Jax before surgery (left) and after surgery (right).
Jax is a high energy dog, and he needs plenty of exercise. Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Warnock, he is now able to go for long walks pain-free.
Jax was born with a complex, multiapical, angular limb deformity in his front leg. It caused severe lameness and secondary elbow arthritis. Last year, Dr. Warnock corrected Jax’s deformity by removing a wedge of bone to straighten his left ulna. She then stabilized it with a TPLO plate and a String-of-Pearls (SOP) plate. An SOP plate allows the surgeon to more easily contour the plate to multiple planes (see radiograph).
Jax’s bone healed very quickly. Although the rapid healing lead to some bone fusion, which limits his range of motion, it did not cause major issues.
At first, Jax was hesitant to use his left front leg. It took him a couple of months to get used to the new orientation of his elbow and wrist, but regular sessions on the underwater treadmill helped. Now he is eight months post-surgery and walking normally.
Jax cannot participate in high-impact activities, and has some arthritis, but he really enjoys his daily walk. The surgery also helped his owners: Now that Jax is able to burn all that energy, he is a calmer, happier dog.
