A beloved pet dog almost lost a leg in a freak accident while playing in the garden.
Amber, a five-year-old Labrador, was playing in the garden at its West Kirby home, when Myles threw a ball down some steps for the dog to chase. Amber landed awkwardly on her leg and her owners could instantly tell something was wrong.
Owner Kate Smith, who works at Arrowe Park Hospital as a doctor, said: "Amber jumped after it and just started limping after landing and we could see the lower part of her leg had dropped and she couldn’t put weight on it."
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The family took Amber to Acorn Veterinary Surgery where surgeon Nick Whieldon repaired and reconnect the damaged Achilles tendon in Amber’s rear left leg. Kate added: "We took her to Acorn Vets and they’ve been brilliant. Nick’s been really good and done a fantastic job and Amber’s been having physio and is about 90 per cent back to full fitness.
“She had her op four weeks after the injury and has made a really good recovery so we’ve been giving her a bit of exercise in the woods near the house.
“She was a bit nervous when we first had her. She had been trained as a gun dog but she is lovely with the children. Nick and the team at Acorn have been brilliant and we’re very grateful to them.”
Nick, from Thornton Hough, said: “It was an uncommon injury. The joint, equivalent to a human ankle, had been extended and although the tendon hadn’t been completely severed it caused the joint to drop down.
“I had to drill holes through the top of the bone and pass suturing material through which can then pull the tendon, which connects the muscle to the joint, back into the bone.
“We also put screws through the joint and fitted a frame to the outside of Amber’s leg to immobilise the joint and she had to stay like that for six weeks.
“It was a complicated procedure but Amber has been a good patient and it’s gone very well and been a very good outcome because without it she would have been disabled for the rest of her life.”
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