Femoral Head Ostectomy
I decided to put this site together to give some background information on my cat's surgery and recovery. I didn't want to clutter up my main blog with updates on the cat all the time but I did want to track his progress. I also wanted to put some first hand information on the internet about his recovery because there is very little on the web right now about animals that have actually had the procedure.
My cat, Clinton, was 8 months old when he hurt himself while I was at work one day. I got home and he was under the bed hurt. I took him to the vet and found out he had broken his leg and would need a FHO to recover.
When I first got told Clinton needed the procedure I was told that it was very common and that he would have a full recovery. I wasn't given much information other than that and being the internet addict that I am I was disappointed with the lack of online information to help me out.
According to Wikipedia: Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO surgery) is a surgical procedure used on animals such as small dogs and cats. The procedure exposes the head section of the femur bone (the ball of the bone and socket joint), and then the head is removed using a small saw. Like all procedures that involve the hips, sometimes both sides are done in one operation, and sometimes one side is done and allowed to heal before the other side is done.
Unlike most other hip surgeries, the head of the femur is not replaced, but is allowed to heal and develop its own fibrous scar tissue so that the joint is no longer bone-to-bone (also called a "false joint"). Another procedure, a femoral head and neck ostectomy, also removes part of the bone below the head if necessary.
Jason's Cats - This is the first blog I managed to find that gave any information from an owner's perspective relating to the surgery.
Summer's Blogspot - this website was created last May by someone in the US who had a cat go through similar circumstances. She too decided to make a website with a firsthand account of her cat's recovery from the surgery. I found it very interesting because her cat had a lot more complications than Clinton.