He's had a really tough start in his life.
He’s got deformed front legs, both of them.
He's got a wrecked back leg.
"So we've got to see if we can fix him."
Woah!
His patellas...
Denise, I think it’s both.
Oh no!
That kneecap, you can see is way outside,
it's right on the inside of the leg.
We have to try and bring it back.
In north west Sydney,
Rob is on his way to a house call
to check on a very special little boy.
Generous hearted foster carer, Denise,
has been looking after five year old rescue dog, Hero.
I have dedicated 30 years
to rescuing and rehoming dogs.
I have four dogs of my own
and I'll foster one or two small dogs.
Brave little Hero has had a tough life.
Come on Hero.
Born with a badly deformed front leg
that made mobility a constant struggle.
Hero isn't able to go for a walk on a lead like a normal dog,
so he gets put in his pram and and off he goes.
"Not like other dogs who have functioning limbs,"
he's only got one.
Having only one functioning front paw
puts considerable strain on Hero's back legs.
So Denise is hoping Rob can operate
"to somewhat give the little stray a better quality of life."
He’s had a really tough start in his life.
He’s got deformed front legs, both of them.
He’s got a wrecked back leg.
So we’ve got to see if we can fix him.
Hello Denise.
"- Hi, Rob. How are you? - Good, good, good."
"This is young Hero that you've told me about?"
"- Yes. - Gosh, he's a sweetie."
Isn’t he sweet?
He has a very kind eye, hasn’t he?
Yeah.
Considering life's not been easy for you, buddy.
No.
"Let's have a look at him. So he's got a bit of history,"
he had heartworm?
Yes, he did.
Well, let's just check him over.
" Okay."
He looks healthy now, thank god.
Hero’s had heartworm
and he's had treatment.
His heart sounds all good,
all the valves are thankfully working fine.
Hopefully we'll be able to proceed with surgery.
Woah!
His patella’s...
Denise, I think it's both.
Oh no!
I really do.
I'm so sorry.
I'll know more when I take some X-rays.
But his kneecaps are going in and out of the joint,
and so that's making it very hard for him to stay stable.
Normally, a dog takes 80% of his weight on his front legs.
Yes.
Well, he can't do that,
he's thrown all the weight back here,
well as much as he can,
and that's putting so much strain on these back legs.
Poor little fellow.
You’re a gorgeous little thing, aren't you?
I'm thinking that Hero is worse than we first anticipated.
Bye Hero.
I'm nervous for him.
You be a good boy.
The patella is there and the groove,
I don't think it's got much of a groove at all,
see it’s just slopping out, just dislocates out.
In north west Sydney,
Rob and his team are preparing
for an X-ray of Hero's injured leg,
before they decide if the rescue dog
will require major surgery.
Ready button...
Fire.
I'm happy with the hips, thank goodness.
We dont have to do anything with those.
The left one is just in the groove okay,
"I think it'll be alright. The right one,"
you can see, there's the patella.
So that's causing all the problems.
That kneecap, you can see, is way outside.
It's right on the inside of the leg.
We have to try and bring it back.
Rob is satisfied with the condition of Hero's left leg,
and can now concentrate on correcting the serious problem
on the right.
Rob will now begin surgery to help improve little Hero’s quality of life.
Wow, so the bone here is just totally flat across,
there is no groove whatsoever.
And this poor kneecap has nowhere to live.
So we've got to give it a little house to start with,
that's the first thing.
I’ll just start with this rats tail...
Want a bit to get a fair
bit of bite in there.
Starting to get a groove.
And it's hard work,
the bone’s tough.
We're getting through cartilage and bone.
So of course he's got a little bone
and that we're working with...
It's not quite microsurgery, but
boy he's got little bones.
At this stage the patella’s just been sitting
literally inside the leg,
and it's just as important to this little dog
because he's got bad front legs.
So we've really got to help him out.
He's a very lucky dog,
that he came to us.
"I have all the faith in the world that we’ll fix his leg"
so that he has a better quality of life.
Look at that.
He's got bad front legs,
so we've really got to help him out.
All the muscles have orientated to pull
the kneecap the wrong way, pulling it
to the inside of the leg,
and so we do have to actually stretch those.
They're going to hurt a little bit
"when he wakes up. But we've got to stretch them"
so we get the whole thing in the right position.
Just about there.
It’s still flicking out a bit.
It's hoped the surgery will relieve Hero's constant pain
and give him better mobility.
So now we will chisel that.
Okay, so we've chiseled that sharp
bit of bone nearly off.
And now I'm going to create the bed to push it further out
where it should have been.
And I’ve got to say, I’m going to have to move this a lot more
than I usually move it.
Usually talking in millimetres.
This is going to be centimetres almost
to get this back where we want it.
I'm really happy with that now.
Look, that patella is staying in position.
I am really pleased with that.
That's good.
The final stage of the delicate operation
requires inserting a metal pin
to stabilise the leg.
I want it straight.
That's the one.
Hero now faces a long recovery,
with regular therapy and plenty of TLC.
There we go, darling.
You're waking up quick.
So I'm really happy with what we've done for him.
And that leg has gone beautiful, the kneecap’s
sitting in the groove that we created.
So it's all lined up.
It's a nice line of support.
Some time now and a fair bit of physio probably
in the future, he’ll stay here for that.
And then he'll go home to his carer,
and we'll have a look at how he goes.
You're gorgeous.
Look at those eyes, aren’t they gorgeous?
Put your head down and sleep.
Hi,
how are you?
In north west Sydney,
foster carer, Denise, has been reunited with Hero,
after surgery to repair his injured leg.
Feeling better?
It's all gone really well.
I'm happy. That's nice and stable.
"- Yep. - It took a lot of pulling."
It was all the muscles on
the inside were pulling that kneecap out of the joint.
Yes.
And the thing was literally flat.
There was no groove, we put it all in.
Yep.
It's nice and stable, it’s wrapped up.
That's great.
He’s a bit sleepy.
He's got a lot of painkillers and drugs in him.
"- He's in a happy place. - He looks pretty happy."
I don’t know if he might be a little bit hungry,
you want to try him on something?
Look, Hero, I bought your
favourite treats.
You like those treats, don’t you?
Okay Rob, so what’s the next move for Hero?
He will just rest for the next two weeks.
Then he may start a little bit of physiotherapy.
In the meantime, I’ll be carrying him out, putting him on the grass,
and putting him back, to help him go to the toilet.
And just make life comfortable and something a bit different all the time.
That bone will take 6 weeks to mend.
Around 4 week mark, we’ll start doing a little bit more physio.
Once he can use that leg on his own,
he can go back to his carer.
Oh, that’ll be lovely.
Thank you. Thank you for all you have done.
Thanks Rob.
Bye.
Bye, little fella.