Teh Six Million Dollar Kitteh

Moose had surgery on July 7th. He had a procedure called a "FHO" which is, literally, the removal of the head of the femur. Kittehs don't need to have the ball of the hip replaced as they have such strong muscles in that area to hold the hip in place. Moose's surgery took four hours!! Yikes. The vet wasn't able to get every little bit of the bone she wanted to remove. She said that his bone was very soft and spongy, not normal at all. We're still not certain if Moose had an old fracture that healed wrong or if he had some congenital anomaly in the hip, but I think the vet is leaning towards the congenital issue.

The first pic is Moose just as he came home from surgery. He wasn't even totally out of anesthesia yet, poor boy. The second pic is the actual bone fragment. I hope it doesn't surprise anyone that I asked to keep it: of course I asked to keep the bone!! Lol. Keats wants to take it to school for show & tell. :o) The last pic is the final tally. It doesn't include about $500 for the pre-op assessments, xrays, and all the pain meds, but it sure could have been a lot worse! The vet, Dr. Trumbull, gave us a great deal considering she worked on him for four hours!