Sweet-natured Labrador, Boe, suffers from developmental elbow disease, a painful condition that used to be called elbow dysplasia. The misalignment of the bones in Boe’s elbow joints, which is the fundamental cause of this issue, meant that from a young age she was subjected to extreme wear inside the joint that has already resulted in severe arthritis with bone rubbing on bone.
Boe’s family felt their options were limited in their native Scotland, so travelled 500 miles to see Professor Noel Fitzpatrick and the team at Fitzpatrick Referrals. One of the options available to the family was a canine unicompartmental elbow replacement (CUE), a procedure that uses metal and plastic implants to resurface the weight-bearing portion of the inside part of the elbow where cartilage has worn away.
Boe’s family elected for surgery and the right leg proved a success. Boe now returns for the same procedure on the left elbow, but no surgery is without risk, and just because she avoided complications on her right leg is no guarantee of plain sailing for the left.
Behind the scenes
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