Young 'Winston' the Yellow Lab is doing well, buckgrunt14. Thank you kindly for asking. (Winston says "thank you, too.') ;-)
I shortened the cast yesterday to cover a few inches above and below his fracture, and he is really doing nicely. I had to immobilize his entire leg initially for 2 days to allow the bones to 'stick' together. (natural process which glues fractured bones together to allow deposition of osteocytes (and osteoblasts) to begin the ossification process) I could feel a nice alignment of the bones and ligaments/tendons. The muscle and skin wound caused by the protruding bone (compound fracture) was not infected and had closed nicely. Immediately after the cast shortening, the dog showed no signs of pain: trembling, tucked-in tail, fast pulse rate, facial grimacing, whimpering, etc. He is now ambulating good on 3 legs and he even applies a little pressure to the affected limb (places his foot lightly on the ground).
I checked for the dreaded radial nerve damage and possible palsy by using standard 'human' neuro checks and Winston reacted and wiggled his toes. (excellent sign !)
All we have to do is wait about 4-5 more weeks for the bones to fully mend...and I think he will do fine.
I feel really good about all this !
