Rotation 4 (from Joan)

Hello everyone!

"Toby" - had surgery on both knees for luxating patellas

Another rotation has ended for me and a new one has started this week. For the past 3 weeks I have been on the orthopedic surgery rotation. This rotation deals only with small animals and mainly dogs at that. By far the most common injuries are to dogs' hind legs. We saw several CCLR (cranial cruciate ligament ruptures) which are equivalent to ACL tears in humans. There are several different surgical procedures that can be used to correct this. The surgery done most commonly at K-State is called a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) and it's a bit hard to explain. Ask me about sometime if you really want to know and I can do my best!! Another common problem in small dogs is luxating patellas (moving kneecaps). We saw several of these and they did very well after surgery. We also saw several fractures, most of the dogs had been hit by a car. There are several ways to correct these and being at a referral hospital, we did surgery on most. Correction of fractures usually includes metal plates, screws, wire, external fixators, or a combination of any of these.

That's me helping "KC" on the water treadmill (check out the cool waders!)

As a student on orthopedic surgery, one of our responsibilities is to begin the rehabilitation process. This includes things like walking, simple physical therapy procedures and even a water treadmill! Not too many places have a water treadmill so many clients take advantage of it if they can. The water displaces the dog's weight just enough so it is comfortable doing exercise. This really helps them to use muscles that may have atrophied after an injury or surgery. The patients that really benefit are those who have had a "slipped disk" in their back or neck. These are most often dachsunds and they need a lot of rehabilitation.

All in all, I enjoyed orthopedic surgery. It was very challenging but worthwhile. I have already started my necropsy rotation (the same as autopsy in humans.) Recently deceased animals are sent in to get a diagnosis on the reason they died. During the first two days, I had 3 pigs. I will say that choosing this rotation in August may not have been the greatest idea. On Monday the pig was literally green in color because it had already decomposed extensively over the weekend. I think I still smell from it! I promised Steve and John some gory details, but I will wait until the rotation is over for the best stories!

Until then, enjoy the end of summer! I am currently taking my (hopefully) last ever lecture class. It is very interesting, we are talking about emerging infectious disease, but the last class is kind of a big deal!!

Joan