Rhinna the Ballerina
11 Sep 2008

Rhinna the Ballerina’s Story

by Dr. Grace Sollenberger

 

Rhinna had been missing for 1 week when she miraculously appeared at her petparent’s home. She could not use either of her hind legs and had to drag her poor little body home, through the doggie door.  Rhinna’s petmom brought her to be examined by Dr. Franklin and he found that both of her hind legs were fractured. Her left leg had an open fracture in which bone protruded out through a wound. (An open fracture has a high risk of becoming contaminated or infected which could result in delayed healing); and dear Rhinna’s right leg was a simple, straight fracture.  Both of her (physeal) fractures were at the level of the growth plate possibly making for a difficult recovery.

 

                 Left leg with open fracture                                              

 

       

                    Right leg straight fracture

 

Despite the trauma she had been through, dear Rhinna remained in the best of spirits. Initially Dr. Franklin was hesitant about surgical repair as it could lead to a difficult recovery or possibly no recovery at all. 

 

After much consideration and obvious determination from Rhinna, Dr. Franklin decided to give it his best shot with his surgical abilities.  He approached the right leg first as it was the most stable. He elected to use a method called cross pinning to repair this type of fracture. Cross pins were placed in Rhinna’s femur to reduce the fracture.  Dr. Franklin was hesitant about using the same method with the open fractured leg. The wound appeared old and most likely contaminated which may prevent any or all healing. The only other option would be to amputate the left leg. After some careful consideration Dr. Franklin proceeded with repairing the open fracture, using the same method of placing pins in the femur to reduce the fracture.  Post-surgical radiographs were taken and showed Rhinna to have nearly perfectly placed femurs.   

 

Then we placed dear Rhinna in the Lord’s hands and prayed for a successful outcome...

 

                    

  

Time passed and she remained hospitalized for 2 weeks to monitor her recovery. With each passing day she improved more and more. Rhinna continued to be a sweetheart and a joy to work with. The day came for her happy petmom to take her home. For the first month she came to visit us weekly. Each week was filled with stories of improvement such as jumping up on window sills or using her hind leg to scratch her ears. Rhinna has proven that “where there is a will, there is a way”. This determined little kitty did not give up!

                               

          

Rhinna 3 weeks post -surgery and placing weight on her hind legs!

 

 Charming Rhinna recovered a happy kitty--she taught us all a lot about the importance of a positive attitude, patience and perservence!

Back to the News