Ortho reference

[Barny23]

I have a 4 mo kitten that has a traumatic posterior hip dislocation (in addition to transphyseal fracture) and am wondering about the results of non-operative treatment vs femoral head ostectomy
Would appreciate reference to any literature discussing outcomes of both options

 

[fionasmom]

American College of Veterinary Surgeons
This the American College of Veterinary Surgeons directory, in the event that you decide that you need to pursue surgery.

Search Results for Query: femoral head ostectomy
The Cat Site search for members who have posted anything about FHO surgery

Search Results for Query: hip dislocation
TCS mentions of hip dislocation

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. You have a good amount of links above. That is a pretty nasty fracture. As you can see the ball joint is broken off into the socket. Ouch.

Any type of bandaging/ splinting will not be effective. That’s an impossible area to keep immobilized. It’s also painful. Cage rest would be extremely challenging in a cat, let alone one so young. The kitten would have to be kept in a tiny cage and would most likely damage himself worse, not to mention the pain, and frustration. It would probably be 30 to 60 days of cage rest.
It can be done though. The problem is that when they heal without surgical intervention they usually wind up with severe chronic arthritis and a shortened limb which then affects other parts of the body. So, I would not recommend no surgery due to the pain, length of time confined and limb deformation with severe arthritis.

It’s a simple surgery and the sooner it is done the better. You want to do surgery as close to immediately as possible, although it can still be done later on, it will be more complicated with less chance of a positive outcome.

I would go through a board certified veterinary surgeon if it was my kitten. Often you wind up spending more money and wasting more time when a regular veterinarian attempts orthopedic surgery.

Even with a veterinary surgeon, you will still have to do some cage confinement until better healed, but it won’t be a long time.

The radiographs are not the best positioned, but if done when the kitten was awake, I can see why. A veterinary surgeon would be able to also look for additional fractures the regular vet may have missed.

What happened to the kitten? Was he stepped on or tripped over?

 

[arr]

If it’s of any help, one of my cats had the femoral head ostectomy after fracturing his hip around the age of 1 1/2. He did not need to recover in a cage, he recovered in a small room with nothing he could jump up on. They sent him home with painkillers for several days to be more comfortable. He did very well and by 4 weeks he started practicing climbing up low things and walking more. By around six weeks he was back out in the rest of the house, moving cautiously and with supervision on stairs and jumps. They give you a schedule of when and how they need to exercise during recovery. A year and a half later, you wouldn’t know anything had ever happened to him.

I think if it’s a choice between confining them to a tiny cage and trying to get them to not move, or having surgery, I would choose the surgery. I imagine recovering from surgery would be less painful than somehow waiting for the fracture to heal. Like in humans who need a hip replacement, they say the surgical pain isn’t too bad compared to the pain they were previously experiencing in the joint.