At the Refugio we are fortunate to have an excellent team of veterinary specialists to help in the most difficult of cases. I believe most strongly that the rescue dogs deserve the best veterinary care possible; the idea that just because they are rescue dogs then anything goes in my mind is unacceptable. If anything, the rescue dogs deserve better than average care. These animals have been let down previously, someone has failed these dogs and it is up to us to assure that this dose not happen again. Also, these animals do not have the advantage of returning to a loving home after surgery, they live in the shelter environment and so once we are finished they must go back to the Refugio, this means that we must be sure that we get things right first time. So, only the best is good enough for our rescue dogs.

To make the lame dogs walk

Unfortunately we see many lame dogs at the Refugio. These dogs come to us from different backgrounds, some of them have been taken to the killing stations because they have sustained fractures and the owner is un willing to treat the fracture, others are dogs that have been abandoned and then sustained injuries, quite probably they get hit by a car trying to find their way home. Some of these dogs have had to live for months with the agony of a broken leg before they get picked up. Occasionally we get dogs that have been mistreated deliberately, thrown out of cars or even been beaten, victims of human cruelty. Many of these cases are exceedingly difficult to treat and we have had cases where the fracture was complicated by incorrect treatment, see the story of Victorio on our web site.

Let me first introduce Dr Carlos Macias, our “Bone Wizard.” Dr. Macias was one of the principle Orthopaedic Surgeons at one of the most important referral veterinary hospitals in England for 12 years. He obtained his Diploma in Small Animal Orthopaedics and is one of the few Orthopaedic Surgeons who are recognised specialists by the Royal Collage Of Veterinary Surgeons. He has published many papers and has written chapters in important textbooks of veterinary orthopaedics. Without a doubt he is one of the top orthopaedic surgeons, just Google his name and see what comes up. He returned to Spain two years ago to set up his own referral practice here in Malaga and since he opened he has always been kind enough to help us at ACE with our lame dogs.

 Carlos has done some wonderful work for ACE. Some of the cases he has treated for us have been extreme orthopaedic challenges. When we receive a dog with a broken leg we have no idea what has happened, we do not know how long the leg has been broken and although we get some idea from the radiographs at best we can only assume that the accident has occurred recently or not. Perhaps one of the most difficult cases that we did was poor “Sustito”. His leg was broken in two places, one was healing but one was not. Perhaps the accident had taken place 4 or maybe 5 month previously. Carlos was able to repair the leg and we hospitalised him for 8 weeks in the clinic under strict rest. He was only allowed out to walk for 10 minutes twice a day while the leg was healing and undergoing rehabilitation. Another splendid case was little Virgin, she was born with a congenital defect in both knees, she was unable to straighten her legs and so when she walked she looked most strange, almost like a frog. Carlos operated first one leg and then the other and finally she was able to extend her knee and walk normally. During the rehabilitation she spent around six months with Fabienne and Derik living in their house until the rehabilitation was completed and she could go on to her new home.

PATA

On the other hand some of the fractures that he has done for us when the bone was broken several months ago have been challenging. Under normal circumstances if a dog breaks his leg the owner takes him in to have it fixed as soon as possible. These dogs have been left to their own devices for several months without any treatment. Most centres do not bother to try and fix these fractures so if the dog gets picked up then in most cases the dog will be put to sleep, although sometimes some kind people will take the dog as it is. These dogs will invariably be lame for the rest of their lives and fortunately the will be pain free.

When I first approached Carlos to look at one of these cases he told me that in all his years in England he never saw this type of case, if the dog had a broken leg then either it was fixed as soon as possible, or if the owner was unwilling to repair the leg, then the dog was put to sleep. As far as he was aware, there were no reports in the veterinary literature about repairing fractures months after they happened. But he felt that he dog would have a much better chance of finding a new home if the leg was repaired and that was reason enough to go in and fix the problem. Since then he has done many cases for us and in all cases the results have been excellent. So, again, we are able to save the world for one of these poor dogs.

I would like to take the opportunity to take you to visit some of our recent cases and show some of the things that we can do to help our rescue dogs.

Lopez the Galgo

Dena and Nico

These two dogs came to the Refugio just two weeks ago. Both of them had problems. Poor Dena had a badly shattered pelvis and on top of this was pregnant. The accident, probably she had been hit by a car, had happened about two weeks ago so in her case, cage rest in one of our hospital cages was all she needs for her pelvis. But with a shattered pelvis there is no way we could leave her to have the puppies so she has had the pregnancy terminated and been sterilised. Nico had a fracture of the femur and this was more recent than Dena’s case. He went to Carlos who repaired the fracture, it was quite a complex fracture as the bone was fragmented into small pieces but Carlos has skilfully repaired the leg and so Nico will be able to go to his new home in about a month’s time.

Molly

 

 

 

 

Update 14 oktober 2007:

 

 

 

 

een opsomming....

 

• er is 4.000 euro betaald voor de cementstorting en drainagepijpen, waarvan 2.500 euro was gedoneerd door Geert en Greet Vervoort,
• de puppy-afdeling met een nieuw dak en omheining heeft ons 3.500 euro gekost,
• rest nu nog 5.000 euro betaald te worden om de kliniek af te bouwen...inclusief kooien die aangekocht dienen te worden om de zieke hondjes in te huisvesten...

Update 27 november 2007:

 

Graag zouden wij Karen Middelkoop en haar man van het Accountbureel willen danken voor de

1000 € dat zij eerst aan ons schonken door het houden van een inzamelingsaktie samen met sympathisanten, en daarna nog eens 4000 € schonken als bijdrage in onze werken in de Refugio.

Onze eerste steentjes zijn gelegd, onze toekomstige kliniek begint vorm te krijgen,  de mama en babies moeten niet langer in de koude zitten tijdens de barkoude nachten en de babies mogen nu lekker onder de wol in de kliniek...

Ons projectje is nog niet af, maar langzaam maar zeker komen we er, en de bijdrage van Karen is voor ons een waar geschenk uit de hemel, zo hartelijk bedankt !!!!!

 

 

 

...rest nog ongeveer 1000 euro voor de aanschaf van binnenhokken, en afwerkingskosten...

 

 

Update 4 december 2007:

 

Beste Dierenvrienden,

 

De oorspronkelijke plannen zijn in de afgelopen weken flink veranderd, de kliniek is bijna gereed, moet alleen nog betegeld worden en nog wat andere kleine dingetjes.

Voorts is er een kleine ontvangstruimte gemaakt. We hebben eindelijk een toilet voor onze vrijwilligers en we hebben een ruimte voor het drogen van de was.

Dus de oorspronkelijke financiele schatting is hiermede ook flink gewijzigd.

De rekening van de aannemer bedroeg plm 7.900,00euro, waarvan ik er vandaag 3.000,00 euro heb betaald.

Om het geheel af te maken schat ik dat er nog ongeveer 3.000,00 euro bij zal gaan komen.

Wij houden jullie op de hoogte.

Groetjes Ton Vandenbroek

Penningmeester ACE

 

Update 5 januari 2008:

 

De Kerstaktie was een groot succes ! EUR 2.466,35 is er via PayPal en onze andere bankrekening gedoneerd!

Uitgaande van het inzamelen van een toereikend bedrag om het Kerstdiner voor onze Refugio honden te kunnen betalen, en dan uiteindelijk zoveel geld gedoneerd krijgen om de Kliniek af te bouwen !!! Dat is een ongelooflijk mooi en ontroerend gebaar, dat zoveel mensen samen zoiets bewerkstelligen, voor zo´n goed doel namelijk de zieke en gewonde honden op te kunnen vangen, en de allerkleinsten een warm onderkomen te bieden...

Hierbij willen wij nogmaals iedereen die (letterlijk!) zijn steentje heeft bijgedragen van harte bedanken, de honden hebben een heerlijk Kerstdiner gehad en het allermooiste van alles is dat er nu flink doorgewerkt kan worden om de Kliniek volledig af te bouwen! Dankzij alle Kerstdonateurs !

 

---

 

 

U wilt letterlijk uw steentje bijdragen? Dit kan makkelijk via PayPal, ons veilige betaalsysteem voor donaties,

klik hier

 

....namens alle viervoeters hartelijk dank voor uw steun....

 

This is the update on Fido. Fido has leishmaniasis and we are treating him for it but in spite of the treatment his skin has got worse rather than better.  I took him back to the hospital because it is difficult to monitor the treatment while he is at the refugio. I repeated the leismania treatment but with few if any results and so it became obvious to me that there is something else wrong with Fido apart from the Leishmania.

So what is Fido´s problem? He has a scaly, crusty dermatitis. There is puritus. The dermatitis is generalised, in particular, face, periocular and dorsal nose, ears, on top of head, ventral neck. On fore legs, from the carpus distally and all of hind legs. The dermatitis is affecting the caudal third of the body; there are no signs of bilateral symmetry. The tail is without hair. From my description you can imagine that Fido is not a pretty sight, he also has seborea and the skin smells greasy

The clinical picture is in my opinion compatible with:

Atopy

Sarcoptic Mange
Demodex

Dermatofite Infestation

Pyoderma

Malassezia

Food Allergy

OTHERS

So what are we doing, what is the plan.

 First I did not find Demodex on a skin scraping so I rule that one out. Now I am not very good with the microscope at finding sarcoptes but I attended a seminar given by Denny Scot and he advised that, if you suspect sarcoptes, treat it. So I follow his advice, I have treated Fido with injectable Ivermectin and Amitraz baths. 

Dermatofite infestation I think is unlikely as these are not usually puritic conditions, but in presence of secondary bacterial contamination and or Malazzesia puritus may be a factor. We are bathing Fido with a ketoconazol shampoo, this should take care of Dermatofites and Malazzesia, and I have treated him with Convenia, the long acting antibiotic recommended for pyoderma.

I am not convinced that this is Atopy, firstly, I did not get a good response to steroids alone, secondly, the lesions and their distribution is not what I usually see with Atopy, the dogs behaviour and attitude dose not quite fit. On the whole its a gut feeling rather than scientific fact, I am not a dermatologist although I have done many dermatology seminars over 25 years of small animal practice and Atopy just dose not seem right.

My gut feeling is that this is a food allergy; the clinical picture seems to fit (although any combination of the above diseases can give an identical picture.) I have started on a hypoalergenic diet, H.A. by Advance (ex Purina) and as Fido is hospitalised I can be sure that he only gets this food and no other

I am afraid that what I am doing is not good medicine; one should get a diagnosis first and not treat for every thing at once. In fact, my plan was to test out the food allergy, hence the diet, but I realised that I had not taken into account Sarcoptic mange, and I am certain that there is Malazzesia and Secondary Bacterial contamination hence my approach. 

The good side is that the therapy seems to be working as Fido’s skin is improving and we do see some hair regrowth. I must take some pictures soon so I have a record of just how bad he was.

Paul Hindson

Another dog from the Malaga pound, Pata was found and taken to the pound. Fabienne saw him there and told me about him, a dog with funny legs who walks like a duck. Obviously, something is seriously wrong with the bones in his leg. Now Malaga pound is not very good with bones and on the other hand, we at the Refugio thanks to Dr Carlos Macias, our bone specialist, have been successful at treating the most complex orthopaedic procedures.

Pata has a deformity caused by premature closure of the growth plate in one of the bones in his fore legs and this results in his foot twisting outwards, the other leg is normal. This condition is caused by trauma to the dog’s leg and has nothing to do with lack of calcium in the diet nor is it a congenital defect.

Here is a line drawing of the bones in the forelimb of a dog. This part of its leg would correspond to the forearm in a human. At the top of the picture you can see the dogs elbow, and the two bones that form the forelimb; The Radius, marked “B” is on the right side, and the Ulna, marked “C” on the left. Notice how both bones are straight and parallel and are the same length from point 15 to 18 on the ulna as from point 16 to 9 in the radius.

In a young dog the bones grow in length from an area called the growth plate. The dog has two such areas in each of the long bones of the forelimb; these are situated towards the extremities of the bones.

In a young growing dog this area is very active, there are many blood vessels that bring in nutrients that are necessary for bone growth, and, as new bone is laid down, the growth plate moves on down and so the bone gets longer. For normal development of the forelimb it is crucial that bones grow together and at the same rate.

If the dog suffers an injury to the lower part of the forelimb then the blood supply to the growth plate may be compromised. If this happens then the growth plate ceases to produce new bone and dries up and closes so the bone no longer grows or grows much more slowly. Now in the dog, the growth plate of the ulna is the most susceptible to damage and what happens is that the radius grows normally while the ulna dose not. The consequences are that the radius gets longer and bows forward, held back by the stunted ulna, and the foot gets twisted outwards

The first thing to do was to remove the bandage. Underneath I found two ulcers one was so deep that you could see the bones of the poor dogs paw. 

Victorio

He arrived, a Yorkshire terrier pup of about six months of age with a plaster cast on his leg.

Now one of the indications for using a plaster cast might be a non-displaced fracture of the bones in the forearm or perhaps a fracture of the digits. To my surprise I did not see a fracture at all in this area so I decided to remove the cast.

This is what he did. On the inside of the leg he was able to place a bone plate that he specialy shaped to fit the contours of the bone, some how he placed 3 bone screws in the tiny fragment and then another 4 screws in the body of the bone. This reduced the fracture and to obtain optimum support and rigidity he placed an external fixator on the outside of the leg. He placed two pins in the body of the bone and one in the fragment and joined these pins with a supporting bar. Now the fracture was reduced and fixed in away to promote healing.

We hospitalised poor Vitorio for two weeks in one of our hospital cages so as to give him complete rest for optimum healing then he was sent to a foster home for three weeks.

Beste Allemaal,

 

In de Refugio zijn we begonnen met het puppy gedeelte te verbeteren, we hebben een dak, twee volle muren, om de hevige wind te trotseren, ijzeren 2 mtr hoge omheining, isolatie van het dak, gemakkelijk onderhoudbare vloer. Ook gaan we de ruimte in twee delen, om twee groepen te kunnen onderbrengen, kleintjes en hele kleintjes. Het geheel gaat ons rond de 4000 € kosten, alle hulp is welkom om dit te kunnen verwezenlijken, we hebben de laatste maanden enorm veel levens verloren omdat onze mogelijkheden in de Refugio werkelijk beperkt zijn, en we hopen dat dit ons helpt levens te redden,...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Groetjes, Fabiënne

17 februari 2007