Hello! It’s time for another cool case because it’s Friday! Today’s case involves a local police officer responding to a call that a dog had been hit by a car. As you read about in another one of my Friday posts, this happens all too often. This case was unique for many reasons.
Daphne (name changed for privacy) was rushed to me after hours one cold winter night. She was brought in to me by a police officer in the town I was currently living in. He heard a call over the police radio that a dog had been hit by a car, and he was closest to the location given. To his great surprise, when he arrived at the location, he discovered that it was HIS OWN DOG. When he arrived at the Animal Hospital he was very distraught as you can imagine. Daphne was about 8 years old, and unable to walk with her hind legs due to this accident.
During her physical exam I found that she was bright and alert thankfully. Her heart and lungs sounded good, with no crackles or wheezes heard while listening with my stethoscope. This is one of my first concerns with any hit by car (HBC) - is the heart rhythm normal and do I suspect a collapsed lung or lung contusions (bruising)? She did have abrasions (scratches) on numerous legs from either the impact with the car, or from the road. None of these were deep, and would heal with time and antibiotics after being shaved and cleaned that evening.
So, remember our first concern with an HBC is the heart and lungs. Our next concern is for the abdomen and spinal cord.
How are her organs? Did the bladder rupture due to the force of impact? Did she lacerate her spleen? Could she have internal bleeding? How is her spinal cord? Are her spinal vertebrae still in alignment? So many questions! What is the first thing we always due after making sure that our HBC is stable? X-rays, you guessed it. I recommend them for EVERY hit by car. Whether or not pet owners elect to proceed is up to them. But, we don’t want to miss a major injury from a HBC that could be hiding due to extra adrenaline the pet currently has.
Thankfully, Daphne’s owner elected to do the x-ray. The x-ray below is hers. Can you find her injury? Look closely at her spine. Her head is on the left and her tail is on the right.
We Veterinarians are trained to look very closely at the space between each vertebrae along the spine. There are a couple places that are naturally a bit more narrow, but otherwise the thoracic (chest) intervertebral spacing should be equal, and the lumbar (abdominal) intervertebral spacing should be equal along the spine. I’ve put the same x-ray below, now with a red circle around the lesion. Do you see how this disc space is more narrow than the other lumbar disc spaces?
Due to the force of impact, the disc that lives in this space was pushed up into her spinal cord (the spinal cord is not visible on x-ray, but runs horizontally along the line in the middle of the vertebrae). When the disc is pushed up into the spinal cord, it causes pinching of the spinal cord nerves at that location leading to functionality “losses.” In her case, it was pinching where the nerves were traveling back to her hind legs, causing her to lose most of the function in her hind legs.
Usually this is temporary if we can reduce the swelling pretty quickly. The first thing I offered the owner was referral to a Neurologist. Some of these cases only respond to surgery, and that surgery needs to happen NOW. The other option was to use high doses of steroids (anti-inflammatories), and I also offered treatments with our Therapy Laser. I told him I was unsure of what her outcome would be, but I was willing to give it a try. He opted to do steroids and the laser.
Let’s talk for a minute about the laser. I had two kinds of lasers at the Animal Hospital. The first was a SURGICAL laser. This laser was used to cut through tissue with less bleeding and pain than if a regular scalpel blade was used.
The laser treatments I offered Daphne was with a THERAPY Laser. This laser treatment is called “Photobiomodulation.” The benefits of this calculated “dose” of light is decreased inflammation, decreased pain, and faster healing. We used this laser on cases of arthritis, wounds, a variety of injuries, post-surgery, etc. The results we saw were amazing. Owners at times were hesitant, but would often return to tell us how shocked they were with the results. We would start with every other day treatments (that would last for 20 or 30 minutes per treatment) for a couple weeks, then decrease to once or twice weekly for a couple weeks, then discontinue when the pet was showing dramatic signs of improvement.
We followed up with Daphne’s parents on a regular basis, and saw her quite often for the first month of her recovery. It was slow going for a while, with some definite ups and downs, but I’m happy to report that after about 2 months she was up and running again. In the first few weeks she was not able to stand for long on her own without assistance. Her owners used a sling to assist her outside and brought her food and water to her inside. In the next couple weeks she was able to walk a very short distance but was still quite wobbly on her hind legs. In the second month she showed more progressive improvement each week.
She was a sweet girl throughout all of her treatments, and her owners were very thankful to see her running around the yard again!
Daphne (name changed for privacy) was rushed to me after hours one cold winter night. She was brought in to me by a police officer in the town I was currently living in. He heard a call over the police radio that a dog had been hit by a car, and he was closest to the location given. To his great surprise, when he arrived at the location, he discovered that it was HIS OWN DOG. When he arrived at the Animal Hospital he was very distraught as you can imagine. Daphne was about 8 years old, and unable to walk with her hind legs due to this accident.
During her physical exam I found that she was bright and alert thankfully. Her heart and lungs sounded good, with no crackles or wheezes heard while listening with my stethoscope. This is one of my first concerns with any hit by car (HBC) - is the heart rhythm normal and do I suspect a collapsed lung or lung contusions (bruising)? She did have abrasions (scratches) on numerous legs from either the impact with the car, or from the road. None of these were deep, and would heal with time and antibiotics after being shaved and cleaned that evening.
As I moved toward her back end, I also noted that she was unable to stand or walk. My thoughts immediately went to her spinal cord (Click here to see my other Friday post about Tilly). The difference for Daphne is that she could still feel her toes when I pinched them, and was able to move her legs a little while laying. So, she still had “deep pain” sensation, which was a wonderful sign. Was the injury in a back leg, or was it in the spinal cord? While examining her back legs, I did not find evidence of swelling or fracture.
So, remember our first concern with an HBC is the heart and lungs. Our next concern is for the abdomen and spinal cord.
Thankfully, Daphne’s owner elected to do the x-ray. The x-ray below is hers. Can you find her injury? Look closely at her spine. Her head is on the left and her tail is on the right.
We Veterinarians are trained to look very closely at the space between each vertebrae along the spine. There are a couple places that are naturally a bit more narrow, but otherwise the thoracic (chest) intervertebral spacing should be equal, and the lumbar (abdominal) intervertebral spacing should be equal along the spine. I’ve put the same x-ray below, now with a red circle around the lesion. Do you see how this disc space is more narrow than the other lumbar disc spaces?
Due to the force of impact, the disc that lives in this space was pushed up into her spinal cord (the spinal cord is not visible on x-ray, but runs horizontally along the line in the middle of the vertebrae). When the disc is pushed up into the spinal cord, it causes pinching of the spinal cord nerves at that location leading to functionality “losses.” In her case, it was pinching where the nerves were traveling back to her hind legs, causing her to lose most of the function in her hind legs.
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| Courtesy: Georgia Veterinary Associates |
Usually this is temporary if we can reduce the swelling pretty quickly. The first thing I offered the owner was referral to a Neurologist. Some of these cases only respond to surgery, and that surgery needs to happen NOW. The other option was to use high doses of steroids (anti-inflammatories), and I also offered treatments with our Therapy Laser. I told him I was unsure of what her outcome would be, but I was willing to give it a try. He opted to do steroids and the laser.
Let’s talk for a minute about the laser. I had two kinds of lasers at the Animal Hospital. The first was a SURGICAL laser. This laser was used to cut through tissue with less bleeding and pain than if a regular scalpel blade was used.
We followed up with Daphne’s parents on a regular basis, and saw her quite often for the first month of her recovery. It was slow going for a while, with some definite ups and downs, but I’m happy to report that after about 2 months she was up and running again. In the first few weeks she was not able to stand for long on her own without assistance. Her owners used a sling to assist her outside and brought her food and water to her inside. In the next couple weeks she was able to walk a very short distance but was still quite wobbly on her hind legs. In the second month she showed more progressive improvement each week.
She was a sweet girl throughout all of her treatments, and her owners were very thankful to see her running around the yard again!
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