Femoral Head Ostectomy or FHO

Has anyone ever had one of these done? I have done a lot of reading on the subject and may have (read most likely will have to have) one of my cats have one.

Let me back up a little bit, and I apologize beforehand if I get long-winded.

Around the first of the year, we noticed Kenna, our (we think she's a ragdoll mix, but aren't sure), anyway, we noticed she was limping on her back left leg. My husband works in a fiberglass factory, and we have little tiny pieces of glass everywhere in the house, so we thought maybe she had a piece of glass in her foot. We looked and felt all around, but could not find anything, so we decided to give it a little bit of time to try to work out on it's own. ( If anyone has ever had a piece of glass, you know it can take forever to work itself out.) When that didn't seem to happen, I made an appointment with our vet, and they did some manipulations with her back leg, and they could feel a 'popping' in and out when moving it. They took her and did x-rays for several reasons, including ruling out any tumors and any arthritis in the joint. Well, the x-rays weren't very good because Kenna didn't really want to cooperate ( I wouldn't either, being in pain and in a strange place with people pulling on my sore leg.) But she was able to rule the tumor.

Her suggestion was to give her a steriod shot to see if it would help her, and we (as in all of us) wondered if she didn't pull something when she was jumping off the cat tree (as she is afraid of NOTHING.) If it didn't, I was to call back and let her know and we would go from there. Well, it did help, to a point, but she was still limping pretty good, so I called them back and talked to the vet, and she wanted to do another x-ray, but wanted to sedate her so they could get better ones. Fast forward to x-ray day, when I go in to pick up Kenna, my vet (who I've known for 21 years) says, I'm glad you are here. I want to show you something that I have never seen quite like this before (and if you know me, you know this is probably not good.) SO she shows me Kenna's x-rays, which she really has no hip socket on the left side. The right one is a little better, at least there's somewhat of a socket, but the left one, there's nothing. (At this moment, my heart just hurts for this baby, as I love her to death, and I just want to slap the *snot*out of the 'lady' we got her from...which is a whole other story altogether.)

She did talk about a FHO, but wanted me to try Cosequin and pain management ( I know there isn't a whole lot out there that cats can tolerate for long periods of time) before the surgery to see if she could do without the surgery.

After I brought her home, the next day she was limping pretty good, but the following day, and this morning she's completely not putting any weight on the back leg at all. I called the vet, and an waiting on her to call me back.

Strangely enough, I've had one done on myself. But not on any of my cats. It does seem unusual - although for the larger breeds, not that surprising. A lot of dogs seem to get it too!

Our vet said she had not had any cats that have had to have had that done. She has had dogs, but not a cat.

I'm not looking forward to the bill for this, but anything for my babies...I just hope there isn't another one line this in the near future because I have seven cats and two dogs.

On the bright side of this, I guess it could be worse and it could be our english mastiff that needs this procedure instead of one of our cats, although I'd prefer that none of our babies had to go through this.

I honestly have not heard of a cat having it. Although I do remember reading some breeders "certify" their hips. So it is definitely a problem with purebreds, I guess. Does it need to be done unilaterally or bilaterally?

My dog had an FHO but I've never heard of a cat having one done. I have heard that some of the large breeds of cat are prone to hip dysplasia.

I made a diary about my experience with my dog's FHO surgery and recovery, you can read it here:
http://www.chicagocanine.com/pooch/poochhd.html

The language is somewhat less technical in our friend's recounting of Boots's experience, but it sounds to me like this procedure. If so, perhaps Boots's experience will provide some reassurance.

one of mine had one 5 weeks ago after being hit by a car. i was freaked out at the thought of him having his femoral head cut off. i googled it and found a blog with lots of stories that eased my mind (am i allowed to post it?)
http://jasonscats.blogspot.com/2006/...ctomy-fho.html
it took 2 weeks between my cat being hit and the surgery. during that time his walking improved. the day after the surgery he limped severely but within a couple of days he was walking better than the day before surgery.
he still has a limp now that i hope will go away but he started jumping a week after he got home and now he runs, jumps, and plays like normal

I have not had one of my personal pets have an FHO, but I'm a veterinary technician and I see it all the time, in fact, we had an FHO today at work. I've seen it on cats, in fact one cat had a bilateral (both sides) FHO done at the same time! It takes some recoop time, but the body eventually creates a pocket to compensate for the lack of the femoral head. I work at an SPCA medical center, so unfortunatley, I see alot of hit by cars that need an FHO... if there's anything else I can help you with, please let me know!

Good luck!

Okie

Hi,

I posted a thread about my kitty, Zoe, who had a dislocated hip (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=214281). I hope Zoe doesn't need any surgery at all, but in case she does, I was curious how your kitty has made out since the surgery.

Thanks!

I just saw this bumped up. Kenna is under a year old, and I don't really want to have the surgery done yet while she is still growing. That being said, I've been giving her cosequin (sp?) everyday and the wonders that has worked for right now have been tremendous. She plays and runs, not as fast as the others, but she runs (!), and is acting like herself. She still limps a little, but nothing like she was before. As long as this is working for her, I think I'm going to hold off on the surgery.

Hello, everyone. Does anyone know how much a FHO costs? We have a 1.5 year old male Maine Coon who started limping a few days ago. He had several xrays, and while one xray looks normal, the other one looks like there may be a femoral head fracture. The radiologist is supposed to review the xrays tomorrow. He is an indoor cat only, so not sure how he injured himself. I know I am probably getting ahead of myself by worrying about this type of procedure being needed, but just wanted to know if anyone knew the cost. I am hoping that it is not fractured, and maybe just bruised, or if it is fractured, it is something that can heal on it's own. Thanks.

Originally Posted by bsharp242

Hello, everyone. Does anyone know how much a FHO costs? We have a 1.5 year old male Maine Coon who started limping a few days ago. He had several xrays, and while one xray looks normal, the other one looks like there may be a femoral head fracture. The radiologist is supposed to review the xrays tomorrow. He is an indoor cat only, so not sure how he injured himself. I know I am probably getting ahead of myself by worrying about this type of procedure being needed, but just wanted to know if anyone knew the cost. I am hoping that it is not fractured, and maybe just bruised, or if it is fractured, it is something that can heal on it's own. Thanks.

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It depends on the veterinarian. Around here if you get it done by a specialist you'd be looking at a Probably a $3,000 surgery. I work in a clinic who has a veterinarian who likes orthopedics so we do a lot of knee surgeries and a lot of FHO's. We charge like $1,000-$1,500 for the procedure. It really depends who does it.

Sassy cat had this procedure done about 4 years ago.

She was 8 months old when my daughter accidently broke her leg.

At that time, the procedure cost me $1200.00

Today, she is a happy healthy cat and I'm glad we had it done because she is my best friend now.

You can read about her here:
http://www.catsassy.com/about-cat-sassy.html

My dog's FHO surgery was about $500.

My cat Gypsy had a FHO done after fracturing her femoral head about 6 months ago. Not quite sure how she broke it, but I'm guessing it's from roughhousing with Zip. She was in obvious severe pain and it made the most sense to have the surgery. She was about 10 months old at the time of surgery. It cost us about $1500 with ex-rays, surgery and follow ups. We now have pet insurance....

As I said, it's been about 6 months, and while she has a slight limp still, she runs and plays with our other cats like normal. The only concession we've had to make is to build her a ramp to get to my daughters top bunk. A kitty cat handicap ramp

Good luck!