Lottie's serious injuries & complex repairs

Loveable collie Lottie is used to running free around the farm, but a nasty collision with a delivery van causes a catastrophic injury to one of her hind legs.

With the damage extensive, the paw hanging off and the bone possibly dead, Noel and the team at Fitzpatrick Referrals face a complex medical and moral challenge. Can Lottie’s leg be saved – and is it the right thing to do?
Conventionally for such an horrific injury, amputation is the treatment generally offered, but Noel is willing to give Lottie and her family every option, as long as strict ethical guidelines are followed. Lottie’s family decide to embark on the long journey towards trying to save her foot, with the hope of returning the energetic collie to the life she loves.

It’s been a difficult road to recovery for border collie Lottie, who returns to see Noel with a worrying development. Having tried to repair her foot, which had been left hanging off by a serious trauma, sadly, the blood supply to part of the foot has not held up. So, Noel and his engineering team design and manufacture an innovative plate to support Lottie’s surviving toes, which he offers to her family as an alternative to amputation.

The option of this custom-made implant offers Lottie, and her family, hope after many setbacks. It means another complicated surgery but it’s a chance to save the foot – if they decide to take it.