%0 Journal Article
%T Congenital deformity of the paw in a captive tiger: case report
%A Sheila C Rahal
%A Reinaldo S Volpi
%A Carlos R Teixeira
%A Vania MV Machado
%A Guilherme DP Soares
%A Carlos Neto
%A Kathleen Linn
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-8-98
%X A 1.5-year-old tiger (Panthera tigris) was presented with lameness of the left thoracic limb. A deformity involving the first and second metacarpal bones, and a soft tissue separation between the second and third metacarpal bones of the left front paw were observed. The second digit constantly struck the ground during locomotion. Based on the physical and radiographic evaluations, a diagnosis of ectrodactyly was made. A soft tissue reconstruction of the cleft with excision of both the second digit and distal portion of the second metacarpal bone was performed. Marked improvement of the locomotion was observed after surgical treatment, although the tiger showed a low degree of lameness probably associated with the discrepancy in length between the thoracic limbs.This report shows a rare deformity in an exotic feline that it is compatible to ectrodactyly. Reconstructive surgery of the cleft resulted in significant improvement of limb function.There are several types of congenital hand anomalies in human patients and a variety of classification systems [1,2]. According to morphological classification polydactyly indicates the presence of extra digits, syndactyly is an abnormal linkage between adjacent digits, brachydactyly refers to short digits, macrodactyly denominates large digits, and ectrodactyly or oligodactyly denotes defective digits [1,3].Ectrodactyly has been described in dogs and domestic cats but is considered rare [3-9]. In general, the anomaly in these species is unilateral and affects only the thoracic limb [4,6-13], but bilateral involvement also has been reported [10,14,15]. A radiographic study in dogs with ectrodactyly classified the defects based on the site of division of the longitudinal axis of the paw [10]. Axial separation between metacarpal bones; abnormal carpal, metacarpal and phalangeal bones; syndactyly; and separation between the radius and ulna are some of the radiological features reported [5,7,10,14]. In addition, elbow luxation has be
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/98