1. SURGICAL TREATMENT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS IN HARBOR SEALS (PHOCA VITULINA)
- Author
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Guillermo J. Sánchez Contreras, Géraldine Lacave, Klaas W. Marck, Pier Prins, Ana Rubio García, and Cristina Juliá Acosta
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Phoca ,Amputation, Surgical ,Osteoarthritis ,medicine ,Animals ,Tibia ,Tumescent anesthesia ,General Veterinary ,biology ,business.industry ,Osteomyelitis ,Bacterial Infections ,General Medicine ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Tibiotarsal joint ,Anti-Bacterial Agents ,Hindlimb ,Surgery ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Amputation ,Tarsus (skeleton) ,Harbor seal ,Animal Science and Zoology ,business - Abstract
In 2012, 543 harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and 124 grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were admitted to the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Pieterburen, The Netherlands. In 19 seals (3%), signs of infection in a hind flipper were observed. Initial treatment consisting of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs resolved the symptoms in 15 animals. In four harbor seals, estimated to be 3 to 4 mo old, a necrotizing infection developed that resulted in osteoarthritis of the tarsus or tibiotarsal joint or both. Bacterial culture revealed the presence of polymicrobial infection in three of the four animals. Treatment consisted of amputation of the hind flipper under general anesthesia combined with tumescent anesthesia in the operation field. Amputations were done at the diaphysis of the tibia and fibula. After resecting these bones, the flipper was discarded, leaving a good muscle-skin cuff to cover the edges of the bones and close the skin without tension. The estimated blood loss varied between
- Published
- 2015
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