Pet Of The Month – ‘Arthur’

You never know what you will be faced with when you answer the phone in the practice! This particular day the police were asking if we would attend to a dog that had been involved in a road traffic accident and which was being aggressive towards them when they tried to move him. James was just about to start the morning’s operations in the hospital so we had to ‘down tools’ and drive to the village where the accident had happened.
On our arrival we were met by two police officers who had positioned their cars to protect the dog but were keeping a safe distance! It was clear that the dog was in shock and a lot of pain which was why he resented being moved. It was a sorry sight to see this poor dog lying huddled under a foil blanket in the wet road. James managed to sedate the dog and we lifted him into the car and had a police escort back to the surgery.
James assessed the dog and he was found to have a fractured leg and cuts to his chest. An x-ray confirmed he had a transverse fracture of the radius and ulna bones in his foreleg as well as some bleeding on his lungs. As he was still quite shocked we treated his wounds, applied a support dressing and let him rest in his warm, dry kennel with plenty of TLC from the nurses whilst we started the process of trying to track down his owner. By the time we had found his owner later that evening we had all become very fond of Arthur (as we now knew he was called!) and work that day was frequently interrupted with visits to his kennel for cuddles! Our work experience helper Laura was posted to sit in his kennel for most of the morning the following day for important TLC! Arthur’s owner came to visit him frequently during his stay with us, as he was here for almost a week.
When he was stable, James repaired his fractured leg with a metal plate and screws and he still has a huge support bandage on. He is making good progress and we are all very pleased to see him at his follow-up checks and he seems pleased to see us (well, we like to think he is!)