If you follow with my blog at all, you’ll know that my oldest cat, Ozzie, is an indoor/outdoor cat. He is not happy living indoors constantly. He craves fresh air, green grass, and room to romp. He rents out my apartment, and I am his doorman. He acts like I have nothing better to do than to wait for him to come home all day and go right back out. “Excuse me cat, can I at least finish my dinner before I let you out again?! I just sat down!”
I’ve worked out a system that Ozzie follows pretty well. If he’s not back before my lights go out, he’s stuck outside in the cold with no food or water, or litter, which he seems to need desperately despite the fact that the gravel could be his potty. He’ll come home just minutes after my lights go out and the tv turns off. However, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, he didn’t come home. “Okay cat, you’re out for the night.” At 1 am I heard him at my bedroom window, which is pretty much my front door as well. He sounded urgent. I got up, opened the door, and as he ran in I saw that he wasn’t using his back right leg. He was screaming in pain. I had no idea what to do. Dave came over and thought it was his leg that was broken, but after gently feeling him over I felt his hip was where the issue lay.
I called my work place as soon as they opened that morning. They let me come in despite having only worked one day, and that was only training. We found out that Ozzie’s femur had broken out of his hip socket. How he did this is still a complete mystery. He went into surgery that afternoon and came home with me that evening. This procedure is called a Femoral Head Ostectomy, or FHO. The head of the femur is cut completely off, leaving no connecting bone between his leg and hip. The hip is then sanded down to cease grinding and cutting into the surrounding tissues. You would feel, naturally, that there needs to be a connector between the hip and femur, because what will hold him together? Well, the muscle, connective tissues and ligaments will hold the leg exactly in place. I was amazed, too.
Ozzie is home, and receiving 2 rounds of medication each day, both rounds include 3 syringes that I administer to him orally. His entire leg, right part of his rump, and lower abdomen are completely shaved and bald, so I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw him hop out of the carrier. He’s on cage restriction for 10 days, and until he heals entirely I’ll have a hobbling kitty getting first priority in my computer room.
1. Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO)
In this procedure the head (or ball) of the femur is removed. The remaining part of the femur forms a false joint with the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the area. Even though this false joint is not as good as a real joint, there is a significant reduction in pain. almost any sized dog can have this procedure even though it is much more effective in smaller dogs. Obese dogs and those with significant loss of muscle do not do as well. Compared to the other types of surgery this one is much more basic, yet many pets that have this surgery return to almost normal function.
After the skin incision is made the muscles are separated to give visualization of the femoral head. It is gently rotated and brought up as far as possible.
A special air powered drill is used to cut the neck of the femur at just the right angle.
The angle in the cut of the femoral neck is apparent. also present on the head of this femur is a piece of the round ligament, one of the structures that anchors the head of the femur into the socket.
An opening remains where the head of the femur used to reside. The remaining bone will form a false joint, and return this pet to almost 100% function.
The muscles that were separated and cut are now carefully sutured. These muscles are necessary for normal movement of the false joint that will soon form.
This is what Ozzie’s hip looks like now. The left portion of the picture is his hip socket, and the right part is his femur, now cut away and not connected to the hip.
