Gojo – 18m.o. domestic longhair cat
Very sadly, Gojo had a rare condition where both hips were broken. This can happen in some young cats and is called a ‘slipped capital epiphysis’. Basically the ‘growth plate’ bit of the bone where the bone grows from as the cat gets bigger never fully heals, this stays as a weakness in the bone and over time a stress fracture occurs where the pressure on this area of bone is too great and so it fractures – where the yellow arrows are pointing you can see the black craks in the hip.
To treat this, Simon performed a surgery where he actually surgically removed Gojo’s hip joints – this sounds pretty mad – but what this does is remove the painful bit of bone and leaves the thigh bone (femur) sitting next to the pelvis, but not directly communicating with it. See the post op xray – the hip is literally cut away. A ‘pseudo’ joint is then formed, which is that the thigh muscles around the hip form hold the femur to the pelvis and replicate the function of the hip. It is going to take 3 or 4 months, but the outlook is excellent, and we expect Gojo to be running around very happily by the end of the summer.
