We’re starting off 2024 with our Brave Pet award going to Martin!

Martin is a very handsome 2-year-old Dalmatian, who got into a bit of bother at the end of last year when he unfortunately ran in to a broken telephone stump whilst out on a walk.

Martin was brought to us as an emergency by his owner, and after a full examination, our vets determined that he had fractured his mandible (lower jaw) in the impact. Although his right canine was sticking out at an abnormal angle because of the fracture, he had luckily not fractured any of his teeth in the commotion! It was decided he would be admitted to the hospital for pain relief overnight, and for him to have his jaw repaired surgically the following day.

Martin had a general anaesthetic the next morning, where our vets were able to fully assess the fracture. Thankfully the fracture had not gone through the whole of the mandible but the bone and its teeth had been pushed out of its normal position (displaced). The fracture site was cleaned, and the vet managed to replace the displaced bone back to its normal position. This was then fixed in place with surgical wires. The teeth associated with this section of the jaw were also closely inspected and didn’t show any signs of damage or instability but this was something that would have to be reassessed as the jaw healed.

Martin was discharged back home that evening – to his very doting mum, with a strict care plan of soft food, no chews, toys, hard treats and to have lead walks only whilst his bone begins to heal.  Poor Martin! We saw Martin back the following day as his wires had poked through the skin, sadly there isn’t much extra tissue or fat in this location for the wire to sit in and the location isn’t easily dressed or bandaged. However, there’s nothing a bit of blu-tac won’t fix and this seemed to work well at covering the slightly sharp end of the wire.

Martin was brought back to be re-assessed a week later and was doing well! His fracture site was healing nicely, and his mouth was very comfortable on examination.

A long 6 weeks later for toy-less Martin, he was admitted back to the hospital to be sedated and have his wires removed! Thankfully for Martin and his lovely mum, his mandible had healed really well, after a further two weeks of soft food and no toys (sorry Martin!), his mum was advised to slowly reintroduce his normal food – and toys! I think we can all agree, Martin definitely deserves his brave pet award – and maybe a new toy?! Well done Martin!