Tiger Update

We are almost one week post surgery. It is difficult to say how much he is improving, we knew this would be a very slow healing process. He has started eating and drinking small amounts each day, so that is good news. He attempts to use his litter box, but without the use of one of his legs, it ends up being a pretty worthless attempt. We are doing lots of laundry and vacuuming to keep his recovery room clean for him. We have started letting him out into the bathroom for a few minutes each day to visit with us. We both can't fit into his recovery room, so this way we can both spend a few minutes with him. He has to be closely observed because the minute you look away he will try to jump up on something (obviously he can't physically jump, but even the attempt could really hurt him at this point). Maggie is starting to act like she runs the house again, it will be interesting to see what happens when they are both together again.

Here are a couple pictures:
The hardest thing for me to see has been how he drags his leg behind him when he walks. I don't know how long to expect this to go on, I know at some point he will try to start putting some weight on it, but I think that will be quite a while from now.

Tiger's FHO Hip Surgery

Tiger had his FHO surgery on Wednesday at 2PM. We talked with the surgeon for quite some time beforehand, he wanted to ensure we knew Tigee would be well taken care of and also wanted to be sure we knew exactly what was about to happen. He said he would call just as soon as Tiger was awake. He called at 5:15 that afternoon, said Tiger was waking up, was pretty groggy, but was doing well. He said the surgery went as well as could be expected.

I picked up Tiger after work on Thursday, he starting crying the minute he heard my voice. Loud, sad cries, it broke my heart. We were given strict confinement instructions and lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatories. They gave him a 7-day antibiotic after surgery, so thankfully we don't have to worry about giving him additional syringes of medication. In the days prior to surgery, Tiger bite my hand quite a few times as I tried to administer his pain meds, so I wasn't looking forward to having to administer a lot of medication. They also gave us an Elizabethan Collar, said he needed to wear it at all time unless we were sitting with him.

Oh I almost forgot...they also thought it would be a good idea to show me photos of the operation. I wasn't sure what I was looking at at first, but was pretty freaked out once I realized that it was Tiger and his hip joint pulled out from his body...YUCK! I had the opportunity to see it from two angles (lovely) and even saw the bone that was removed (even better).

My stomach was turning somewhat as they gave me the details of the surgery. Turns out his break was so bad that the hip joint was pretty much worthless, the top of the femur (ball portion of the ball and socket joint) was almost completely broken off from the femur. No wonder he was in such serious pain! So the doctor removed the top of the femur and rounded off all the edges of the remaining bone so that there isn't anything to poke him from the insides. I had about all I could take of details and pictures so I grabbed all the supplies they had given me and we headed home.

I had already prepared a small closet off of our bathroom for his post-op recovery room. It has a tile floor (which is very important!) and I covered the tile with towels and blankets to help keep him warm and comfortable. The most important thing is that the closet is small (not much room available for him to move around and nothing to jump up on). Well the drama started the moment I open the bag and picked him up. He decided that was a great opportunity to release his bladder. Seriously? So the cat carrier, our bathroom floor and ME (and Tiger of course) were all soaking wet. Great way to start.

I went into the closet with Tiger to help him get settled, this was my first opportunity to really see him. Poor guy was completely shaved on the bottom half of his left side (I expected that) with a large incision and lots of stitches (more than I expected). His front two legs were also shaved in a couple places for the IV and catheter attachments.

He also was completely unable to use his leg. Of course I expected that, but didn't realize how sad and pathetic it would be to see him struggling to get comfortable without the ability to use his leg whatsoever. I put the collar on him and then let him get settled.

I returned about an hour later and of course he had figured out how to get the collar off. I put it back on three more times last night and each time he figured out how to remove it. So it is now off and sitting on the counter, I really hope that he doesn't do anything to hurt himself without it because I don't see how we could force him to wear it. I had no issue administering his pain meds last night, without the ability to move he didn't fight me at all.

I'm working from home today just in case he has any medical issues, we just didn't think it would be right to leave him alone for 11-12 hours after such major surgery. So far he appears to be doing ok. The pain meds are pretty strong, so I think he mostly sleeps. I haven't heard him crying much today, so that is a good sign. I will keep checking on him every hour or so. In my last check, I was finally able to get him to purr when I was petting him.

He will be confined in the closet for two weeks, that is when we return to the vet for his first check-up and to have his stitches removed. I've read that he still won't have much use of his leg by that point, so the confinement is the best thing for him. I'm hoping that after the two weeks we will be able to start giving him some of his house back.

Prior to the surgery I did a lot of reading online about FHO, and while I know you can't believe every story you read online, there was a consistent theme among young cats who had FHO due to a broken hip...they took about a year to "fully" recover. I'm not sure that he will ever be 100%, I don't think that is a reasonable expectation, but we should expect him to be completely mobile, active and have full ability to use his left leg. We just might not see this level of recovery for a year or so. Of course we should see him return to normal activities much sooner than that, but I expect we will see some pain, discomfort, limping, etc and his muscles and ligaments figure out how to make that joint as usable as possible.

Please keep Tiger (and us!) in your thoughts as we nurse him back to health and begin the road to recovery.

Here is a picture of him post surgery:

Catch Up

I'm going to post a few pictures, ones I have wanted to get online (Mal on the tractor) or ones that I have promised I would get online (Paris)...

Last Saturday Mallory came over to visit Jackson and Tigee, and at some point she was recruited to help cut the grass. Mal, are you looking for a summer job? ;-)

And here are a few more photos from our Paris trip...

Here's me, Mallory and Diana in front of Mallory's castle, otherwise known as Chateau de Chambord:

This chateau had an amazing double helix staircase, two intertwined staircases that never meet:
A group photo on the side lawn at Fontainebleau:
Diana and Mallory at the Louvre:
Me and Mallory at the Buddha Bar:

Poor Tigee

Late this afternoon we discovered Tiger was having great difficulty walking and was unable to put any weight on his back left leg. He was in obvious pain. In was right in the middle of dinner/bath/bedtime with Jackson so we decided to give Tigee a few minutes to see if he got better or worse. We found him hiding under my clothes in the closet, in extreme pain. I loaded him up in the carrier and went off in search of an emergency vet. Thankfully we have one close and they were very kind wonderful people. Tiger was in so much pain that he had to be sedated for the exam and xrays. Turns out he broke his hip, the top of his femur has a nice clean break. We have two options...a Femoral Head Ostectomy or a total hip replacement. The vet strongly recommended the FHO, said it has a faster recovery and lower tendency for complications. Either way, he will most definitely develop arthritis as he ages, but we will deal with that as it comes. I've done a little research on FHO since I've gotten home, I can't say that I really understand it, but it is a very common procedure in a small animal with a broken hip. They basically remove the top portion of the femur, the resulting scar tissue prevents bone on bone pain and issues. The muscles take over and provide the strength and range of motion that the ball and socket was previously providing. Seems wild to me, but there really aren't a lot of other options available. We are expecting to hear from the surgeon tomorrow to know when he is available this week. In the meantime, I have to administer some heavy duty pain meds to Tigee twice daily. We have him confined in the downstairs powder room, he needs a quiet place to sleep and rest. We all have very heavy hearts right now, we hate to see him in this much pain and worry about the risks of the surgery. Poor Tigee!! Hopefully soon he will be on the road to recovery.

Paris!!

I returned home last night from a fabulous trip to Paris with Diana and Mallory! We had a fantastic time visiting the amazing sites, dining on incredible food and soaking in the history. I will post more photos soon, but here are just a few fun ones that we took:

The incredible Notre Dame:

Diana's yummy birthday dinner at Le Grand Colbert:

We spent a couple days visiting castles and chateaus outside Paris and in the Loire Valley. Here is a view of the amazing gardens at Vaux le Vicomte:

We also did a walk through the Montmarte neighborhood. Thought this was a nice shot of the studio where many artists, including Picasso, once rented space:We took a day trip to Normandy, this was such an amazing experience. We took the train to Caen and then rented a car (I drove!). The American Cemetery in Normandy: And the trip ended with a visit to Moulin Rouge, quite entertaining: