Ringo was out walking when he was attacked by another dog. When he was presented to Dr Andrea he was bleeding from his mouth and was in pain. Dr Andrea assessed that Ringo was in shock and needed to be stabilised before any further assessments could be performed.

Ringo was placed on intravenous fluids at a high rate. This helped to ensure his blood pressure remained steady as a low blood pressure could lead to renal disease. He was also given some strong pain relief and antibiotics as dog bites become infected very quickly. At this stage Ringo's temperature was also quite high so the Reservoir team helped cool him off and monitored him carefully to make sure his temperature was dropping as he became stabled. From our initial assessment we could see that Ringo had a fractured jaw, however he would need further stabilisation before he could have an anaesthetic for radiographs to be taken.

Overnight, Ringo went to the Animal Accident and Emergency Centre where his vital signs were monitored and he was given more pain relief to keep him comfortable.

The next morning Ringo was in a more stable condition and came back to Reservoir clinic to see Dr Raj for radiographs. Ringo was still on intravenous fluids which helped to support the kidneys while under the anaesthetic. The radiographs showed that Ringo had two separate fractures of his mandible (lower jaw bone). Dr Raj operated on Ringo's jaw and placed two wires around the fractures to hold them securely.

Ringo was sent home with pain relief and strong antibiotics the next day. When he came for a post-operative check two days later it was found that Ringo had managed to break one of the wires that was holding his jaw together. Dr Raj replaced the wire and added a third wire to keep the fractured jaw stable while it is healing. Ringo's owners are doing a great job syringing Ringo his food and hopefully this will prevent further damage to the wires in the jaw. Ringo should heal just fine but will take 4 to 6 weeks to heal.