Opossum Needs Help, Part 2

Back to rehabber Sarah Stiles' house last night to re-wrap the broken leg of this opossum. The original splint and Coban wrap had become twisted and needed replacement and repositioning. This time I wrapped the leg in a flexible athletic type cast material called Medicopaste first, and then Coban wrap over that. It was something I had in my supply donations for some time and never used it before. I was hoping that it was a plaster type hard setting casting material, but when I opened it, I saw that it was not. It's better stabilization that the Coban wrap alone though.

Description from Part I: First opossum patient of the year and first case presentation working with rehabber Sarah Stiles in about a year. This big boy male was attacked tonight by a dog, and he's suffered quite a few bites and the dog broke his right forearm. It was badly broken and the poor boy was so scared. Trauma is my specialty and where I feel most comfortable, so she called me about 9pm tonight, also because she didn't have medications anymore*. I went over and hooked him up with a good dose of enrofloxacin, some flunixin NSAID, and some BPC-157 peptide to accelerate healing. I stabilized his broken arm as best I could with two tongue depressers for splints, and wrapped with Coban. He will be in rehab a while to make sure it heals and that he can still use the arm before release. He was a good boy, and though he growled and showed his teeth, like most opossums, he did not try to bite me.

*Sadly, the veterinarian in Burkburnett who used to help with wildlife and issue scripts, Dr. Duffer-Burleson, died a few days ago after a 2 week battle with Covid. She was 66. She had some pre-existing health issues.

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