Hello Tan,
How is the weather here today? Well, the cold came in this week (2 days ago) and right now it is about -9c (-16f) out. When I woke I saw that we received about 3+ inches (7.62cm) of snow and it is still snowing lightly. They say it will snow through most of the weekend, but then again we live against a mountain and often do not get the moisture that Helena proper gets. I have a webcamera near the top of our land, and it is on my website. Here is the image from it. It SHOULD come out live here, so each time you reload the page it can change.
Keep in mind the view itself will change a lot as the camera can be controlled (pan/tilt/zoom) by people.
For those of you who do not know about Andromeda and her hip.... (this is mostly from a post I made on my message board in March last year)
Andromeda seems to have suffered some trauma to her hips as a very young kitten. Mostly her left side, but her right side is also not what it should be. Our vet and we believe that a dog attacked her (she and her brother were strays and at 8 weeks old their mother was mauled to death by a dog) or stepped on her going for her mother. It caused the left femur to break near the head (when she was less than 2 weeks old) and never recovered right and is now close to 60% shorter than her right femur, and the femur head (ball) is very poorly defined and the head does not set right in the hip. Her right femur has a malformed head as well, but not like the left. Her hips also have poor sockets where the femur heads should sit. This will continue to be more painful to her as she gets older and will eventually force us to have surgery on her femur heads. For now we are giving her medications to help the joints and want her to enjoy her life before she has (IF) any major surgery. So for now she is a little less active than she could be and limps, but the bulk of the limp may be from one shorter leg, something that will remain no matter what we have done to correct the bone against bone and arthritis that will come soon.
Our vet after seeing the x-rays and such had put the idea of a femoral head osteotomy on the table. She was so young then, not even a year old. We just could not put her through that and take away her time as a kitten, so we declined it and knew that the option was still open.
Her limp has only gotten worse since and sometimes she looks a bit uncomfortable. Plus when she sits her entire hip is thrust out on one side and it looks painful, but I do not believe it is.
Her being almost 4 prompted discussions of the hip surgery if it was really truly needed. Then we stumbled upon some news of "trials" with hip/joint replacements on cats. Here is a link to the company involved: Click Here To Learn About the Micro Hip Implants:
http://www.biomedtrix.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=80 To date there have only been less than 6 of these done on cats. Here is a link to the store of one:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/03/21/2007-03-21_the_hippest_cat_in_nyc-1.htmlSo I contacted the company who makes the implants and talked to them a bit. There are only 6 doctors (surgeons) qualified to even do this in the US (qualified by the manufacturer). I was given the list and I contacted the top one, who was also involved in designing the implants, Dr. Liska in Texas.
Donna and I had a telephone consult with Dr. Liska in Texas on 4/10. We sent many x-rays of Andromeda as well as her records related to her hips and legs prior to the consult of course.
Now the whole mess gets more complicated. She may or may not be a candidate for the micro hip replacement. That is yet to be determined. The front concern now is her femur. As the one is only about 1/2 the size of the other, this must be dealt with first and if not could cause her a lot of future problems. The only real way to fix that is a procedure called Ilizarov, where they place a frame over the limb, bolt it in place and then break the bone. Daily you need to turn a screw which separates the bone by about 1 millimeter. New bone tissue then fills in the gap. (essentially rebreaking her femur every day *sob*)
Being that her one femur is half the length of the other, we could be talking about trying to add up to 38mm to her femur, though it is okay to be shorter if near the right length. This would mean many months of recovery and at least 28 days of rebreaking her bone.
Due to our proximity to Texas, Dr. Liska gave us the information on a surgeon in Boise Idaho who has trained under him and specializes in this. After 2 lengthy phone consults with Dr. Chandler (here is the center we are going to:
http://www.westvet.net/facility.htm) it was agreed that a team of surgeons should give her a good examination, x-rays, MRI, making a solid model of her femur through some machine with the MRI and other stuff, to determine IF the Ilizarov procedure is really needed. In other words will the hip issue and/or the femur issue cause her enough future problems and pain that we should assume the risks of doing the Ilizarov and the possibility of the micro hip implants after her rehabilitation. There are grave risks with both procedures.
So we have a 9:30am appointment on the 23rd. We will leave late morning on the 22nd and come home either the 23rd or 24th, depending on how late they finish (they want her the entire day. Part will be standard exam stuff, and a good amount she will be anesthetized for. So she may not be recovered enough to leave at a good hour for the 8+ hour drive home. We will determine that based on how long it takes to actually get there and when she is able to travel again. I am willing to arrive home as late at midnight.
That is the info before I went last April. Here is my info when I came back...The trip went well. I left about 9:30am Thursday and arrived about 6:30pm in Boise. Donna decided to not come at the last minute, so it was just Andromeda and I. She was so good in the car and such a trooper. I had her in the large carrier I used to take ^Itchy^ and ^Hamlet^ in for long trips. It just fits in the front seat if I put the seat back all the way and it goes to the dash, so she had plenty of room, not to mention a nice comfy bed in there too.
The basic results: Her hip dysplasia is a lot less dramatic than originally thought, though it does exist some. The focus of course was on her right femur. They said that normally a femur in a cat can be 20% smaller than the other and the cat can retain good mobility, and 20% is the max really. Andromedia’s is just over double that. It looks like the when she was very young (birth to 1 or 2 weeks) a trauma snapped the head off the femur. It settled in and down with a higher upward turn and began to heal in between where it should be and the lesser trochanter. The leaves the greater trochanter at a higher level than what is left of the ball. This limits her full range of motion in the right leg and if extended to an extreme range (where a normal one can go) it does cause her pain and discomfort. The femur is bowed and has adjusted itself for the condition (thickend to support weight in areas, thinned where needed).
Over all she is not in much pain if any under normal use, for now. Will she be in the future? That is a good question and only time can tell. If/when she is we will have to address the problem then. They do NOT recommend FHO (femoral head osteotomy) as an initial course of action when the time comes to do something. The femoral head osteotomy will remove another 5% to 10% of her femur length and since she is already at more than double the allowed femur size loss compared to the other, a femoral head osteotomy would be a LAST resort. The do feel that she is a good candidate for a micro hip implant though. It will remove all or most pain and allow her close to full range of motion (more than she ever had in the past) and also add a small amount to length to the femur. IF the procedure does not take, it can be removed, and easily converted into a femoral head osteotomy. And they do not recommend the hip implant until it is truly needed, not yet.
So for now she won’t have any surgery and she can continue her happy life with a limp. When/if arthritis sets in and a simple pain medication regimen no longer helps enough, we will go for the hip replacement. And to date only 6 or 7 cats have ever had one. If a lot more have not by the time we do this (if) then I’ll allow the manufacturer to closely monitor the case for more data. If that happens, it will be 7 to 14 days for her to stand and walk again and then another 3 to 5 weeks of rehabilitation get regain proper leg use and get used to a greater range of use as well.
Here are some of the new x-rays too. They are sharp and clear!
So that brings everyone up to speed on Andromeda. I am one of those pet owners who will do what it takes to help our cats. When my cat ^Itchy^ had lymphosarcoma I spent over $18,000 on the surgery to remove part of his intestine and his chemo and meds and more. I would not blink at any cost to help Andromeda when the time comes, and if I had to I would borrow the money, but I will not allow cost to factor into her health and well being.
Sorry for such a HUGE reply to Tan. I will admit that I can be chatty at times, and I love telling the world about our wonderful cats.
I'll read the rest of the thread replies, then I have to run. In the USA we had our Thanksgiving last week. Since Donna, Leo and I all flew to NJ the week before that, I did not want to miss out on the yummy food, so we had invited out wonderful neighbors over for last Saturday for a dinner (for me it was my big turkey day). But Donna and I came down ill (her in NJ at my moms and me when we returned) so we moved the date to today. I refuse to miss this. Donna is a vegetarian and I try to eat little meat over the year for her. Thanksgiving and Christmas are 2 times I refuse to give up my favorite food on the planet, fresh roast turkey. So she gets annoyed and refuses to help me as she gets upset seeing the bird while I prepare it, and I do it anyway. So I have to now prepare the stuffing, turkey, a vegetarian fake turkey and separate stuffing NOT made in the real bird, veggies, starters and desert for tonight's dinner. A lot of work and difficult to keep the cats away, but I LOVE the meal and love to cook.
By the way, how come I cannot read anyone's profiles? And if I decided I wanted to place some images in the gallery, how do I go about doing that?
Cheers,
David
Hey Hiya Dave. Lovely to see ya here 
Dave and Donna's Cats are lovely as their hoomans are too and you should see where they all live!! 
Love Appollo talking
Hows the weather over in Montana? Is it snow time yet? :xmas10:
Is Andromeda ok Dave? How is she with her hip?
