Shadow Needs Surgery
This is Shadow when he first came home. He is a little over one year old now. My husband rescued him from certain death. Outside a Salvation Army homeless shelter, there are a colony of feral cats. We had room for one more rescue cat in our home and had been looking. My husband was checking out all the other cats when he heard this poor baby crying under a bush. He picked him up, and even though he couldn't move his back leg and was infested with fleas, he began to purr loudly.
We took him to the vet and had x-rays done. He had been stepped on or something heavy had fallen on him (we don't know) but the vet showed us the x-rays and said his hip joint had been crushed. He was too little for surgery and the vet told us that since he was still growing that there was a chance he could still heal although he would probably have a limp. They gave him Solensia for pain and sent us home.
Shadow has integrated wonderfully into our family. We have an 11 year old mini schnauzer and two other cats. He has been getting monthly pain shots because his hip did not heal as well as we thought it would. From this last x-ray it shows his hip bone is grinding against his femur with the ball joint being so badly damaged. As he's grown, his spine has curved to one side because of this. In cold weather or if he plays too hard with his siblings, he is in pain and limps horribly or just lays down and doesn't move. He cannot jump up onto high places like the other two, and is clumsy and falls whenever he tries to follow them.
The vet recommends Femoral Head/Neck Ostectomy (FHO). This involves the surgical removal or excision of the ball portion of the hip joint. After removal, the bone is smoothed so there is no bone to bone contact occurring between the pelvis & the remaining portion of the femur. Removal of the portion of the femur that articulates with the hip joint then causes formation of a false fibrous joint. So once healed, Shadow should be able to move around pain-free.
This is the reason I am reaching out to anyone that can help on this Go Fund Me. This procedure is going to cost over $2,500. We are on a fixed income and have so many of our own medical bills already. We don't want our big floofy boy to be in any more pain.