Abstract

Jaw and other bone fractures in dolphins can occur due to different reasons in the wild and under human care. Some of the main causes include boat collisions, lesions caused by other cetaceans or hard surfaces, and shark attacks.¹ The few case reports regarding fractures in cetaceans refer to fracture stabilization depending on its type and location. Moreover, jaw fractures involving the use of neoprene splints with Velcro straps to reach the desired stabilization and immobilization have also been reported.² Our case involves a 2-year-old male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) named Lucca, who was born under human care and resides in the Cancun Interactive Aquarium with his mother and other female dolphins with their calves. On March 16th 2015, Lucca was found with a lesion on the left side of his lower jaw at the beginning of a training session. Veterinarians at the facility suspected of a fracture in the mandible and on March 17th it was confirmed by X-rays that Lucca had a fracture in both mandibular branches. The left branch had a compound fracture while the right branch had a simple complete fracture. Key points to choose the right treatment protocol included avoiding infection, pain management, fracture stabilization, and achieving that the animal could eat again. On March 18th, surgery was performed to place a modified Kirschner wire device. The main advantages of this device include an adequate fracture immobilization without the use of invasive surgical procedures, reaching a faster recovery, favoring blood circulation, and preventing muscle atrophy.³ Pain management before the surgery included the use of 20 mg of diazepam, 150 mg of tramadol, and during surgery, a facial nerve block was performed with the infiltration of lidocaine in each mandibular branch. Infection was prevented applying 1 gr of IM ceftriaxone as the antibiotic of choice, daily oral cavity wound treatments and follow up blood tests. The external fixation device was kept on the animal for 75 days; during that period, platelet rich plasma was administered in 2 occasions due to its osteoinductive and fracture consolidation properties.^4,5 After Lucca’s treatment there was a complete recovery of the damaged segment.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the trainer staff at Delphinus for the dedication and support provided to achieve the successful recovery of Lucca.

Literature Cited

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2.  Saldaña AD, et al. 2008. Acute renal failure in a Pacific bottlenose dolphin with a fracture in the lower jaw. In: Proceedings of the IAAAM 2008 conference.

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4.  De la Mata J. 2013. Platelet rich plasma. A new treatment tool for the rheumatologist? Reumatol Clin. 2013;9:166–71 - Vol. 9 Núm.3 DOI: 10.1016/j.reuma.2012.05.011.

5.  Rosenberg JF, et al. 2015. Surgical fixation of a mandibular fracture utilizing bone xenografts, highly concentrated platelet-rich plasma, platelet-rich fibrin, and platelet-poor plasma in a harbor seal pup (Phoca vitulina) undergoing rehabilitation. In: Proceedings of the IAAAM 2015 conference.

6.  Klissarov D, Zhekov I, Milushev G. 1992. Successful therapy on upper jaw fracture in a pregnant bottlenose dolphin (T. truncatus) in the Varna Dolphinarium. Aquatic Mammals. 18.2:47–48.