
Back in May, little Patch broke her back leg & she had to have it pinned. After 21 weeks it was time for the metalwork to be removed. This was scary, as there was a possibility as the pins were being removed the leg could break again. X rays had shown there was new bone growth but because the break was so close to her hip joint it was very difficult to see just how much new bone growth has occurred. The pins couldn’t be left in much longer as they themselves would start to cause problems. Her age & the diagnosis of Osteoporosis also compounded the issue.
As usual it was a tense wait until I got the call to say how things had gone. It was not either of the scenarios I had imagined. The external metalwork had been removed but the pin that was in her femur had been left. The femur pin had been left because of the difficulty to see on the X ray how well it had healed, better to keep some support for now. The top pins in her leg were found to have been loose so the external framework hadn’t been doing the job it was supposed to have been doing. Depending on how long these pins have been loose, it is quite possible the leg has been supporting itself for some time. If that is the case then that is really good news.

Patch was very out of it when I collected her due to the very strong painkiller she had been given & the anaesthetic. She stayed overnight in the house on a heat mat to keep her nice & warm. By the end of the evening she had started to come round, had drunk & eaten a small amount of vegetables. She had also used her bowels, all this was a very good sign she was recovering well & also meant she wasn’t getting gut stasis after the op, which is always a risk.
The following morning after a good sleep she was looking much more like her normal self. She had eaten all her vegetables overnight & drunk more water. I knew the best thing for Patch was to get her back to the other bunnies in the shed, which I did later on that morning. By the afternoon she was back to her normal self.
The next step is to see how she fares on the leg this week & then it’ll be a call to the vet to see what happens next. For the moment, Patch is to stay confined & I just have to keep doing what I am doing.