Please help: my cat has bilateral femoral neck fractures

Thanks Beandip, I will. I'm just so ready to get the surgery done with so that he can start healing instead of hanging out in limbo.

Well, I'll be dropping Milo off at the vet at 7:30 in the morning for tomorrow's surgery. He'll be having bilateral FHO's (femoral head and neck ostectomies). He will stay overnight and if everything goes as planned, I'll be able to pick him up Wednesday afternoon.

Keep sending prayers for him tomorrow, as he undergoes surgery. I know he's young and healthy and so shouldn't have any problems with the anesthesia, but of course I'm still nervous. I will keep you guys updated on how his recovery goes.

Good Luck to Milo today. My cat Stewie is waiting to have his second hip done. He too broke both of his hips and we still don't know how. He had his first hip done in November and we will do his second shortly, both FHO. His vet decided that one at a time was the way to go with plenty of time in between to heal. Stewie is doing great. We had to limit his activity for about three weeks but now he gets around pretty good. He still has issues jumping up on things but I am sure that this will get better once he gets his other hip done.

Dozen2Luv (Regina)

Sending prayers and healing vibes for your sweet boy.

prayers and love to milo.

Hello everyone!!

Thanks so much for the love and support! The surgeon called me at about 2:30 to say that the surgery went very well, no complications. He said Milo might be able to go home tomorrow, or Thursday at the latest. He just doesn't want to send him home too quickly since he did both hips at the same time.

So once he gets home, the vet wants him up and moving around by about a week post-op. At that point, he's free to do as much as he feels like doing, and my job is to encourage walking around and playing to stimulate his hips to heal.

Dozen, it's encouraging to hear that Stewie did well with his first FHO! I'm sure the second will go just as well. I am more and more encouraged as I hear more stories of kitties doing so well after FHO's. The surgeon kinda wanted to do hip replacements in Milo, and even offered me a deep discount on doing total hip replacements, but the thing is, he has never done bilaterals (and neither has anyone else, to my knowledge). In fact, the first kitty hip replacement ever (unilateral) was done less than a year ago. While the hip replacement would have offered the chance for him to have a slightly better outcome than FHO's, there is also more risk of later complications (infection, further fracture, loosening of the implant) that would require more surgery...and since the first kitty hip ever was done only a year ago, we don't yet know how kitties with hip replacements end up doing years later. So I was more comfortable with the really good chances of near complete recovery that the FHO's would give him...I just wasn't comfortable doing something that's so new and still relatively experimental in cats.

I'll let you guys know when he's able to come home!!! I think his sister Lucy misses him...when I got home today, she followed me around meowing a lot, and she is a very nonvocal cat normally.

I am praying for your darling cat!

That is wonderful news the surgery went well! Hopefully, he can come home soon!

Thank you, batgirl and whitecatlover!!!

I'm just overwhelmed with all the love, support, and prayers everyone has offered us over the last few days...I do sincerely thank you all, as it has helped my spirits immensely. And I know your prayers helped get Milo safely through his surgery today.

Sending head bonks and purrs to you all!!

I'm glad to hear that Milo is doing well! I'm sure he'll amaze everyone and make a speedy recovery! They are remarkable little critters, even if my Marbled Menace is driving me batty this morning.

Gooooooood News!

Milo is home!!!

They called around 10:30 this morning to tell me that he did really well overnight and could go home this afternoon!! So I picked him up at 4....he was sooooo happy to see me, hehehe. And I can tell that he feels sooooo much better already. He practically almost jumped out of his carrier when I opened it up at home (I stopped him, hehe). So I got him out and put him on the floor, and he preceeded to stand up and start walking! Admittedly very wobbly steps, but still!! So then I put him in his kennel, because I didn't want him walking TOO much on Post Op Day #1....and he immediately sat down on his haunches to eat his food! He started scarfing it down. He hasn't sat on his haunches like a normal cat since before the breaks happened. And now he's totally pissed that he's stuck in his kennel...I'm going to let him out soon when I'm done on here and can watch him closely so he doesn't try to walk too much.

It doesn't look like convincing him to walk around and play for rehab will be a problem at all!

We thank you all again for your love, head bonks, and happy thoughts! I'll keep you updated...I'm optimistic that he's showing signs of a quick and easy recovery!!!

That's great news! It's amazing how quickly they can bounce back. I hope his recovery continues to be smooth!

oh my gosh, i'm so glad he's doing better. how long had milo acted strange before he got hurt?

Renovia, it's hard to say, because it was subtle and I wasn't really picking up on it until I thought in retrospect.

Since he was a kitten, he had always seemed less graceful than our other cat, Lucy, when jumping up onto things. I just assumed that was because he was a bigger, different cat. Also, for a long time, he's always let out a little "hmph" noise when jumping down off of the bed or the couch. Before I just thought nothing of it, because he's a pretty vocal cat, but now I realize it might have been because the landing hurt. He has also sat in a peculiar way for a long time...kind holding himself up with his front legs, and leaning
on one hip with both his legs splayed out in the same direction (on the side opposite the hip he's leaning on). Again, I thought this was just how he sat, but then when I read another cat mom's story about her baby before he needed bilateral hip surgery, she noted that he sat this way as well. Finally, for the past month or so, I had noticed that instead of trying to jump up on the couch, he has been standing up on his hind legs and trying to use his front legs to pull himself up onto it. I noticed that his front claws were kind of sticking in the couch fabric when he did this, and I just thought "oh, i need to trim his claws."

So basically, he did have some signs, I was just clueless to them. But now that I think back, it seems that he had been having some hip pain for awhile. Which makes me even more confident that he did, in fact, have Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease and his little hips had been becoming weaker and weaker.

He's soooo happy to be home...I let him out of his kennel, and he has been walking around quite a bit! He has settled down in one of his favorite spots by my bed, and I laid down to give him chin scratches...he just purrrrred and purred.

Im so happy that everything went great! I wish a speedy recovery for the little man. Knowing that someone else has gone through this without problems is calming me down alot.

Im so glad he is recovering......... He is very lucky to have you as a mom.......

I was getting ready to send a link with financial aide info in it when I read he had already had his surgery.......

Hope he continues to blossom......

Jenn

Aww, I'm so glad he's feeling better! And I know that's such a relief to you. Bless his little pea-picker!

So now that he's settled in at home, and not quite so excited, he's sleeping a lot. But he is still getting up and walking some, and seems to feel a lot better!!!

Gothicangel, how is Zorro doing???

He's doing better and better! He walked around a lot last night and even more today, and his walk is looking a bit steadier. He even stood up on his hind legs and put his front paws on the couch as if he was about to jump up! Of course I didn't let him, and picked him up onto the couch instead, but the fact that he made the effort is encouraging!! Right now he's sleeping in his favorite spot under my bed.

That is very encouraging news!