Brullie the giant bullfrog with its wound on the hind leg sewn with nine stitches
Photo: MILLER/MACLEAN

It was just a few days ago when I tell you the story of a frog whose two forelegs were both put in a cast to heal from bilateral fractures. I was quite (nicely) surprised to see this effort from human to alleviate the sufferings of a poor amphibian. Today I've happily discovered that in South Africa some people have one even further and a vet have operated a Giant Bullfrog to put a inch-long metal pin in his shattered lower leg in order to fix its broken bone.
Brullie, this was the name of the Bullfrog, was found by Anne Mearns after being bitten by a dog that probably had dug up it from its underground hibernation.
Brullie remained unconscious after the vet rubbed a tiny dose of watered-down dog anaesthetic into his porous skin. The surgeon then opened the damaged limb to insert the tiny steel rod over the snapped right leg bone. His scaly skin was later sewn back together with nine stitches to allow the wound to heal. The following x-rays show the state of Brullie's leg before and after the unique operation:



Photo: MILLER/MACLEAN

Now it's just a matter of time for the metal false leg to merge with his actual bones, and then he'll hopefully be as good as new.