I wanted to make a journal about my cat's journey with Fermoral Head Ostectomy Surgery (FHO) so yeah surgery is gonna be mentioned! This is gonna be the whole journey so far. partly for me, and partly for anyone who has a pet in need of FHO. No pictures here, but I do have progress pictures. I might compile them into a Neocities blog at some point

I think it was early August that I spotted Mango limping. I didn't think much of it for the first day, and thought he just rough housed with Bella or one of the dogs too much. I quickly began worrying when his limp didn't get any better, and soon he was having a hard time walking with both back legs. We got him into the vet and got an xray. The ball joint to his hip broke on one side, and we were told the other one was possibly getting ready to break. He was in surgery a week or so after since the vet was out. (August 25th) We got to take him home next day, and I began post surgery care

This is the first pet I've had who needed surgery that wasn't just getting them fixed, so I was worried. I can't remember exactly how things went, but my mastodon has a lot of updates if you wanna look. Healing seemed to go well, started leg therapy, got stitches out. Had a small scare were a tiny bit of the surgical site did open (I'm talking real small dw) but that healed up nicely. I thought this whole thing would be done after maybe 2 months, but idk if I wasn't doing the therapy enough or was more focused on the knee joint that he wasn't walking correctly on that leg. I was told that the ankle takes the longest to go normal again though

We used a wrap for a few months, and looking back I think that was a bad call. The muscle that helped the ankle wasn't doing it's job, but the knee was doing fine. So I believe in late December, we stopped using the wrap and thought about a brace. I continued the leg therapy, and we finally got a brace this month since the vet was sick for a bit, and shipping was being dumb

So now we're at the 6th month point. I'm still a little worried, and thinking that I haven't worked on his ankle enough. But I have caught Mango standing normally without the brace a couple times. He'll sometimes even walk up the pet steps somewhat normally. He tolerates the brace which is a relief! Mango's always been a laid back cat, and I'm thankful I found him and was able to keep him. This big guy means a lot to me, so I'm hoping he'll regain normal usage of his leg. Vet did say he saw improvements with the ankle, so all I can do is keep doing the therapy and letting him walk with the brace. I'll probably do a follow up of this journal once he's walking fully normally again. I have no idea if his other leg will need the surgery or not since he's walking normal with it, but I know what to expect now and I'm prepared!

If you wanna see updates on Mango, feel free to follow me on Mastodon, bsky, or tumblr. I post pics along with updates