Last week, a falconer brought us his Gyr-Merlin hybrid, Ivy, because after sustaining injuries during a fight with a wild Coopers Hawk, she had begun to self-mutilate by chewing on one of her toes. (See first photo) We put a cast on the toe to prevent further mutilation and started her on antibiotics in anticipation of amputating the toe. So, today she returned for re-evaluation. She was anesthetized and the cast was removed. It revealed that the distal half of the toe was necrotic (dead) and would have to be surgically removed. Surgery went well and lasted a duration of 1.5 hours. We use sevoflurane anesthesia, and during surgical procedures, our patients are kept warm on a heating pad. Prior to the procedure, we administered IV fluids and antibiotics. During the procedure, hemorrhage (bleeding) was controlled by the intermittent use of a tourniquet, topical application of Lidocaine/Epinephrine drops, and electrocautery. All dead parts of the toe were removed, necrotic skin was trimmed off, and dead bone was removed until viable bone was visible. At this point, the skin was sutured closed, over the bone, via six simple interrupted sutures of 3-O Vicryl. The toe was then bandaged with Tegaderm and secured with Vet-wrap in a figure-8 pattern around the distal tarsometatarsus. We gave this patient an injection of pain medicine before she woke up. Ivys anesthetic recovery went quickly and smoothly, with absolutely no problems.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 09:07:25 +0000