Charlie was adopted by her people when she was about 5 months old. She had a history of being bitten on the head by another dog but had since healed. Her owners noticed that she did not open her mouth to play like normal dogs. When we examined her a few weeks later, she could not open her mouth at all, and could barely get her tongue out to drink and lap up gruel.
We performed a CT scan which showed a healed fracture of her mandible and part of her skull called the zygomatic arch. The bones had healed so fast that they fused together, preventing her mandible from moving at all.
She was taken to surgery where Dr. Cross removed the exuberant bone healing and a section of her zygomatic arch. Immediately after surgery she could open her mouth and proved it by promptly chewing out her IV.
She has made a complete recovery and can now eat and play like a normal puppy.
