so she's going back in next week to have the pin removed. Our surgeon advises us that at 8 weeks the bone should be 90% repaired.

In the meantime we're taking her to twice weekly hydrotherapy sessions to try and get some muscle back in the leg, and crossing our fingers that removing the pin will encourage her to use it again.

We were told to encourage her to use it, but not to overdo it. As mentioned above, our key indicator was if she suddenly stopped using it. Pain control is key, and with everything it's about finding a balance - we couldn't give her too much in case she didn't feel it and did too much, but it had to be enough that she would get up and move about.

From a personal perspective the most difficult thing was the feeling of helplessness. They can't tell you what hurts, and you can't rationalise with them that it's for their own good.

I hope everything goes smoothly for you both though.