Dislocated hip - fho surgery

[Tamedame]

My cat has a dislocated hip - the vet thinks she was hit by a car. They have suggested FHO surgery where the ‘ball’ part of the femur is removed and the muscles etc do the work of holding the leg into the hip joint instead.

has anyone had a cat go through this surgery? What is the recovery like? Any advice appreciated. We don’t have insurance so it’s very expensive.

Our cat fractured through the growth plate at the top of his femur and has had a hip replacement, we're nearly half way though the hell of 12 weeks crate rest.
The other option for him was a fho and tbh if I could redo things I've have gone for that, our surgeon pushed us to agree to the hip replacement. In total it's cost nearly £10,000 just about £7,000 covered by insurance but it's the crate rest were having to give him a sedative on a night to get him settled. If he'd had the fho he'd have been out of his crate weeks ago and on the way back to normality, from what I've read most cats recover really well from it with hardly any problems

Oh gosh that is a lot of money. We had the option of a pin (I think) but it meant the crate for 6 weeks which I just couldn’t manage with other commitments. This fho option means no crate and they assure me cat will make a full recovery as she is young and not overweight.

Yes the recovery from fho is getting them moving as soon as possible to build the muscles/scar tissue up and on the Maine coon groups (that's what Marshie is) lots of cats have fho and do really well afterwards

Not a FHO but my cat broke her pelvis in multiple places and had surgery (plate and pins) coming up 4 weeks ago. She is young and small (3.5kg) and she was back up and walking around her cage with a limp within a week and has been firmly back on her feet since about 2 weeks after the surgery, with no obvious sign of discomfort. Our trouble is that she is supposed to be crate rested for 6 weeks - try telling her that! So I would say that if you are encouraged to get yours walking around soon after surgery, you’ll have a happier cat. You will have to watch her like a hawk though to stop jumping.

Sympathy also on the cost - we had insurance but like @Iamme2023 we’ve blown through that completely.

All the best to you and your DCat.

Our cat had this surgery done. Crate rat was tough for 6 weeks afterwards (it should have been longer), but he recovered totally fine. Still sits with his leg outstretched, but walks and runs normally. Slightly less adventurous now!