Bone Fractures in Dogs

Bone Fractures are common in dogs. While typically fractures occur after a traumatic incident, such as being hit by a car or falling from a height.

Our pets can fracture bones in either their front or back legs. The front leg consists of the radius and ulna (with the radius being the main weight supporting bone), and the humerus (forms the elbow and shoulder). The back leg comprises of the tibia and fibula (shin), and the femur (thigh).

All breeds are prone to fractures, but as most breakages are caused by a sudden impact or great force – whether from objects or falls – they most often happen in older dogs and young, adventurous pups. Toy breeds with tiny fragile limbs may be trodden on too.

Dog fractures can be scary, and it’s important to make sure they’re taken care of quickly. Often fractures require surgery to allow the bones of your pet to heal correctly and to limit future lameness.

Types of Fractures

A bone can break in many ways; we call these fractures. To make it easier to plan for therapy, veterinary surgeons classify fractures into several categories.

Incomplete Fracture: a fracture that is more like a bend in the bone; the bone may only be broken partway around the circumference of the bone; most commonly seen in young animals.

Complete Fracture: the bone is broken through its full circumference and two or more bone fragments are created.

Causes of Bone Fractures in Dogs

Dogs break (or fracture) bones for a lot of reasons. Often they break due to traffic accidents or incidents such as falls.

Bone fractures are caused by a sudden impact or great force to the body, whether from an object or due to a fall from a great distance. They occur most often in older dogs and in adventurous, excitable animals.

Some fractures occur following a pathologic weakening of the bone, which is seen with certain neoplastic conditions, such as osteosarcoma.

Signs and symptoms

Your dog may have:

• Loss of power – it can be hard to move a broken limb

• Unnatural movement – the limb may be at an odd angle and have a wider range of movement than it should have

• Swelling, bruising or a wound around the fracture site

• Deformity- often limbs may be shortened, or the broken area could have lumps and bumps or stepping (with an injured spine it is uneven as you gently feel down their back

Diagnosis

Your veterinarian will assess your pet thoroughly, to evaluate for any other injuries to vital organs. Your veterinarian will likely recommend x-rays of the affected region. Often times pets need a pain medication or sedative for x-rays to be obtained. Other tests that may be recommended initially include complete blood work, abdominal and thoracic (chest) radiographs and possibly abdominal ultrasound.

Treatment of Bone Fractures in Dogs

The way in which vets treat fractures depends on the dog’s age, size, fitness, broken bone, type of fracture, and budget available.

Treatment and best repair options often involve general anaesthetic, x-rays and surgery, enabling bone edges to come together again for re-alignment (fracture reduction) so they can knit together firmly and form a healing callus. Sometimes amputation may be indicated.

Aftercare

The aftercare for a pet with a broken bone is very variable and depends on the type of fracture, the type of operation that has been performed and the nature of the patient.

Most pets can be allowed to exercise almost immediately following surgery, although it is important that unrestricted activity such as running or jumping is avoided.