Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Pets

Join our community on the Pet forum to discuss anything related to pets.

Long shot- Any Veterinary Orthopaedic Specialists here?

55 replies

SugaryBits · 02/05/2008 19:59

Who would be willing to give an opinion and possibly look at X-rays for me?

My cat was hit by a car last night and has fractured his pelvis, dislocated his femur and fractured his left ilium. I have been offered a couple of options, including orthopaedic surgery but have been told this will cost a minimum of £3000. I really cannot afford this, 2K I might have been able to borrow but not 3+.

The other option seems to be to wait until pelvis heals slightly, put the right leg back into place, then amputate the left.

Would really appreciate any advice. Thanks

OP posts:
IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast · 05/05/2008 20:56

I've had a look. He doesn't do things by halves, does he?!

I'll be honest and say that in an ideal situation I would refer him to an orthopod for surgery. Having said that, it's not unusual for this option to be unavailable in this sort of case and I would be reasonably optimistic that he could recover good mobility without specialised pelvic surgery.

Firstly the dislocation needs to be sorted out, because as time passes the likelihood of it needing surgical intervention increases. Last resort is surgically correcting it or removing the femoral head, neither of which are very expensive procedures (relatively!).

The left hand socket is a goner without major pelvic surgery, but I'd be quite confident that excising the femoral head leaving him with a 'false joint' would give an adequate return to function as the fracture healed.

This just leaves the ilium to worry about. It is quite displaced and the whole pelvis is skewed as a result, meaning future constipation is a concern. However, I would be tempted to cage rest him for a good 6-8 weeks in the hope that it would heal without surgery. The caveat is that he might in the future develop a complication called megacolon which can be really unpleasant.

So basically, if you came to us with this problem, and no cash, we'd excise the left femoral head, try to reduce, pin or toggle the right hip, and then shut him in a cage for a few weeks and cross our fingers. I'd estimate the total cost would not be in excess of £800, but we are a rural mixed practice and so probably charge less than a dedicated small animal hospital.

I hope he's feeling well today, and that you manage to find a solution to your difficulties.

SugaryBits · 05/05/2008 21:03

Thank you so much for having a look IAR.

Do you think that 3-5k is really what we would be looking at paying for the specialised surgery?

If so I guess like you said we just need to cross our fingers!

OP posts:
IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast · 05/05/2008 21:11

I wouldn't like to guess really, but I suspect it's not an unreasonable estimate.

To quote a colleague of mine (he's near retirement and we don't listen to everything he says, but he does have the wisdom of age and experience) - "It's a cat - it'll heal!" This isn't always true, but they are remarkably good at defying our direst predictions. If you were my client and I thought the odds were really stacked against him recovering I certainly wouldn't perform the surgery, but in this case I think we would definitely give him a chance.

SugaryBits · 05/05/2008 21:18

Thanks IAR. I really appreciate you spending your (very valuable!!) time helping me out with this. I will keep you posted on Jaspers progress.

OP posts:
SugaryBits · 06/05/2008 16:16

Just thought I would let you know, the Vet put Jaspers right leg back into place today but it came straight back out again so they are not optimisitc it will stay where it should be. I am going to pick him up tomorrow and bring him home to see if he begins to heal after a few weeks cage rest. If no improvement they will look at removing the femoral head on one or both sides.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page