Puppy With Leg Injury.

[Cuban]

One of my rural neighors has a two month old pup, during Songkran week a car parked on their land was moved while the pup was sleeping under one of the wheels. The result is an injuried leg (hind right hand side), after a day of limping and repeated suggestions that the owner do something other than offer sweetened milk - the pup was taken to a small vet in a nearby town. This is in a rural area about an hour from Khon Kaen so I'm not expecting that the vet office is well equiped. The report back was that the leg was not broken and an antibiotic shot was given. That is the sum total of attention the dog has received.

The owner has enough funds to get the animal correct care, but not enough common sense to do so without being 'guided'.

It is now about a week since the incident and the pup remains limping, never attempting to put any weight on the leg but making way as best he can. Luckily he still has his tail that he can use for balance. I can touch the leg, the dog is not overly stressed when I do so, there is no obvious swelling that I can see/feel. I am wondering if the leg is dislocated at the hip joint, if so I assume that this could be treated/corrected? The visual balance of the hind quarters suggests this.

So the question becomes:

Is this type of injury something that a rural local vet should be able to resolve directly?

Is there a recomendedlarger vet office / animal hospital in Khon Kaen? (cross posted question in Issan forum)

Is this something that could be treated another way?

Without futher input I am considering trying to get the owner to take the pup and the vet to the local hospital's X-ray department.

Any suggestions welcome.

[taurus8]

yes, have exellent service in Animal Clinic on the University grounds.

[Cuban]

This post is being written a few days after the event.

While posting a request for animal hospital over in the Issan forum, it occured to me to use Google (brain's a bit slow!) so I posted by own solution in the form of Khon Kaen University's Animal Hospital Teaching Center, details below.

Two days of gentle nagging was required to convince the owner that a trip to KK' animal hospial was required, in the end we combined this with 'our' shopping trip to a supermarket, we left my wife shopping while I took owner and pup to the hospital. As the Thai-Thai directions resulted in a 15 minute detour via the whole university estate I have created and posted a 'better' map at the bottom of ths post.

I was happy with the standard of care and attention that the hospital offered, nice to be able to test the facility with someone else's dog. The pup was seen quite quickly the only short delay was to allow for students to be called to witness and assist with the inspection and X-Ray, to be expected in a teaching hospital.

The news that the leg was in fact broken, just above the joint scored bad points with the original local vet that said it was not broken. Since then news has filtered through the village's pet owners that do care about their animals that the local guy is not to be trusted.

To pin and set the broken bone would require an overnight stay so we left at that point...

...the following afternoon the owner was happy to drive themselves to collect the dog from KK, I sense part of the delay and reluctance in going there in the first place was that they have never attended such a place before. On the journey back after the first visit she kept repeating the way that the staff had called out the dog's name as we were called from the waiting area seats, 'just like a real human hospital', she said.

Total cost of treatment and a handful of antibiotics, calcium tablets etc was 2,500 Baht. Plaster case to be removed in a few weeks.

I enclose an X-Ray and a picture of the recovering pacient:

Khon Kaen University Animal Hospital (Link Email, Tel. 043 202 404):

On Highway 2, drive North past Khon Kaen through the current consruction work forming an underpass next to the junction with Highway 12. Follow the road up the hill, you will see two tall antenna masts (NBT) on the right hand side of the road next to a Lemon Green gas station, alongside the masts is a traffic light controlled T junction, turn left here into the University Campus, after about 15 meters (at most) is a side road on your right, on the right had side of this side road is a large white budda icon / spirit house littered with concrete animals, Green W on my map below. Follow this side road (runs parallel with Hwy 2), about 200 meters (?) on the left hand side is the animal hospital. Picture below.

Edited April 24, 2009 by Cuban

[Lozfranco]

This post is being written a few days after the event.

While posting a request for animal hospital over in the Issan forum, it occured to me to use Google (brain's a bit slow!) so I posted by own solution in the form of Khon Kaen University's Animal Hospital Teaching Center, details below.

Two days of gentle nagging was required to convince the owner that a trip to KK' animal hospial was required, in the end we combined this with 'our' shopping trip to a supermarket, we left my wife shopping while I took owner and pup to the hospital. As the Thai-Thai directions resulted in a 15 minute detour via the whole university estate I have created and posted a 'better' map at the bottom of ths post.

I was happy with the standard of care and attention that the hospital offered, nice to be able to test the facility with someone else's dog. The pup was seen quite quickly the only short delay was to allow for students to be called to witness and assist with the inspection and X-Ray, to be expected in a teaching hospital.

The news that the leg was in fact broken, just above the joint scored bad points with the original local vet that said it was not broken. Since then news has filtered through the village's pet owners that do care about their animals that the local guy is not to be trusted.

To pin and set the broken bone would require an overnight stay so we left at that point...

...the following afternoon the owner was happy to drive themselves to collect the dog from KK, I sense part of the delay and reluctance in going there in the first place was that they have never attended such a place before. On the journey back after the first visit she kept repeating the way that the staff had called out the dog's name as we were called from the waiting area seats, 'just like a real human hospital', she said.

Total cost of treatment and a handful of antibiotics, calcium tablets etc was 2,500 Baht. Plaster case to be removed in a few weeks.

I enclose an X-Ray and a picture of the recovering pacient:

Khon Kaen University Animal Hospital (Link Email, Tel. 043 202 404):

On Highway 2, drive North past Khon Kaen through the current consruction work forming an underpass next to the junction with Highway 12. Follow the road up the hill, you will see two tall antenna masts (NBT) on the right hand side of the road next to a Lemon Green gas station, alongside the masts is a traffic light controlled T junction, turn left here into the University Campus, after about 15 meters (at most) is a side road on your right, on the right had side of this side road is a large white budda icon / spirit house littered with concrete animals, Green W on my map below. Follow this side road (runs parallel with Hwy 2), about 200 meters (?) on the left hand side is the animal hospital. Picture below.

Good on you for getting the pup sorted out, we see too many dogs in thailand with missing limbs as a result of similar injuries.