The fracture in the Radius bone in Tarat’s case has to be treated as a complication after the corrective osteotomy. A healthy dog would not break the Radius by jumping from 3 steps. It was not a dramatic jump, it was just something our dogs do – they take the faster way if they only see a possibility. At the breeders’ house I saw Tarat and other puppies doing much more exciting  acrobatics like jumping from one sofa to the other one over the table, or running round the table with jumping on chairs in the meantime etc. and obviously he didn’t break any of his bones. I am not saying that such an excessive exercise is good for puppies – and we were always stopping him from doing his funky shows, but what I am trying to say is, that Azis and sighthound generally do it, and if they are healthy and there is no accident they most often get away with their acrobatics – even though it brings us close to heart attack.

 

Tarat was absolutely not allowed any kind of exercise after the surgery for the next 8 weeks at least. He was not walking the stairs, he was basically only walking in one room on the rug and no longer then maybe all together 60 minutes per day. Otherwise he was kept on the leash and was forced to get busy with chewing a bone or some other “extremely exciting” activities.

 

All that for nothing…

 

Another factor which enlarged the risk of injuries after the osteotomy with Tarat was the specific situation he was in. As we remember Tarat had no fat to block his Ulnas from healing too fast. Because of this the surgery was more drastic – more bone removal. But also we had to stop the bones from healing as much as possible with any other means. Therefore, his diet was low in Calcium and in Vit D3. Of course it was all controlled and we didn’t stop him from getting the minerals, but he was treated as a puppy of a fast growing breed. The lighter the dog the better for the overloaded Radiuses too. In Tarat’s case both of his front legs were inefficient. Adding to it the unfortunate bandage, and the uneven usage of legs just days before the accident… It all built up to the crisis.

 

If the dog broke it’s leg and was not after the osteotomy, in Tarat’s age dealing with it would be a matter of a few weeks. Puppies brake their legs, and still, they perform perfectly well when adults. With Tarat we had a bit more complicated issue here. We couldn’t give him anything to help the Radius to heal faster – as we did not want any super-speed bone formation in his body. So, his Radius had to suffer for longer… Most likely when Tarat fell of nis left leg he also damaged the growing plate of the Radius. H could not be more misfortunate, really. The Radius grew totally twisted after this fracture, which meant he had to go through another corrective osteotomy – this time of the Radius!!!!

This Radius fracture was a big step backwards in Tarat’s rehabilitation. We got another 6 months of very difficult time with him…

From then on he was always closed in his little room. He was never ever left alone. I had an Australian student, Kathryn, helping me with Tarat every day for the first month after the fratcture. I had a whole team of pet sitters helping me for the next 3 months, Michelle from Malaysia– thank you, Carry from the US– God bless you, Suashini from India– cheers! A whole world really took care of Tarat.

Tarat with Kathryn in his place: