June 2008 - Polly Peters
Polly Peters’ mysterious injury
Polly Peters arrived home late one Saturday morning in June looking very sorry for herself. She had a badly damaged front left leg with muscle and bone visible through the wound. We could clearly feel loose bone under the skin where the shoulder blade should be. Encouragingly Polly was trying to use the leg but it just didn’t seem to do what she wanted it to. We admitted Polly to have a closer look under anaesthetic and plan what to do.
With Polly anaesthetised and full of pain relieving drugs we were able to x-ray her damaged leg and examine it thoroughly. Although none of the major bones of the leg were damaged the shoulder blade had been badly crushed and pulled away from the wall of the chest. We could feel a loose piece of bone under the skin. We checked that the nerve supply to the foot had not been damaged and that the shoulder joint was intact, before deciding what to do. Mrs Peters decided to go ahead with repairing the leg despite the risk that we may need to amputate the limb if Polly was unable to use it properly afterwards.
The loose piece of bone was removed along with a large muscle (part of the deltoids) which had been badly crushed. Other torn muscles and tendons were repaired. A lot of foul smelling inflammatory fluid was found in the wound so we put a drain into the wound to help the fluid drain away. Polly was also started on intra-venous antibiotics. There was a lot of swelling after the operation and Polly was unable to use the leg. Gradually she put more and more weight onto the leg and started placing it more accurately.
In time we expect Polly to make a very good recovery. The cause of the injury will never be clearly known however we did find teeth marks in the skin during surgery. This may have been a dog attack or possibly a fox.
