By: Amy Rosenthal, My Pet’s Brace Practitioner

Patient: Leo, a 45-pound, 8-month-old English Springer Spaniel with nerve damage causing knuckling on the left hind leg.

Diagnostic History: Leo was playing with their neighbor’s dog when he fell and was impaled on a rebar stake that was sticking out of the ground. The rebar entered through his back to the left of his spinal cord, transected through his abdomen, and exited cranially and distally from the hip joint, through the tensor fascia lata.

Once he was freed, he was rushed to the emergency veterinarian. There was no major damage to any internal organs. 

He made a full recovery but continued to knuckle on his left rear paw due to nerve damage.  This began to produce sores and abrasions on the cranial aspect of his paw.  As Leo was not fully weight-bearing on that leg, his muscles were starting to atrophy.

Leo was seen at My Pet’s Brace in October 2019. It was observed that the  dog was knuckling and had noticeable atrophy to his quadriceps and hamstrings on his left hind leg. He had an acceptable range of motion in his hip, stifle, and hock.

My Pet’s Brace fabricated a double-jointed hock brace with a paw pad.  The brace was made with two sets of joints to provide the greatest range of motion.  The first set of joints allows movement at the hock and the second set of joints allows movement at the tarsal.

The brace’s function is to provide stability to Leo’s tarsal and hock joints and keep the rear paw from knuckling. This was done by supporting the paw from below and removing the ability to hyperflex in the tarsal joint.  Unable to knuckle on his back paw, Leo can walk normally, bear weight on the leg and build back the muscles in his leg.

Follow-Ups: Leo has returned regularly for check-ups and general maintenance of the brace. Upon his last check-up, the abrasions have closed, and the fur is beginning to grow back on the cranial aspect of his paw. He is a young active dog that can now walk and play like a normal dog with the help of his brace.