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.
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