Bulldog Calves: Chondrodysplasia

"Bulldog Calves" are calves born with Chrondrodysplaisia, an inherited defect in many breeds of cattle. there is quite a variation in the severity of this condition. For example, it can produce rather cute calves with a milder case, like this:

Hes so cute! look at his little leggies!

AWWW

Or it can produce rather terrifying stillborn calves, such as this:

AHHH WHAT IS THAT

 oh dear! 

is that a pug?

Note the cleft palate and extremely short limbs.

Chondrodysplasia isnt limited to cattle, however. Humans can also have it, like the lovley Elvi

<3

Or dogs

Woof!

As can horses

Photodump:Arthritis Mutilans

arthritis mutilans ("opera glass hand")is a reasonably rare condition where the athritis causes the patients fingers to shorten in a telescopic manner.

Treatment includes arthrodesis of the joints and bone grafting

                                   Krukenberg Hands

the opening and closeing of the "pincer"

One extremely interesting lesser known procedure is the creation of Krukenberg hands, known as the Krukenburg procedure. this operation, while rarely performed, is appropriate for patients who have lost one or both hands but have a significant amount of lower arm remaining, namley the ulna and radius. these two bones are seperated during the procedure and manipulated into a crab like pincer that can alow the patient to grab, hold, write exetera.

writing with a krukenberg hand

 Some would argue that a Krukenburg hand is far superior to a prosthetic hand, as it has sensation an is waterproof. it also does not require repairs or maintenance like a mechanical limb. It has a very high rate of patient satifaction. And it can be used in tandem with prosthetics, of so desired.

Krukenberg hand with prosthetic

 But despite all of this, the Krukenberg procedure never became a mainstream operation, for purely cosmetic reasons. Many surgeons will refuse outright to peform such a procedure even at the request of the patient. occasionly it will be performed on someone who lacks access to prosthetics or on a blind patient (to preserve the sense of touch) but otherwise the Krukenberg procedure, like so many other good ideas in the feild, has been held back by the reluctance of physicians to try something a little new and radical.

Creme Puff

I don't intend on limiting this blog to human medicine, so lets discuss the charachter whos piquied my intrest of late; Creme Puff the cat

You might of heard mention of Creme Puff before, perhaps mentioned on various articles of longest living animals. Creme Puff himself lived to the impressive age of 38 years and three days- quite impressive considering the average cat only manages 13-15 years. But what interests me about Puff is how little information there is about her. Youd think such an esteemed animal would have had more written about her, but all my reaserch has only lead me to the same few regurgetated facts:

1. She lived 38 years and 3 days exactly (3 August 1967-6 August 2005) 

2. Her brother (biological or just a housemate is not specified), named either Grandpa or Grandpa Rex lived to be 34 years ( born 1964 and died 1998) although there is no hard evidence of this. He was also apparently featured in a magazine (awarded 1999 Cat of the Year by Cats and Kittens magazine)

True to her nature, this cat has proved elusive. This is the only photo I can find of her, although since all other deatails of her life are so vaugue im sceptical of its legitimacy. It seems amazing that a cat can live for almost four decades and only one photo of her exists!

Welcome! This blog is a collection of my finds that I cureate as an enthusiast of unusual medicine. To start, I thought I would ease you in with a post about not especially unusual conditions that have been left unusually long (usually to lack of access to heathcare or science having not been advanced in the place or period that these images were taken. Let us examine the common hernia, for example. 

(image description: the stomach of a very young white child with a small lump where the navel should be)

Shown above is a common hernia in children, the umbilical hernia. This is caused by damage to the abdominal wall which causes the bowel to herniate. a simple surgery will fix this and provideing the patient has adequate access to aproppriate servicies it is of no great concern.

Now, let us take a look at an umbilical hernia that has gone without treatment for several years.

(image description : the side veiw of a torso of a white man with some tattoos. he has a large lump the size of a basketball over his navel)

Ouch!