Chewy gets a leg up!

Chewy is a 9 week old male kitten that was found by Dr. Bailey's son, Christopher. He had been attacked by a dog and had a broken leg. Christopher, a current veterinary student at MSU, brought the kitten back to Exclusively Cats to have Dr. Bailey treat him.

The left rear leg is broken

Another view of Chewy's legs, showing the healthy right leg and the broken left leg

While many small fractures of the hind limb can be stabilized with bandages and splints, a severe fracture like this one requires surgery. As you can see, the bone has been broken all the way through and the ends do not want to meet. Dr. Bailey had to place pins in the bone in order to stabilize it so that it can heal.

Chewy's leg required three pins to fix it in place, along with an outer brace.

Now that his bone is supported by the pins, it will remain end-to-end so that healing can occur. Meanwhile, although Chewy is restricted to resting in his cage, he can bear weight on the leg.


 You can see him scurrying around in this video.



Hopefully, with time and care, Chewy will be able to start looking for his forever home!

Here is Chewy with his external brace - it is a rubber tube filled with a hardening material so that it could be cut and fit to Chewy's tiny leg.

February 2014 update: Little Chewy has been getting around without any troubles for quite some time, now, and has found his permanent home with Dr. Bailey and his wife, Liz.