Need input on cat hip replacement surgery

[Yippeeskippy]

Hello! My cat diclocated her hip on Saturday and we took her to the Emergency vet. They replaced it into the socket, applied an Ehmer sling to immobilize the hip. Jasmine is doing well now but needs to be totally confined for 2-3 weeks. I made a home for her in a large dog crate. .

I took her to a regular vet on Monday for her followup, and both attending vets say that in almost every case they have ever seen, the hip will pop back out again and need surgery. I trust them but this came as a big suprise to me because the E. vet didn't mention it at all. I'm considering having it done asap so she won't have to go through 2 recoveries and confinements possibly close together. She is not happy being confined as you can imagine.

Have any of you had any experience with hip replacement in cats? What is the general cost and the recovery time? Jazzy is a great little cat and I want to do my best for her.

Also, the E. vet applied a Duragesic patch for pain. These are used for human cancer patients and are opiate based. It really helped Jazzy, but now I find that they are not even approved for vet. use. They never told me that! Any experience on the duragesic patch? I expect the vet will want to put one on her after hig surgery and I would like to make an informed decision.

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Bella, Dodger, and Jasmine, on the far right.
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[Misty]

My oldest cat, Chucky, had hip replacement surgery back in 1999, when he was only 1. He fell off the refridgerator and well, you can imagine what happened. I did the cheapest form of surgery and it was around $1000 if i remember correctly. I kept him confined for quite sometime and he recovered completely. He is now fine and runs and plays just like the others. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[davet]

just an opinion knowing nothing about the case but personally i think i would wait till after the Ehmer are is off for a while to see if it is going to pop out again. This maynot work if the tissues are torn quite a bit but it is somethin to consider...also there used to be a proceedured that seeme to work pretty well and it is hard to describe and not being an artist , hard to draw...where sutures are placed very deeply around the hip joint..often enough scar tissue forms to keep the head in the socket...i don't know of any one doing it now but when i had dislocations i would use it first before replacement..one other thought is that a displaced hip will eventually form a new socket, sometimes just removal of the femoral head works but replace ment, if it is necessary is the reall best solution...