Found (Abandoned) Dog, Vet Visit at North Avenue Animal Hospital

So during the day yesterday, the dog we found stayed in our office. He seems pretty well house trained, and there were no messes at all from the night before (he stayed in our bedroom with us).

We kept him in the office with a pile of blankets, some dry food and some water. After work, Liz took him over to North Avenue Animal Hospital and I met up with the two of them there. We’ve been concerned about the dog’s leg, and wanted to have that checked out right away.

So far, with every dog this guy’s met, he’s been as excited as can be. Doesn’t seem to matter what size, as long as it’s a dog… this guy wants to meet and say hello.

In the back room, waiting to meet with Dr. Larson.

There’s some good and bad news with the leg. The good news is that the doctor feels that it may be a recent injury. The bad news is that the leg is broken, and broken in a way that isn’t easy to fix.

A splint can sometimes help with breaks, but in the case of our found dog… it really wouldn’t. A few of the other possible approaches the doctor suggested had certain risks that included muscle atrophy. In short: even if we tried these other approaches and the break healed, the leg muscles could deteriorate to a point where the leg would be fairly useless (even though it was healed).

Technically, what’s wrong with the leg is that it’s a simple transverse distal femeral fracture. This photo is a bit tough to look at.

Basically that bone in the middle should actually be attached to the bone at the top. The two smaller pieces on either side are normal, but it’s that larger piece in the middle that’s actually really just broken and way, way off.

In talking with Dr. Larson, one of the best approaches he felt was surgical, where an orthopedic surgeon would go in and heal the break using pins. This approach, he told us, is not inexpensive… and could be in the $1,500 range on up.

It’s a pretty big number. But given the nature of the injury, and the fact that time is a pretty big factor… there really doesn’t seem to be an option. Something needs to be done in the next few days, before the end of the week, and the leg just needs to get fixed. We’re going to leave this guy at our place for one more day, and we’ll hopefully find a hospital that can do the surgery, either tonight or tomorrow.

We got some pain medication for the dog, so there’s at least that. Despite having lots of dry food around, the dog doesn’t seem to be eating much. We left some pieces of bread, and that seems to be something he likes.

On the way home we got some canned dog food, but that didn’t go over very well either. We were able to get him to eat eggs, and so far that’s been the main thing he’s been excited about. Luckily, we were able to hide his medication in some of the eggs, and he put that down with no problems.