Warning: This article contains graphic images depicting wounds and surgical procedures.
This is Bobby, he is a lovely chocolate Labrador who was referred as an emergency from Tawe Veterinary Group in Swansea. He was presented to the Luca Fortuna and Emma Roberts in the medicine department at Bristol Vet Specialists.
Bobby was very unwell, with a very painful swollen hind limb that he was unable to weight bear on and a high temperature. He was immediately hospitalized to our intensive care unit and diagnostic tests (including a CT scan, ultrasound, bloods and samples from the leg) showed a severe infection. A sample was sent for culture and this confirmed a Pasteurella infection, most likely secondary to a penetrating injury like a bite wound.
Bobby was transferred across to Elinor Field and Julie Hennet in the soft tissue surgery department. He remained in a critical condition for several days, and was hospitalized in our intensive care unit. Our ICU nurses Hollie Dawes and Laura Minns spent many hours nursing Bobby. He remained on intravenous antibiotics and multiple analgesics to control the severe pain he was experiencing.
After days of intensive care, Bobby’s general condition became more stable but the damage the infection had done to the skin was becoming apparent, and the skin from the majority of the inside of his hind limb had died.
Elinor and Julie performed surgery to remove the dead skin and clean the infected wounds. This left a very large open wound over the majority of the leg.
After weeks of wound management, the leg was now healthy and a reconstructive surgery was performed. A large skin flap was taken from the underside of Bobby’s chest and abdomen, and swung around to cover the majority of the leg wound. Surgery went very well and the skin flap covered 80% of the skin defect, leaving a small wound remaining that was left to heal.
Bobby went on to make a full recovery, and we at Bristol Vet Specialists were so happy we could help such a lovely patient!
