On January the 2nd 2012 a dove named Love was brought for consultation with a recently broken tibia-tarsal bone in her right leg.
Love is an event bird and works in the show business. Apparently, something went wrong during the New Eve Show. When she popped out of the magician’s hat, she got entangled in the hatband twisting her leg in front of the jaw-dropped audience and self-induced a fracture in her delicate tibia-tarsal bone.
The owner of Love needed her back on stage as soon as possible and money was not an issue, since the dove is one of the best bread-winner in the Circus family. So we prepare the operation.
Books states that with these fractures in birds there is a definite tendency for the distal end of the bone to rotate outwardly, due to the tension of the digital flexor muscles involved in the perching mechanism.
However, internal pin are light and provide quick healing. So we choose a pin that fitted tightly inside the medulla of the tibia-tarsal bone, pushing it deeply in the distal part of the broken bone to prevent rotation. The pin was fixed exiting the stifle (tibia and femur joint) with bent leg in order not to damage the tendons on the joint.
ne month later the pin was removed disclosing a remarkably well repaired tibia-tarsal bone without any abnormal leg twisting.
The owner took Love back to work after a short convalescence: the show must go on!