In last week's column I described a difficult case of a dog with a hip out of place and a diaphragmatic hernia. I didn't have a case of a luxated hip for month s but is often said that 'things come in threes' and after repairing the hernia and putting the hip into back a cat came in later that day also with a hip out. I knew it should be a matter of time before I would probably have our third luxated hip case. I wouldn't have to wait long.
In the long days of summer pets stay outside longer and often stray further from home so we tend to see a fair number of pets hit by vehicles. The other season is the darkest time of winter when drivers can't see the dog or cat out on the road. Tanker was used to chasing rabbits across the road and in the dark of early night the vehicle that hit him couldn't see Tanker in time.
I am recovering from a knee surgery so have been working less but after three vets tried unsuccessfully to put the hip back in place in the third case I received a call on my cell phone from Dr. Amber Rogers. When she started the call with 'Do you want to be a hero?" I knew it meant coming in to the hospital despite my day off so my wife, Michele, and I headed in. I was spurred on with the additional challenge that three other vets had not succeeded. If I also couldn't' get the hip back in place the dog would have to have surgery.
It would have been nice to arrive and walk over to the anesthetized dog and reach down and simply pop the hip back in place when others failed but the other vets smiled down when they saw me struggling unsuccessfully with the hip as well. When a hip pops out a small ligament tears off so there is mobility, but there is also a socket with a ridge on top that can make repositioning the hip difficult. I tried again and again to manually pull the ball of the hip over the ridge but could not manage.
I comforted myself knowing that the hips that are easy to put back in are often the ones that keep coming out again and ultimately need a major surgery, so if I could struggle and get this hip in it would most likely stay in.
The x-rays showed a hip socket that was well formed however every time I tried to push the hip up and over the ridge of the hip socket the ball part would come sliding down again, not going back into place. I decided to try another approach and we slung the dog with the affected leg pulled up to try and stretch the swollen muscles…. still it was not possible to put the hip back in.
I moved the dog from the table to the floor with no success. I had a veterinary nurse pulling with a towel one way as I tried to pull the ball of the hip over into the socket the other way, all to no avail. I had just about given up when I put the leg down and the weight of the leg dropped the ball of the hip down in front of the pelvis and when I passively pulled on the leg the ball slipped in front of the pelvis and then slid into the hip socket accidently on its own.
I held my breath and we carefully carried the dog into surgery. X-rays revealed the hip was back in place so we bandaged the leg up. At first I tried to take the bragging rights and gloat the years of experience as benefiting my ability to get the hip back in, but I decided to take the high road and explain to the other vets that the hip went in on it's own when I stopped trying.
