Puppy surprises Kentucky shelter with improvement after his front paws were broken
A 5-month-old puppy with the Kentucky Humane Society has — “incredibly” — avoided surgery after suffering a rare injury to his front paws, according to the organization’s Facebook post.
The puppy named MacGregor with broken metacarpal bones in both his right and his left paws was sent to the state humane society last week from an overcrowded shelter. KHS said the injuries were a result of blunt force trauma and staffers don’t know how it happened.
KHS sent MacGregor’s X-rays to a specialist, who determined a specialized form of surgery was necessary. The minimum cost for the surgery was $5,000, which KHS said is outside the monthly budget for off-site veterinary care. The shelter’s efforts to find money for MacGregor’s procedure got attention in national press.
While getting prepped for the surgery this week, the specialist took more radiographs of MacGregor’s forelimbs.
“Incredibly, the veterinarian found that MacGregor’s limbs were starting to mend themselves,” the humane society team said on its Facebook page.
The specialist instead put new splints on MacGregor and let him wake up on his own.
“When an animal is very young and the bones are still growing, sometimes they can be splinted well enough where the limbs will begin to straighten themselves out as they grow,” KHS said in its post.
MacGregor will return to the specialist in four weeks for further evaluation. If he keeps progressing like he has, he may not need surgery.
Meanwhile, MacGregor will stay in his casts for three more weeks and is on restricted activity for eight weeks.
However, upon return from the specialist, MacGregor showed signs of an upper respiratory infection and is now in the KHS’ veterinary ward.
“Thank you to everyone who is supporting this sweet boy and who has reached out checking in on him,” KHS said in the post. “We will continue to give you updates as we have them. We also want to thank everyone who donated in MacGregor’s honor. Your donations help ensure we can provide exceptional medical care to MacGregor and other needy animals like him.”
KHS is still accepting donations on MacGregor’s and other animals’ behalf. Donations can be sent on the KHS’ website.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 11:50 AM.
