City’s canine recovers from knee surgery
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Bellefontaine Police Sgt. Chris Marlow and his canine partner Arco pose for a photo this week. Arco recently underwent surgery to replace a torn ligament but is now back on the job. (EXAMINER PHOTO | JOEL E. MAST) |
Belgian Malinois are a tough lot.
The dog breed commonly used in law enforcement and security are a hard charging, never-say-never lot.
They love working and spending days with their handlers.
So, when Bellefontaine Police Sgt. Chris Marlow’s partner, Arco, continued to limp weeks after an injury, the canine handler knew he had to protect the five-year-old dog from itself and get the leg checked out.
Surgery followed and the months of recovery were “exhausting” for the dog and handler.
“Arco never complained nor stopped working but he kept limping,” Sgt. Marlow said. “So I took him to Dr. (Matt) Verbsky who referred me to a specialist, Dr. Matt Barnhart in Worthington.
“He quickly diagnosed it.”
Sometime in the fall, Arco tore a ligament in his left rear leg, and in early December, the knee was repaired with surgery.
Sgt. Marlow explained Arco’s injury was similar to a human anterior cruciate ligament injury.
However, Dr. Barnhart explained to him a dog’s physiology reacts different than a human’s.
“As I understand it,” Sgt. Marlow said, “the human body tries to repair the damage, but a dog’s body simply ignores the injury and rejects the tendon. It (the remaining ligament) dies quickly.”
Read complete story in Saturday’s Examiner.
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