Meet Elvis, a 2 year old domestic long hair cat that is now the proud owner of 2 ceramic hips.

At the start of the year, he started to have some pain in his back right leg. He had been limping, reluctant to jump onto furniture and seemed painful when picked up. After a visit to see one of our vets, he was trialled with pain relief as there was some discomfort when extending his right hip. Unfortunately, he didn’t improve so he was referred to see Rob, our in- house orthopaedic specialist, who agreed the issue was with his hip.

Elvis underwent sedation and radiography to ascertain what was wrong with his hip and he was diagnosed with bilateral (both sides) metaphyseal osteopathy. This is a fancy way of describing his growth plates not closing and being at risk of slipping (fracture). On his right side this had already happened so poor Elvis was walking around with a broken hip joint. At this point his left hip joint was stable and hadn’t fractured but the worry was that this could happen soon!

There were 2 options for Elvis’ owners to choose from. He could either undergo a procedure to remove the hip joint and allow his muscles to form a pseudo joint rendering him pain free although potentially resulting in reduced strength in that leg. This is called a femoral head and neck excision. Or he could be referred to have a total hip replacement (THR). THR is considered to be the optimal outcome as once healing is complete it is entirely pain free and offers full range of motion for our patients.

As Elvis would potentially require both hips to be operated on, THR would likely allow the best long term quality of life. Elvis’s owners decided to have his right hip replaced first with a view to assess how his left side was after the procedure.

Three days after his surgery he was sent home with strict instructions to be rested and pain relief to keep him comfortable. During his post operative period, Elvis struggled with pain management and was not following the expected recovery arc as he couldn’t achieve the levels of movement expected in the time frame. At his post op check he was now more painful over his left hip (the leg not operated on) and there was an obvious crunching (crepitus) coming from that side.

Rob re-examined Elvis and confirmed that the left side had now fractured and would need treatment. The same two options were offered to Elvis’s owners, and they were very dedicated and decided to give him a matching set of new artificial hip joints! Surgery was scheduled and performed with great success. The second recovery period was much smoother now that both of his hips had been fixed and were pain free.

Elvis is now well on the road to recovery and is back to being a young happy cat again. Within four months, Elvis has had both of his hip joints replaced and has gone from a sore cat who doesn’t enjoy exercise to a confident happy cat who is able to do all of the usual things for him. Despite all of his trauma and the pain of having his hips palpated and manipulated he still loves to come in and show off his scars for regular post op checks.