What To Do If...
Our Claims and Membership team answer some common scenarios faced by our members... | 2 min read
What's trending? We are often asked what claims we see frequently and those that appear to be on the rise. The following cautionary tale reflects a type of claim on the increase. To put it into perspective, however, the numbers over the last 18 months have not quite reached double figures and yet it involves one of the lockdown favourites, the French Bulldog. In 2013 6,990 French Bulldogs were registered by the Kennel Club*, in 2021 the figure was 54,074!
Alexa, still reeling from the school run, was perusing her morning’s appointment list whilst cradling a mug of ‘builders’. The anxiety of the predictable early morning rush was ebbing, not least because her partner had offered to round up their disorderly tribe and deposit them at the school gates for the rest of the week. A few of her favourite, if not quite chatty, clients were booked in, the ops list didn’t look too terrifying and there was a ‘lunch and learn’ to look forward to so, on the whole, the day ahead looked reasonably rosy. As Alexa sailed through her appointment list, even managing to expertly avoid contact with the contents of a distended anal sac as they flew unpredictably past her gloved hand, there was a sudden cacophony of anxiously raised voices in the waiting room. Having popped out to see what was going on, Alexa was greeted by an upset and somewhat theatrical new client, who was clearly unfamiliar not only with the concept of telephoning first but also the need for her personal details to be collected before Mabel, her rather forlorn French Bulldog puppy, was examined. Indeed, it was seemingly more important for Alexa to be aware of the rarity of Mabel’s colour than her owner’s name and address. To defuse the situation, Alexa quickly ushered the distraught owner into a consulting room. Mabel had apparently been doing ’zoomies’ around the house, recreating the wall of death, when she had tripped halfway down the stairs and tumbled unceremoniously down the remainder. Thereafter poor Mabel was not willing to put any weight on her left front leg. Alexa carefully examined the limb reflecting on the abundance of skin, triggering a fond memory of Norah Batty’s stockings.Physeal Chaos | 3 min read
Illustrations by Rhiannon Wright @rhimalous
Apart from a wince when her elbow was extended, there was nothing particularly obvious; no crepitus or swelling. Alexa felt that a little rest and some meloxicam may do the trick but asked Mrs McDonald, as it turned out to be, to present Mabel again the following day if she was no better. Alexa was on ops the following morning when one of her colleagues admitted a miserable Mabel still holding up her leg. Although orthopaedics wasn’t her thing, Alexa agreed to take the radiographs and instantly regretted it as she stared at the images in front of her, profusely populated as they were with an almost bizarre pattern of open physes. Remembering why she preferred a tricky medical case, she asked a colleague to have a butcher’s and between them they felt it all looked pretty normal. Admittedly the cranio-caudal view of the elbow was oblique but Alexa was not alone in finding positioning for this view a little tricky.
"Mabel had apparently been doing 'zoomies' around the house, recreating the wall of death, when she had tripped halfway down the stairs"
More rest and an extended course of meloxicam were suggested, together with a check-up in ten days. Unfortunately, the tenth day coincided with a bank holiday weekend and so it was two weeks before Mabel reappeared, still very lame and by then with a thickened elbow. Further radiographs suggested things weren’t quite right, prompting referral to an orthopod who identified Mabel had a fracture of the lateral aspect of her humeral condyle. There was already quite significant bony remodelling, suggesting the fracture wasn’t fresh and a little more challenging to repair as a result. The surgeon also reported incomplete ossification of the humeral condyle was being recognised more and more in Frenchies. Mrs McDonald lost no time in demanding a reimbursement of all the fees relating to Mabel’s injury and the referral to boot. Since appeasement appeared unlikely, Alexa promptly contacted the Society. The Claims Consultant sympathised with Alexa’s difficulties in obtaining good orthogonal views of the elbow and the intricacies of physes, particularly when squashed from three to two dimensions. It was pointed out to Mrs McDonald she would always have had to pay for the initial consultation and radiographs and for Mabel’s surgery however an offer was made by the Society for the increase in cost of the surgery as a result of its increased complexity, which was accepted in the end with reasonable grace. Alexa, her dislike of orthopaedics reinforced, vowed to view lame French Bulldog puppies with a little more suspicion in future and reluctantly acknowledged that the orthopaedic lecturer at college who droned on about orthogonal views probably did have a point after all. Perhaps they might be available for a lunch and learn? *Kennel Club website, open access.
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