A four-year-old rescue Shetland Sheepdog, Evie, was struggling to walk due to elbow dysplasia – but she can now go on walks pain-free thanks to pioneering surgery, done through tech that is used for operations on human wrists. It marks the first time this keyhole surgery was used on a non-human patient, and given the good results there is hope it may help more dogs with Evie’s same problem.
Evie’s owner Carol Robertson, from Livingston, West Lothian, adopted Evie at the from Scottish Shetland Sheepdog Rescue, and started noticing a limp when she was two. Eventually the pain was so bad Evie could not be walked on hard surfaces, but the surgery has been “totally life-changing”.
“At first it was just after she’d been really active playing with her ball, but it got worse and worse,” Carol said. “It was mostly on her right side and then became noticeable on both legs. I started driving her to a field or somewhere else soft for a walk to avoid hard surfaces, and she couldn’t play or have any fun without limping.”
Carol took Evie to her own vet and was referred to the specialists at East Neuk Vets, part of the where she was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia. Despite treatment, the pain was soon debilitating, and East Neuk Vets deemed Evie would be suitable as the first patient to undergo the new procedure with a high-tech machine used for hospital ops on human wrists.
“Evie had a chronic lameness that was really affecting her day-to-day life,” said vet Padraig Egan. “Ordinarily she would have been too small to have this minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery. We could usually only do this type of procedure on dogs of at least 10kg, while Evie was only 7kg.
“But thanks to this new machine, which has a minute camera which we put in the joint and monitor on a laptop, we can now treat very small dogs. It lets us get into tiny areas with just two little incisions, and avoiding open surgery means we can get a patient on the road to recovery in half the time.
“By investing in equipment normally only used on humans, we’re proud to offer a treatment that can make such a difference to smaller and smaller patients across the country.”
Evie began showing improvement within days, and while her exercise was limited at first to avoid a relapse, she continued to thrive and is not back to full fitness.
“It almost seemed too good to be true at first, but it wasn’t and she has a great quality of life again,” said Carol. “She’s able to exercise, run, play with my nieces and do all the things she wants to.
“We took her on a holiday on the North Coast 500 recently where she was up and down glens and splashing in rivers and the sea. She even won second place in a local dog show. She’s not on any painkillers, is loving life and bringing such joy.”