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00:00All right, we're going to go and see Anthony Noel.
00:07Not all superheroes wear capes.
00:10So cute. Oh my God.
00:12I've got a new friend. He's beautiful.
00:14Professor Noel Fitzpatrick and his team
00:17Can you have some nice eggs for me?
00:19Offer cutting-edge solutions.
00:22You're glad to be doing dream these things up.
00:25I dream of very little else.
00:27To help save the nation's pets.
00:29This has to be done within the next 48 hours.
00:31Coming through.
00:32Please be okay. Please be fixable.
00:35If you only get one chance of this, I just have to hope my best is good enough.
00:39Come on.
00:40You're a trooper. You'll be out there.
00:42Transforming the world for families.
00:44What have we got here?
00:46One animal at a time.
00:49That's crazy.
00:50He is just back to living his best life.
00:53He's a super dog.
00:54He told me modestly that it was technology, but it was so much more than that.
00:59It worked a miracle.
01:00Now, it's me.
01:01Yeah?
01:02It's going to be alright.
01:03Eight years ago, we started filming Noel's remarkable work.
01:15All right, mister. Look at what you're making me do.
01:19Thousands of beloved animals have walked or been carried through the doors of this exceptional
01:25practice.
01:26All in search of hope.
01:28What's this?
01:29Hum-dum-dum-dum.
01:30Good girl.
01:32Now, in this special puppy episode, we'll follow the incredible journeys, both old
01:37and new, of the young patients who have stolen hearts for practice.
01:42Oh, my goodness. You're a big puppy, aren't you?
01:46And find out more from the families.
01:49She's had like three and a half great years so far.
01:52At the centre of these extraordinary stories.
01:56Without Noel, you know, I think it would be a very different ball game.
02:06Oh, my gosh. Hi, stinky baby.
02:08Who doesn't like puppies?
02:10Anything small and fluffy, the whole of the practice comes in just to give it kisses.
02:14You can't resist a puppy cuddle.
02:26One of our neurologists has got a little border collie puppy, which has melted all of reception's
02:32hearts.
02:33Absolutely to die for.
02:36They seem to kind of just bounce back.
02:39Oh!
02:41And they have such, like, a positive energy about them.
02:44Yes!
02:45Yes!
02:46She's very invasive with her love.
02:48She just licked in my eye and I was like, thanks for that.
02:57People get puppies for many reasons.
02:59Some play a very special role in a family's life.
03:03This was the case in 2018, when we met six-month-old rough collie Merida.
03:10Unfortunately, we were told that we were going to struggle to conceive children naturally,
03:15and that we might not be able to at all.
03:18When Merida came into our lives, it was just...
03:21It just picked us both up, didn't it?
03:23Yeah.
03:24Gave us some responsibility.
03:25She was like our child.
03:27You think about the dog more than anything else?
03:29Yeah.
03:30The first Valentine's Day we had, I actually bought the dog a Valentine's gift before I bought
03:34Gemma once.
03:35Sadly, it soon became clear that Merida wasn't behaving the way a young dog should.
03:41Well, she's quite subdued for a puppy.
03:43She likes to play lying down.
03:45She doesn't really get off on her feet that much.
03:47She'd started stumbling a lot more.
03:49And I was like, something's not right.
03:52The family were told that the bones in Merida's front legs were deformed and her elbows didn't fit together properly.
04:00It was absolutely devastating to be told that she's got joint problems already at 12 weeks old.
04:08It was a real shock.
04:13Desperate for help, Gemma and Lewis made the four-hour journey from Liverpool to seek Noel's advice.
04:21Hi, guys. Come on in.
04:22Hello again.
04:23How are you doing? Nice to see you.
04:25Noel has taken CT scans, which have revealed the complexity of Merida's problems.
04:30So this is a physical model of that.
04:33And what this allows us to do is to assess exactly what's happening here and here.
04:39And this is what's called short illness syndrome, which is where this bone does not grow as quick as this bone.
04:45It means that this bone acts as a bow string and that acts as a bow and it pops out of the joint.
04:51Not only does it pop out of the joint, it also bends and twists and pushes the paw out.
04:56Now, this makes the repair very, very complex indeed.
04:59You've got to get the wrist and the humerus somehow back into general alignment.
05:05You have to remove the bowstring effect of the ulna.
05:08And at the same time, you have to pull that radial head back in.
05:12And at the same time, you have to rotate it because it's facing out like a flipper at the moment.
05:18So this is a massive job.
05:21Is it the same on both legs, is it?
05:22Yes.
05:23Pretty much the exact same as that.
05:24Yes, on both, yes.
05:25That's really nice, aren't they?
05:26Now, we've clipped both of her front legs so you can see just how deformed they are
05:30because you need to know in your head what to expect here.
05:33Come on, sweetheart.
05:34There we go.
05:35Oh, God.
05:37Come on.
05:38Hello.
05:39Come in.
05:41OK.
05:42The other thing that was quite apparent is how much pain there was on extension of the elbow, unfortunately.
05:47The reason to clip up is to double-check that you still want to go through with it
05:52because this is as complex as growth deformities get.
05:55Just seeing her legs like that now makes you realise how much she's putting up with.
06:00See, we thought she was getting by, you know?
06:02Yeah.
06:03Yeah.
06:04It was just heartbreaking and shocked.
06:06I was just like, how is she walking?
06:08How is she even getting up in the morning?
06:10I thought, she can't live like that.
06:12If you want me to, I will try my best to try and get her out of pain and to give her a functional quality of life.
06:18Yeah.
06:19That's what we want, don't we?
06:20Yeah.
06:21Is there anything you want to ask me before I proceed?
06:23I just needed to look in the whites of your eyes and say to you that we are now on a four-month journey together.
06:31Yeah.
06:32OK.
06:33Yeah.
06:34There are many people both within and outside of my profession that would say that Merida shouldn't go through such a prolonged procedure
06:42and that euthanasia would be a justifiable option.
06:45But the reality is that we live in a world where surgery and possibility is moving forward all of the time.
06:53So our responsibility is to develop an ethical framework for that.
06:57And I think that the families who love animals deserve that choice.
07:02Are we doing the right thing?
07:12Yeah.
07:13Sure.
07:14Yeah.
07:15Thank you, Helen. Have a good day.
07:28It's 9.30 in the evening and Noel has been asked to take a look at a seven-month-old Weimarana puppy called Tito, who's been involved in a traffic accident.
07:38Right, Tito.
07:39Hi, mate.
07:40How are you?
07:41Oh, you're in a poorly state, aren't you?
07:44You're in a poorly state.
07:45Oh, my goodness.
07:46You're a big puppy, aren't you?
07:48She is extremely swollen.
07:51Holy shmolly.
07:52We're going to have to have a look and see what the story is.
07:56It's all right, matey.
07:57It's fine.
07:58I got you.
07:59What happened?
08:00Hit by a van.
08:01The van was going very slowly, but she got clipped quite hard and then bounced on the pavement.
08:09The accident was a shock to Nicky and Matt, who had waited a long time for Tito to come into their lives.
08:22For 20 years, since we'd been together, I was like, I really want a dog.
08:26And then we got to a point where we moved to this house and it just lent itself to having a dog.
08:34I suppose I had to give in.
08:36It'd been a long time, long, long time.
08:39And one day found her online on this website and she just looked gorgeous.
08:45And Nicky went, OK, we're getting a dog then, aren't we?
08:50And I'm like, it looks like it.
08:52So that was that.
08:55It was an instant love affair on my part.
09:00Tito's a brilliant dog.
09:01She comes to work with me every day.
09:05This particular breed is considered a felcro breed.
09:08They just want to be with you all the time.
09:12She is very affectionate, hasn't got a dangerous bone in her body.
09:20Tito was walking alongside her family when she was suddenly spooked by a passing van.
09:30The van literally came level with me and she just ran out straight in front of the van.
09:35I screamed, obviously.
09:38The van stopped dead.
09:39She was hit and sort of rolled over, but didn't get run over.
09:44I ran towards her to go, don't move.
09:48But she swung her head round and just bit my hand.
09:53So by the time I got round the van, Nicky was standing there with blood running down her arm.
09:57The dog was laying on the floor and it was carnage really.
10:02Five to five on bank holiday Monday Easter.
10:05Beautiful sunny walk with the dog.
10:06Five past five.
10:08Armageddon.
10:10Absolute Armageddon.
10:14One, two, three.
10:15Noll has requested x-ray pictures of Tito's back legs to fully assess the damage.
10:23Holy shit.
10:25That's unlucky.
10:27That femur has exploded in the middle here with several pieces.
10:30Exploded outwards into the muscle.
10:33It's not the worst fracture I've ever seen, but it's pretty bad.
10:38Ah, fuck.
10:40She's got a stiff capital femoral pythesis on the other side.
10:42The x-ray pictures show more injury than originally thought.
10:47So the head of the femur has completely come off the neck here.
10:51That's a very, very serious injury in a puppy because there's a growth plate right here.
10:56Now if you can't keep the blood supply to the femoral head and the femoral neck,
10:59then the femoral neck rots away.
11:01It's the luck of the draw whether the blood supply will hold up.
11:05And speed is everything.
11:07So that is more urgent than this.
11:12Mr. Fitzpatrick, the femoral fracture on the left side is explosive, but it's no big deal.
11:26The other side is actually even more serious because there's a growth plate at the top of the femur from which the head of the femur grows.
11:35Now, at the moment she is still growing, obviously, and therein lies the problem.
11:41That blood supply has been ripped apart.
11:43This has to be done within the next 48 hours.
11:46That's critically important because of blood supply.
11:49Time has already maybe run out.
11:50There you go, sweet petal.
12:03Seven-month-old Weimarana puppy, Tito, has been hit by a van and sustained multiple injuries.
12:08We're going to try and fix Tito now.
12:12Nine times out of ten, if there's a blood and nerve supply, everything is fixable.
12:17There are many, many dogs that get put to sleep and many dogs that get amputated limbs because people say nothing can be done.
12:24It's often, that's the easiest way out. But today, that is not the way out for Tito.
12:34Right, let's do it.
12:37Tito's left leg is fractured badly, but Noel's first job is to reattach the fractured head of the femur on the right side to try to restore the blood supply to the neck before it is irreversibly damaged.
12:50What we're going to do is put pins in, just like the stilts of the wigwam, but upside down.
12:57The head of the femur is down in the socket.
13:02We're just going to pop the neck in like so, on top of the head, which is like a shell.
13:09Noel reattaches the head to the neck by driving the pins into the head of the femur, avoiding penetration of the joints.
13:16If the pin goes through the shell into the joint through the cartilage, Tito will be in pain forever.
13:24So what I'm doing is I'm feeling for when the resistance happens to the tip of the pin, which is quite difficult,
13:31because you're feeling for the interface between cartilage and bone, both of which are soft in a puppy.
13:35All right, let's go. Flip, please.
13:52With the head reattached to the neck of the right femur, Tito is turned over so that Noel can now work on her exploded left femur.
13:59Let's go. Every second counts.
14:02To help pull all the pieces of bone back into place, Noel is using a distractor to stretch the contracted muscle.
14:09So we just turn the turnbuckle until it stretches a bit, then we let the muscle relax into that stretch, just like if you're stretching your own muscles.
14:17Once the muscle has sufficiently relaxed, Noel inserts a pin through the centre of the femur to align the two ends, before repositioning the splintered pieces.
14:27There's two fragments identified on the x-ray picture in a CT scan and several smaller fragments.
14:34So ideally, I want that to fit in without ripping blood supply off.
14:38Noel reattaches the fragments with wire, ready for a plate to hold it all together.
14:44Once you get the bones in around about the right place, they usually do very well, because puppies are healing machines.
14:51Can I have a hacksaw, please?
14:53Noel cuts halfway through the pin before driving it inside the bone.
14:59Hair press so it breaks off, and then it's countersunk onto the top. It can't do any damage.
15:05Lastly, Noel adds the final screws and wire to the plate.
15:09OK, so everything's reconstructed now. OK, mate, let's go to CT scan now, please.
15:21The repairs to Tito's legs have taken four hours.
15:26So far, so good. And Tito will hopefully be running around like a normal dog in six, seven weeks' time.
15:42Oh, look at you!
15:51Many puppies come to the practice with genetic limb deformities.
15:56I think you've got a combined problem, actually. I think you've got the plastic, mate. Plastic.
16:02Their options can be limited, and futures uncertain.
16:07Good go, pups. What's happening? Come on, then. Come on, then.
16:12But Noel uses innovative techniques to give them a chance.
16:16Well done, mate. Well done.
16:19Good girl.
16:21Up.
16:23Right, let it down a little. Stay there.
16:27In 2018, six-month-old rough collie Merida, the puppy with deformed front legs,
16:34was about to undergo a complex procedure to try to get her out of pain.
16:41OK, here we go.
16:43Merida's ulna had grown too slowly, causing the radius to twist and pop out of the joint.
16:53Noel will remove a section of the ulna to release the radius.
16:58Next, he will fix traction olive-wise to the top section of the radius
17:04before making an oblique cut through the bone.
17:06Rigid arches are then used to twist the wrist back into alignment with the elbow,
17:13and are locked solid with clamps.
17:16Finally, a traction unit is attached,
17:20so that Noel can slowly pull the radial head into place over the course of two weeks.
17:27So, to a very large extent, this is a three-dimensional biological jigsaw puzzle.
17:33Noel begins by cutting the ulna bone.
17:37You can immediately see the ulna spring apart there because it's under a lot of tension.
17:43I'm going to take this segment out.
17:49OK, relax.
17:51So, it's possible if that ulna does not heal in,
17:54that I may need to put a plate on it at a later date.
17:58OK, so the next thing I do is the most critical step of the entire operation,
18:02and it's putting the wire into the head of the radius here,
18:06and it has to go in at exactly the right angle.
18:09Up, up with the elbow, twisted sideways.
18:11That's it, stay.
18:19OK, so we've got two of these olive wires going through the radius.
18:22When I attach some motors to these two wires here, it's going to pull that radial head down that way,
18:31and hopefully back into the joint.
18:33And in order to achieve that, I have to cut the radius at a very specific angle, which I'm going to do now.
18:38Next, Noel attaches a series of rigid arches to the ulna and the radius that will allow him to realign the elbow and wrist.
18:51Very challenging.
18:53So now, by rotating around this oblique cut inside in the radius,
18:59we've got the wrist parallel as best we can with the elbow.
19:02It'll never be perfect, but that's the best we can get it.
19:06Hold the foot.
19:08Finally, the traction unit is attached.
19:10Relax, everybody.
19:22OK, so the right front leg was very, very challenging.
19:27In fact, it's the most challenging one of this kind that I've ever had.
19:31The apparatus is much more simple on this side, as if you could describe any part of this op as simple.
19:37Over the next two weeks, Noel will use the traction motors to slowly reposition the puppy's radial heads,
19:45until they fit beneath the humerus bones again.
19:48Good girl. Well done. There you go.
19:52I've done my best.
19:54There we go. Good girl.
19:57Let's go to CT. Well done.
20:08Oh, look at that. Look at that.
20:12No, she says your fingers are much more interesting.
20:16Who's this? Who's this?
20:18Who it is?
20:20He's like, leave me alone.
20:22Oh, there's Mr Monkey.
20:24Oh, that's exciting. Oh, you're going to chew his ears.
20:27Oh, that's nice. Oh, that's nice.
20:30It's been eight days since Vimerana puppy Tito was hit by a van.
20:36She's been recovering from surgery to repair her fractured left femoral shaft and right femoral neck.
20:43So life has been unusually quiet for Matt and Nicky.
20:47She's only been with us since Boxing Day, day after Boxing Day.
20:50And she came into our life like a wrecking ball, literally like a wrecking ball.
20:54Matthew, Nicky. Oh, how are you?
20:56Hello.
20:58She's everywhere. If you're having a shower, she's licking the shower screen.
21:01If you go in her bedroom, she follows you in the bedroom. You trip over her all day long.
21:05Nice to see you. With all your fingers, God bless you.
21:08She's a puppy and she's a lovely puppy and we just want her home and safe.
21:12Thanks for being great humans on the telephone.
21:16Thank you for being a great human in general.
21:19We're all in love with your dog.
21:21Oh, bless her.
21:23This is what you had and this is what you ended up with.
21:28Wow. Blimey.
21:30Thank you so much. It's amazing.
21:32It's my pleasure.
21:34My mother, God bless her, died in February and she said,
21:37Pride takes a fall, Noel. Don't ever get proud.
21:40So I never say I'm proud of a fracture repair, but I have to say this is as close as I've got.
21:46Yeah. She'd be proud of it.
21:48I hope you're okay, mammy.
21:50Yeah.
21:52With regard to the other side, you will see what we call a slip capital femoral epiphysis,
21:56where the neck had come away from the head.
21:59Oh, right, okay. She did it well, didn't she?
22:00She certainly did. The other thing I am concerned about is whether it's slightly loose on both hips.
22:07Okay. If there is hip dysplasia, well, we can deal with that at a later date, but there may not be.
22:12Okay. It may just be that it was severe trauma.
22:15Okay.
22:17Tito will have hydrotherapy to maintain her muscle mass, but it's possible she may need more surgery in the future.
22:24Oh, look at that. That's amazing.
22:27Now.
22:30Hello, sweet. Hello.
22:31Hi, mamma.
22:32Hello, sweet.
22:33Hi, mam. Hi, dad.
22:35Look at her wagging her tail.
22:38Hello, beautiful.
22:39Waggy tail, taily wag.
22:42So you can see she's able to walk fine. I'm going to show you how to do the walking now.
22:46You can see she's raring to go.
22:48I'm taking a bit of weight here with this.
22:50Are you not taking much at all now?
22:51No, I'm not taking much at all. Do you want to have a go?
22:53Yeah.
22:55Oh, right. I see what you mean.
22:56Yeah. Okay.
22:57So the main thing is not running, not jumping, not slipping, not sliding.
23:00No.
23:01Okay.
23:03Anxious about what we've got to do over the next couple of weeks.
23:05One of us is going to be sleeping downstairs with the dog, which won't be the first time that that's happened.
23:11But absolutely delighted that I've got my family back together, basically, which is all that matters.
23:17I feel like there's a buzz created when you know that there's a puppy coming in.
23:29Look what I have.
23:30Oh my gosh.
23:32And whenever a puppy does arrive, I feel like people are just waiting their turn for a cuddle.
23:42Who's going to be carrying them, and who's picking them, and who's going to feed them, and who's taking them out for wee-wees?
23:47Oh, I love you too.
23:50Always brightens everyone's day up. You can feel it in the air that everyone's in a really good mood.
23:54Look at you!
23:56And the way they smell, they always smell amazing. You just want to just smoosh them all day.
24:06Hi, baby!
24:10In 2016, the team were all of a flutter when a four-month-old cockapoo puppy with a fractured knee was brought in to see Noel.
24:19Hi there, who have we got here?
24:21We have Monty.
24:22Monty!
24:24How old is Monty?
24:25He has about 18 weeks.
24:28We know you're going to have all the nurses flocking after him.
24:32How about the dog?
24:35John had only had Monty a few months, but he'd already wriggled his way into his heart.
24:41You can't beat the greet you get from your dog.
24:43Come back from work and he's more keen to see you than the wife.
24:47Just the most loving, caring dog.
24:49And you know, it's kind of exactly what we wanted. A good trial run before children, I think.
24:55Fitness instructor John and social worker Jess got Monty soon after getting married.
25:00We fell in love with Monty straight away and I don't think you can ever prepare yourself before you get your own dog.
25:08You don't ever think you'll love them that much, but we love him so much and we just can't imagine life without him now.
25:14It makes you feel a bit more whole as a family.
25:20Monty fractured his knee when he wriggled out of Jess's arms.
25:25There and then I knew it was bad because he yelped and he was holding his leg up and it was floppy.
25:30I was devastated.
25:33Jess was so upset she couldn't face bringing Monty into the vets.
25:38It's far from her fault and yeah, a little bit emotional so I had to man up and be the one to bring him in.
25:46John met Noel training in the gym 15 years ago.
25:52Now Monty, please.
25:54Come on.
25:55Hey mate, how are you? Long time no see.
25:58How are you?
25:59I'll be seeing you in this environment.
26:01Oh, I'm not so happy for you here.
26:04There's a special test we have to do so you hold him tight.
26:07You're in good shape mate.
26:09You're in better shape than me.
26:10Let's lift the arm a little bit.
26:11There you go.
26:12That's it.
26:13One, two, three.
26:17Alright, that's enough.
26:18Pop him down for me.
26:20This is a good boy.
26:22Alright big guy.
26:23Okay.
26:24I see this fracture all the time.
26:25It happens in small breed dogs usually as a result of jump from someone's arms.
26:29I'm not jumping out of my arms.
26:32What's happened is the dog has fallen.
26:34This quad has put all of the load through the straight patellar tendon and popped that off.
26:39But not only that.
26:41I've had a look at the x-ray pictures sent through from your own vet.
26:45There's another growth plate at the top there.
26:47And we can see that there's a fracture through here and this has slipped backwards.
26:51Now, I don't anticipate I'll have any trouble putting that back in place.
26:55Okay, that's great news.
26:56But.
26:57There's always a but.
26:58There's always a but.
26:59This growth plate will stop growing.
27:01Which means that this leg could end up slightly shorter than the other leg.
27:08We'd only had Monty maybe six to eight months.
27:11And for that to happen, it was a very, very worrying moment.
27:15I'm going to set up my theatre.
27:16That's the sort of person I am.
27:17In 2016, Monty the adorable but fidgety cockapoo puppy was being sedated for surgery.
27:34Oh wow.
27:35Lucky Moses.
27:36You are mischievous.
27:37Give him.
27:38Puppy puppy.
27:39We go to sleepy.
27:40He gets so nice and relaxed with his pre-med and then someone else comes along and strokes him and then he's like, he's sleepier than he was.
27:55Hey.
27:56You're not helping.
27:57I'm trying to sleep properly.
27:58Sorry.
27:59No.
28:00Sorry.
28:01Oh my God.
28:02You're really cute.
28:03With Monty finally out for the count, Noel can start to fix his knee.
28:04Can you pull me?
28:05Okay.
28:06Goodbye.
28:07Bye.
28:08Bye.
28:09Bye.
28:10Bye.
28:11Bye.
28:12Bye.
28:13Bye.
28:14Bye.
28:15Bye.
28:16Bye.
28:17Bye.
28:18Bye.
28:19Bye.
28:20Bye.
28:21Bye.
28:22Bye.
28:23Bye.
28:24Bye.
28:26Bye.
28:27Bye.
28:28Bye.
28:29Bye.
28:30Bye.
28:31Bye.
28:32Bye.
28:33Bye.
28:34Bye.
28:36Bye.
28:37Bye.
28:38Bye.
28:39Bye.
28:40What we're going to do is drive a pin down through the back of the joint here, into the bone.
28:47And the thing is, you have to do all of this by feel. You can't actually see the fracture. The fracture's hiding in here.
28:55I've isolated the back of that piece of bone with this needle. I'm now going to isolate the front with this pin.
29:02I'm gonna use the forceps to pull the front part of the tibia and the kneecap
29:07tendon back down. A little bit of orthopedic twister here. With the bone
29:14segments and attached kneecap tendon back in position, Noel anchors them. We've got
29:19five pins in now, two on the inside, one on the outside, two in front. A loop of
29:24wire will prevent the kneecap from pulling upwards. Now we've got a figure
29:31of eight band pulling against the kneecap tendon. So when the knee flexes and
29:37extends like so, there's a pulley pulling against the natural pulley so that that
29:43bit of bone can't flip up again. So that's it done, ready to close.
29:48Monty's knee joint is back as it should be.
29:50Let's go puppy, little puppy.
29:54A second growth plate further down his tibia bone will continue to grow and if
29:59Monty's lucky, he won't develop further problems.
30:05You alright, Merida? Hello?
30:11In 2018, collie puppy Merida was recovering from her challenging double leg surgery.
30:19Noel had been gradually adjusting her traction frame to get the head of her radius back into
30:29position in her elbow joint.
30:32There's little numbers on the dice here and every time I turn from one to four, we push this
30:39part of the frame away from that part of the frame by one millimetre this way. Hopefully,
30:44it's going to pull the radial head inwards and downwards.
30:47Merida's family drove regularly from Liverpool to see her. Gemma knew exactly what her puppy was
30:56going through. Growing up, her bones also hadn't formed properly.
31:01I was 14, going on 15 at the time when I had my foot surgery.
31:07It was bone lengthening and reconstructive surgery and it was painful.
31:14Turning that fixator, you know, every day was uncomfortable.
31:19And you're just thinking, this is a lot for a puppy to take on.
31:28She's got my pain in here, hasn't she?
31:33After two weeks of daily adjustments and a frame reduction,
31:37Noel advised that Merida would benefit from further surgery.
31:43The leg's in pretty good alignment.
31:44We can see here where Merida's ulna is still moving, so we're going to have to stabilise
31:51the ulna on both sides.
31:54Merida's ulna bones were cut to straighten her legs, but they were moved so much that
31:59Noel had to stabilise them in their improved position and add metal plates.
32:07You've just got to be very, very conscious that we could fracture the radius here,
32:11because then we'd lose all the alignment we've already got.
32:14I need IM pins, please. Give me a 1.8.
32:20Use a bendy wire to line it up, and now we're just going to put a plate across it.
32:26Because there's an S-shaped bend in the middle of the ulna,
32:28I'm going to have to bend the plate in multiple directions.
32:32Noel inserts two plates to make sure the ulna is secure.
32:36We're going to put bone graft in here into the middle now to try and get all that fused together.
32:44Surgery is repeated on Merida's other leg,
32:47and it will be another week before she can finally return home to her family.
33:06Three days after the operation to fix his fractured knee,
33:19wriggly cockapoo Monty was ready to go home.
33:23John and wife Jess were there to collect him.
33:26Monty from and down.
33:26Hello, how are you? Lovely to meet you.
33:31How delightful to meet you. Thank you.
33:33Your little baby is doing fine. Good.
33:36The point is, don't beat yourself up, because this happens all the time.
33:38It literally happens all the time. I just feel like he's so young to have this done.
33:41It's more that he's so tiny.
33:43I told him, I see 10 or 12 of these a year.
33:46I don't think that's that many.
33:47Well, that's one a month. You said like five a month.
33:49It's one a month.
33:50Everybody cuddles their puppy and puppies jump.
33:52So this happens. Okay.
33:54When he jumped, he twisted his leg.
33:56The top of the tibia came off because that's a weak growth area.
34:00So that's pulling it back in place with two pins and a pulley wire,
34:04so that that pulley pulls against that pulley.
34:06Okay.
34:06Let me get him for you.
34:08Come on, mate.
34:09In you go.
34:10Hello, rascal.
34:12My boy.
34:12Hello.
34:13Look at your leg.
34:14Pick him up so he doesn't struggle.
34:15Mama's boy.
34:17Hello, Teddy.
34:19To be fair, when John left the other day, he was quite emotional.
34:21Oh, shit.
34:22I've never seen him like that.
34:24I just kept sobbing.
34:25It's awful.
34:26Yeah.
34:27Oh, hello.
34:35John and Jess will need to keep Monty calm for two months of cage rest
34:40to allow his bone to heal.
34:42Super happy to have him back.
34:44We'll fill him with some treats and that's it.
34:46He'll be back to normal.
34:47As you can hear, he's already going nuts.
34:49So, keen to get out and I think so are we now.
34:53I think it's all good.
35:05It's been six weeks since big pup Tito was hit by a van, breaking both back legs.
35:11The x-ray pictures revealed she could also be affected by hip dysplasia.
35:17So, to improve her muscle mass, she's enjoying twice weekly hydro sessions.
35:22We're hoping from those sessions that she will build up the muscle and if it doesn't mend
35:27the injury, the trauma that she's had, then at least it builds her up to have the
35:30other surgery to replace the hip.
35:38I think she's making good progress.
35:40Her age is actually on her side because they're feeling a lot quicker when they're younger.
35:43She needs a little bit more encouragement to use her back legs.
35:46She wants to tuck them up a little bit at the moment.
35:47This is your engine.
35:48You've got to use this more.
35:52In general, she's much more confident on her back end now than she's been.
35:57Hopefully, oh God willing, if she goes through the hydrotherapy and comes out the other side
36:02of it with a mended kind of socket, ball and socket, that would be brilliant.
36:12After two major operations and regular traction on her front leg bones,
36:17collie puppy Merida was finally ready to return to her family.
36:22So, it's been a long journey and an emotional journey, but we can see the light, finally.
36:29We're excited today because we get to bring her home.
36:33We achieved a really good result considering how we started with.
36:37That's amazing.
36:38And she's actually very happy with her elbows.
36:42Now, she's got very floppy wrists on both sides, but I'm hoping with some judicious hydrotherapy
36:48at your local hydrotherapy centre that we can start building up.
36:50Yeah, yeah.
36:51All right, Merida, you ready, sweetheart?
36:55Come on, Baba. Who's here? Who's here?
36:57Oh, there we go. Hello, hello, everybody.
37:00Hi, sweetie.
37:03Good girl. Well done. Well done, Baba.
37:06Well done, well done, well done.
37:08Yeah.
37:09Oh, look at your little legs.
37:12She was better than what I thought she was going to be, much better.
37:15How better, come on.
37:16Good girl.
37:17Oh, you're off now.
37:18I'm going to slow you down, you're pulling me.
37:20All the serious stuff is over, like the surgeries and the phone calls.
37:25So, yeah, it's just a piece of us doing the hard work now and getting up with everything.
37:30Yeah, I'm sure she'll recover as well when she's in our care.
37:33I know.
37:34Are you going to go home?
37:35Yeah?
37:48Nine months after taking their precious puppy home,
37:52Merida's family returned to Fitzpatrick's with a serious concern.
37:56So, she was doing really well and then just before Christmas, we noticed she had a little
38:03wound on her right leg and we thought she'd just been bitten by something and it'd clear up.
38:08She's now been on rounds of antibiotics and the wounds aren't healing.
38:13Hey, how are you?
38:15Nice to see you.
38:16Nice to see you, mate.
38:17How are you?
38:17Nice to see you again.
38:18You can have, as a human or an animal, a metal implant in your body,
38:23i.e. a hip replacement or a knee replacement or whatever,
38:26and it can get infected months to years after you've had the surgery.
38:31The hope would be if we can get rid of the metal, the immune system will still deal with the bug.
38:38As her ulnar bones have successfully healed,
38:41Noel will remove her supporting plates and give antibiotics in the hope that he can clear her infection.
38:48We were just being like a normal family, weren't we?
38:51Yeah.
38:51And this has happened, so it's just another setback for her.
38:56Right.
39:00I was like, this is it. I said to Lewis, she's going to lose a leg,
39:03but if she loses a leg, her right one's not strong enough.
39:06And he was like, I'm thinking like that, because that was the worst case scenario.
39:09He couldn't let our head go there, you know what I mean?
39:18You're not jumping out of my arm.
39:20When Monty the Cockapoo fractured his leg at just four months old,
39:24the growth plates at the top of his tibia were damaged, leaving questions about how the bone
39:29would compensate in the future.
39:31When it all happened, we were very concerned that certainly when Noel said that he might have
39:36one leg longer than the other, and for me I kind of thought I've got a dog now that's looking more
39:41like a book.
39:41I suppose at the time I just thought that's it, you know, game over.
39:45He's never going to be the same again.
39:48Monty had two months of cage rest and rehabilitation to get him back walking normally again.
39:55And five years on,
39:58he's back to his bonkers self.
40:00Monty has a huge character. He's a law unto himself, and he gets away with anything and
40:08everything, and he does what he wants, when he wants. This was not my choice, but he decides to
40:13sleep on the bed. So I will often wake up when he is behind my head, licking my pillow, which is
40:20slightly frustrating when you're up at half four in the morning.
40:23A few years ago, the family decided it was time to move to the Surrey countryside.
40:30We moved from quite a small house to something a little bit bigger. So he's loving the garden,
40:36loving the kind of country life.
40:42Monty, this way. Come on.
40:45To see Monty running around now is, I think, a bit of a dream, because we did think at one point that,
40:51you know, that might not have happened. He does have a very, very slight limp,
40:55but you'd only know if you really kind of knew and knew the story behind it. But no,
40:59he's back to full fighting fit.
41:03Monty is still very much top doll.
41:07There's definitely a pecking order. And it probably starts with Monty,
41:10and then it goes to Jess, and then it goes to me.
41:12I adore him massively. I think it's the next level for her. And yeah, she loves him to bits.
41:18We don't have children. And I think that he's kind of our little boy at the moment.
41:25Noel was amazing. And he was so kind. And he did try and reassure me, but it's still our puppy.
41:34I feel like he still had to go through a massive ordeal. And I do feel really bad about that.
41:38Without Noel, you know, I think it'd be a very different ballgame. The job that he did was just
41:44phenomenal. And the aftercare and everything else that he's done for us. I can't thank him and his
41:50team, I know. I'm sure if he could tell it himself, he would. He's just living his best life.
41:54It's been almost four months since Tito fractured both femur bones when she was hit by a van.
42:13Today, all three of the family are back walking in their favourite spot,
42:17which is also the scene of Tito's accident.
42:21We had to do it. We had to bring Tito back. We had to walk her because it's such a lovely place to walk.
42:28Weirdly, she has no issue with it. She doesn't care at all.
42:32She's very tentative now of vans, bizarrely. When she goes near a van, she's like,
42:37OK, I think they hurt quite a lot. Come on. Come on.
42:42Tito has continued her twice weekly hydrotherapy sessions to strengthen her limb muscles.
42:49We think she's come on leaps and bounds, absolute leaps and bounds. And she has done brilliantly,
42:53considering the back end of her was completely incapacitated three and a half months ago.
42:58Good girl. Oh, good catch.
42:59Well done. Come on.
43:01It's been hard, but she's suddenly, I think she's turned a corner in the last probably month.
43:07Good girl.
43:09Tito's hip looseness may still warrant further surgery in the future,
43:13but for now, she's living life to the full.
43:18I think Tito, without Noel's intervention, I just, I don't know where we'd be,
43:23but we wouldn't be looking at a dog that runs like she does now and is as fit and healthy as she is.
43:29I think we've been very lucky.
43:37In 2019, Merida was readmitted to Fitzpatrick's with an infection and had her plates removed.
43:49Thankfully, the rough collie pup fought off the infection,
43:53but there was still some doubt over how well she would walk.
43:56Noel did say to us that the outcome might not have been as good as we anticipated.
44:01He never said she'd be 100% better. He said you were looking at maybe like 60, 40.
44:06She might be a dog that just plods around and lays down a lot.
44:09Merida had other ideas.
44:17Being able to see her running around chasing a ball, running up and down the hills, it's great.
44:24She can do about 60 minutes to an hour and a half walk. When she was a puppy, she was doing 10-15 minutes.
44:30You can see when she walks, she still walks on a pad and a bit at the back of her leg, but it just doesn't bother her.
44:39Merida is full of life. She loves company. She loves all our family coming round.
44:45Merida is spoiled around. If you're a dog person and you know what we've been through, you'd understand
44:51why she is our world. She's had like three and a half great years so far.
44:56Merida's recovery came at a time when her family needed her love the most.
45:02Unfortunately, we lost our little girl, who was born prematurely and she lived for about an hour.
45:12And then she passed away in Lewis's arms. And then we had Charlie, who was also born prematurely and
45:19was stillborn. And she just got me through it. And she got me out of bed in the morning.
45:26She'd pull the covers, you know, come on, almost like, it's time to get up, you need to let me out,
45:32let's go for a walk. You know, she'd bring me a teddy. And then for this one time, Lewis put a little bow in her hair.
45:39And she came trotting through with this bow in her hair and she just looked at me and gave me a call.
45:45And that's when he was like, we're going to be OK. You know, we've got Merida. We didn't want to put ourselves
45:51through any trauma. And then Leo magically happened.
45:56I look at them in disbelief. We've got our little girl Merida and our, you know, boy Leo and our
46:11other babies will always be in our hearts. They'll never, ever be forgotten. We're in a really,
46:14really good place at the minute and Merida's living her best life. Her and Leo are like best friends.
46:19So we just hope that continues.
46:21I'm massively grateful to Noel. He's helped keep our family, our little family together.
46:27She's as happy as a dog can be.
46:51She's as happy as a dog.
47:01She's as happy as a dog can be.
47:03She's as happy as a dog is in sheep'së‹´, tough thinking, and she can find him.
47:06She's so happy as a dog has become a dog in America excursive shape for an ungodly of the
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