External immobilization for fracture repair in goats

Due to the frequent occurrence of long bone fractures in goats and paucity of literature regarding their economic management, a study was conducted to establish the external immobilization of long bone fracture with Plaster of Paris (POP) versus hybrid cast and evaluate the fracture healing by clinical and radiographic studies. Plaster of Paris cast was helpful to restrict the movement in all the cases of Gr-I while external fixation by hybrid cast was helpful to restrict the movement of fracture fragments in all the cases of Gr-II. The overall observations for weight bearing in the study revealed that the animals of Gr-II showed early full weight bearing. Clinically the animals of Gr-II showed early ambulation with better fracture healing. The complications were more in POP cast as compared to hybrid cast.