Evie the Shetland Sheepdog has been given a new lease on life thanks to pioneering keyhole surgery that she received on her elbow.
The four-year-old rescue dog was in so much pain that her owner Carol Robertson, from Livingston, West Lothian, couldn’t even take her for walks on hard pavements.
But since she’s had the ‘totally life-changing’ surgery in Fife, Evie’s back living her life to the fullest.
Vets at St Monans practice now hope the procedure will help change medical care for many other small breeds all over Scotland and further afield.
Carol first took the pooch in when she was a frightened 16-month-old rescue – but noticed Evie developing a limp when she was two.
‘At first it was just after she’d been really active playing with her ball, but it got worse and worse,’ said Carol, who works for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
‘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 the vet and the dog was eventually diagnosed with elbow dysplasia.
Even though Carol tried lots of treatment options to try and help Evie manage the condition, it just got worse.
After more visits to East Neuk Vets, which is part of the My Family Vets network, it was decided that Evie was suitable to be the first canine patient to undergo the new procedure with a high-tech machine – usually only performed 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.’
After the surgery, Evie started to bounce back in mere days, and she’s been thriving ever since.
‘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.’
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