John Punke

Thank you to everyone for your interest in Jessie! It’s great to hear that there is so much concern in her care. She is a great dog with a lovely personality. I am the specialist surgeon who recently evaluated Jessie and will be performing her surgery. To explain her situation a bit more, Jessie had damage to her growth plate that caused her deformity. The deformity causes a bow in the radius that prevents her from walking normally and makes the leg significantly shorter than her normal leg. It will certainly cause arthritis in Jessie’s wrist and elbow if it is not addressed with surgery. Since Jessie uses the leg to some degree now, I wouldn’t recommend amputation. It also gives excellent encouragement that we can help her dramatically with surgery. The ideal surgery would involve straightening the leg at surgery, and slowly lengthening the leg with an external ring fixator until it is a normal length. This process would take 4 months and be quite costly. However, we have opted for a compromise solution with about half the cost. Instead, we plan on straightening the leg with a plate in a way that will give her some additional length as well. Her abnormal leg will still be shorter than the normal one, but fortunately, dogs can cope with discrepancies in limb length very well. She won’t be normal or perfect, but (most importantly) she will be comfortable and functional with a much lower risk of arthritis in the future. I have 8 years of surgical training post graduation from veterinary school. I am board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (www.acvs.org) and am a registered specialist by the Veterinary Surgeon’s Board of South Australia (www.vsbsa.org.au) and have extensive training and experience with Angular Limb Deformity management in dogs. As for cost, I am donating my time and expertise for Jessie. Our fees will cover the cost of the materials we use for Jessie’s surgery. The plate and screws I need to use for a dog Jessie’s size are quite expensive. (They are designed and made for use in people.) I hope I have answered any concerns you might have. Please feel free to visit our website at www.vetsair.com.au for more information about our facility, or to contact me at [email protected] if you have any further questions. So, please donate to Jessie’s cause if you can! She’s a WONDERFUL dog and certainly deserving of a better quality of life! Best wishes, John Punke, DVM, MS Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons Specialist Small Animal Surgeon