Veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital have discovered an infection in the jawbone of Lad, the collie from Kentucky that was shot in the face in February. For any potential surgery to be successful, this infection will need to be cleared before UC Davis oral surgeons can move on to the surgery phase of Lad’s treatment. The treatment of this infection will cause a significant delay in his surgery.

Over the past week, UC Davis veterinarians ran several tests on Lad, including a general wellness examination, a CT scan, a bone culture and blood tests. These procedures were necessary to determine if Lad was healthy enough for surgery and to help determine the proper surgical plan.

Diagnostic test results confirmed an infection in the remaining portion of Lad’s lower jawbone. An infectious disease specialist at the VMTH recommended that Lad be placed on a specifically targeted antibiotic for at least the next four weeks, at which time additional culture tests will be performed to determine the state of the infection. Lad may have to remain on antibiotics for six to eight weeks, delaying the surgery even further.

“Since the reconstructive procedure we have planned for Lad entails a complicated surgery, we have to eliminate the bone infection to optimize the chance of success,” said Frank Verstraete, chief of the VMTH’s Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service.

Lad, a 9-month-old collie, was brought to UC Davis from Kentucky on March 17 by The Arrow Fund, a rescue group that provides medical treatment for animals that are victims of torture, abuse or neglect. Upon receiving Lad on Feb. 10, approximately six days after the shooting, The Arrow Fund immediately transported him to Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners in Louisville, Ky., where veterinarians were forced to remove the majority of Lad’s lower jaw due to the gunshot damage and infections.

UC Davis veterinarians hope to reconstruct Lad’s lower jaw using a bone regrowth procedure with which they have had tremendous success over the past three years.   

About the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

The William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis — a unit of the School of Veterinary Medicine — provides state-of-the-art clinical care while serving as the primary clinical teaching experience for DVM students and post graduate veterinarian residents. The VMTH treats more than 45,000 animals a year, ranging from cats and dogs to horses, cows and exotic species. To learn more about the VMTH, please go to http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmth. Timely news updates can be received on its Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ucdavisvetmed and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ucdavisvetmed pages.