My Veterinary Essentials

Today I worked on a Baja Pronghorn. This was the same antelope that I worked on several weeks ago. Today it presented with lameness of one of its back feet. Normally ungulates like Pronghorn, walk on their toe tips; when ligaments break down or get injured in this area, these animals will tend to knuckle down and pop their toes up leaving them to walk on their palms or heals. In baby hoofed animals this condition is a result of loose or underdeveloped ligaments and is usually corrected with leg bandages or casts to stabilize the limb. In some animals the cause can be the result of trauma or an injury to the nerves in the leg. The largest nerve in the rear limb is the sciatic nerve. This nerve leaves the spine and travels around the femoral head, dives deep into the muscles of the leg and continues down the leg along the length of the femur. Damage to the sciatic nerve can be temporary, as is the condition called sciatica in humans, or more serious leading to paresis of the limb. In veterinary medicine, one of the biggest concerns with giving intramuscular injections in the rear limbs is inadvertent injury to the sciatic nerve. Care should always be taken when injecting into the rear limbs for this reason. In general, injections should be made perpendicular to the muscle body, and well away from the path of the sciatic nerve. We took radiographs of the Pronghorn to ensure there were no fractures to the limb, followed by a fiberglass cast to help stabilize the limb while it heals.