18/06/2025
Update! We have added an x-ray of a normal dog's femur and knee, and have labelled Billion's x-rays and where his fractures were located. It was a real doozy of a fracture - the poor little man.
Read on only if you are prepared for the full gamut of emotions; anger, sadness, shock, then joy, happiness and love. This is the story of one lucky boy named "Billion".
Billion is 12 weeks old, and he came to his new home just 9 days ago. His new family had met him just once before at the farm where he was born from a Schnauzer mother, and a Border Collie father. They instantly (and understandably) fell in love. He appeared normal and healthy a few weeks ago, but when his new owners went to pick him up last week, they noticed he wasn't able to walk on his right hind leg. Upon enquiring to the farmer, they were simply told, "we don't know what happened - he has been like that for a while...".
Billion appeared to be a very laid back puppy. He didn't have the normal puppy zoomies or complaining from his crate at night. He seemed happy just to sleep and lie around. An old soul perhaps?
The day after collecting him from the farm - Billion and his new family came to see Dr David for his non-weight bearing right hind leg. What we found was nothing short of shocking. His right knee was incredibly swollen and hard, and he was not able to flex or extend either his hip or knee without significant discomfort. Dr David also agreed that he was a very laidback puppy indeed...
That same day, we took some x-rays of Billion's right hind leg - and this is where we discovered that Billion had experienced some sort of major trauma. He had a horrific complete, compound and displaced fracture of his right femur, which involved the major growth plate. But that is not all - he also had a greenstick type fracture higher up his femur. But - it gets even worse.
On the radiographs we noticed that there was evidence of the body trying to heal. This means that these horrible injuries happened at least two weeks ago; Billion had been left with a broken leg for two plus weeks, with no pain relief, and no care from his previous home. This is criminal animal cruelty at it's worst.
Billion was with his new family for a little over 24 hours - new dog owners - when they discovered their puppy had a badly broken leg. This is a lot to take in, and frankly, it is a lot to take on too. All of a sudden they were thrust into the realm of veterinary medicine and had to make some serious decisions, quickly.
It would be understandable if, after only 24 hours, they elected to return Billion; but - he had taken their hearts, even in this short amount of time. There was zero chance of that! And this is where the story finally turns positive...
Billion was immediately placed on pain relief, and saw a specialist surgeon team at SASH the next day. Whilst surgery to repair the fracture was possible - there were probable potential complications and lifelong chronic discomfort and pain. Growth plate fractures are notoriously challenging to repair. Growth of the limb may never return leading to unequal length limbs. There were multiple fractures, the fractures were old, and as you can see from the x-rays, the end of the femur had contracted about a third of the way up the limb; this is muscle contracture secondary to the fracture. The muscles are literally pulling the fractured piece of femur up the leg, displacing the entire knee. This muscle contracture can be very challenging to repair. Not only that - the physiotherapy required, and high chance of chronic pain after surgery secondary to all of this all had to be taken into account. Again - by this point Billion had been in his new home for all of about 48 hours.
The specialist surgeons at SASH are incredible, but given the severity of the fractures and the very bleak long term prognosis for being comfortable and pain free, after much discussion and consideration, it was decided that it would be best to amputate Billion's right hind leg - to include the whole femur up to the hip socket.
In around three short days - Billion's amazing new family had adopted him, found out he had multiple fractures in his right hind leg, taken him to see specialist surgeons, spent lots of money, then with the assistance of Dr David, decided on major surgery in the form of amputation. These were big decisions, however we had the very real opportunity of relieving the pain Billion must have been in, and with some simple steps like ensuring he is never overweight, amputation was undoubtedly the right decision with a fantastic long-term prognosis.
We amputated Billion's right hind leg late last week, and everything went perfectly to plan. And oh my... it turns out, Billion is not that quiet or laid back at all! The only way Billion expressed his pain was by being quiet, withdrawn, sleepy, seemingly easy going. He was in so much pain, he had essentially withdrawn himself from being a normal puppy.
Yesterday - Billion came in for a post-op check and WOW! He is happy, tail wagging, cheeky, active - all the things a healthy puppy should be.
It absolutely breaks our hearts to think what Billion has been through. We are of course so angry and upset that he was not provided pain relief as a minimum after his injury occurred by his previous owners. It is beyond belief that anyone could leave Billion in the state he was in.
But wow - did his new owners step up. They fell in love, sought all the best information they could on what would be best for Billion, then committed to a major surgery that many find pretty gory! (Not for us vets - we love it). We are just in awe - of both Billion's new family, and of course the very brave Billion.
Dogs are incredible aren't they? To think what he has been through - and there he is, wagging his tail to every human he meets, complete forgiveness, nothing but love. He is just doing his thing, living in the moment (a lesson in that for all of us!). And boy... do his new family know what they are getting themselves in for - now that he is able to be cheeky? Of course they do! And they love every minute of it.
We will never forget how Billion's life started out; what is amazing is - he has.
Much love to Billion and his family 😍🥰🐕☺️ Thank you for letting us take care of you!
