Those of you who frequent our clinic may be familiar with Zephyr Zoo, our house cat. She is a long-haired, torti manx with a BIG attitude ( if you have tried to pet her for more than a minute you will know this!). Zephyr likes everyone to know that she is boss around here and has little fear of any dogs or cats entering the clinic. She is also an excellent hunter and keeps our garage free of mice.
We will now see if her fear threshold has changed…
It was an early summer morning last month and the kennel worker Kathryn was walking dogs as usual. She has the dogs leashed and strolls them in the back yard of the clinic. Z was being her usual helpful self and chasing the bunnies out of the bushes. She decided to say "Good Morning" to the dog Kathryn was walking and came to sniff noses when the dog grabbed her by the back leg and hung on! Kathryn was able to get the dog off of Zephyr who limped off into the bushes. Her injuries were serious.
Dr.Brown responded immediately to Kathryn's call that Z had been attacked. It was apparent that her left rear leg was badly injured. She was breathing fast and in a lot of pain. She was given some medication for pain and relaxation and some x-rays were taken.
When dogs bite they can inflict the force of many pounds of pressure with the powerful muscles of their jaws. Zephyr was grabbed but thankfully not shaken which is how most small animals are killed by larger animal bites. The dog had grabbed her by the foot, below her hock. She had puncture wounds of the skin and subcutaneous tissues and fractures of her foot (metatarsal) bones-see pictures #1 and #2. A broken bone that is associated with a wound is called an open fracture. This type of fracture is a high risk for infection, as are all bite wounds. Radiographs were taken of her chest and abdomen as well as in the struggle to free her from the dogs jaws it was unsure if she had sustained any other injuries. These x-rays looked fine.
Dr. Brown then sedated Zephyr to treat her foot. The wounds were clipped and cleaned thoroughly. Because the ends of the broken bones were not out of alignment (displaced) the doctor placed a splint on her leg to immobilize the bones for healing. She was given an antibiotic injection and more pain medication and was now on the road to recovery, which may be a long one!
Now for the hard part, the after care or "home" care as we would say if this was YOUR cat we were treating! "Keep her inside, decrease her activity and do NOT let her chew on her splint." Now we know how difficult those instructions are! Zephyr turned out to be a better patient than we expected (as many of your pets do for you!). She adjusted to her cage rest, did NOT chew on her splint, and took her meds well. Because of the wounds under her splint, she was sedated every 7-14 days for bandage changes-we knew she would not hold still for that! The radiographs that were taken 4 weeks after the injury did not show as much bone healing as Dr. Brown would have liked to see, so he changed her bandaging from a splint to a soft cast. Bones are stimulated to heal by a very small amount of motion termed "micromotion". Since the bandage is slightly less stable than the splint, Dr. Brown is hoping that some healing callous will be produced in the next 2-4 weeks. In the meantime, our Z cat is chilling in her cage, out to help us with our charts and clinic chores at night and on weekends and the rodents and birds of the neighborhood are PARTYING!!!

A current update on Zephyr: at her last x-ray on July 2nd there is a callous of new bone present across her fracture. This is called bridging callous because it extends between the ends of the broken bone. As this callous fills in the bone is healed. So Zephyr is not far from being on the loose again, much to her relief. Watch for her in our front office and see if you can detect a limp…or any fear of big dogs!!!