Injury Savannah Obi

[Rafiki]

There was a show on TV (wish I could remember the name) recently about a cheetah in a small US zoo that appears to have been born with the same thing. Also abandoned by his mother. He was to undergo some sort of fusion surgery at around 6 or 9 months but when they went in, his had resolved itself. I agree with the others - surgery while he is young is his best bet. Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

[Wake]

Thanks all for the responses. We went with obi to a 2’nd line surgeon, hè told us That the problem isn’t the misformed hip but his knees. Hè says That both back knees are grade 3/4 dislocated (his knee caps are Not on the place they should be). I am still waiting on the plan from the specialist. When i let his knees fix What about his hip Than? I hear every time a different story

 

[Ninja-n-Bear]

Oh no, poor Obi! Did the specialist mention whether or not the mis-formed hip is a result of the bad knees? It could be that they are thinking the hip will resolve with knee repair...

In any case, I hope everything goes smoothly with the surgery, and Obi's recovery.

 

[John Popp]

So sorry you're going through this. My boy Chongo actually fractured the femoral head on one of his legs and had to have surgery to repair it. It was pretty dicey as the growth plate was very close to where the break was. When I look at the images, I'm guessing they probably want to do a femoral head ostectomy. This surgery is pretty common and I'm having a tough time seeing another path (I'm not a doctor, just an opinion).

Here's a thread from my cat's injury and surgery, there is a ton of info in there. https://www.savannahcatchat.com/threads/broken-hip-orthopedic-surgery-tomorrow.2140/#post-29014

Let me know if I can help you out at all, it wasn't all that long ago with Chongo's surgery, but it seems like a lifetime ago.

 

[John Popp]

There isn't a neck on the left femur and a distorted hip bone. This won't be resolved by messing with the cats knees.

 

[Wake]

Hi John Thanks for sharing your storing, I Will read throug iT. I am really stressed about this because this. The orthopedic surgeon only wants to do his knees and Not his hip. And i just cant understand That, iT seems everyone here says its important to do the hip.. but hè says the problem isnt the hip for him but the knee caps. While the normal vet didnt even see the knee issue on the photo...

 

[Ninja-n-Bear]

Is it possible to get a third opinion?

 

[David Z]

Looking at the xray(I'm not a xray tech just my opinion) and comparing it to other xrays of healthy cats, its definitely the hip, if there's knee issues, the hip being undeveloped and dislocated would cause poor Obi to be adding extra stress on his knees but that would prolly resolve itself once the hip is fixed with Obi being so young.
Definitely get a third opinion, get copies of all Obi's xrays and ask for a consult from another orthopedic.

 

[John Popp]

Here's a list of small animal specialist surgeons in the Netherlands.

https://ebvs.eu/specialists/find-a-specialist?countryId=150&specialistTitleId=29&search=

You will need to do some separate searches to find out which ones are orthopedic surgeons. If one of those surgeons is close to you and even if they are not an ortho surgeon, ask them for a referral. When Chongo had his surgery, there was a couple of ways different surgeons wanted to go about it, but there was just one surgeon that everyone was pointing to.

Again, I'm not a Doctor, but what I am seeing is certainly a candidate for a femoral head osteotomy. The recovery time is fairly brief and it's a somewhat routine surgery. It would likely leave Obi with a bit of a hitch, but a very functional pain-free leg. An orthopedic surgeon may have another route which is likely to have a more complicated surgery and carry with it a greater risk of a second surgery.

One of the biggest parts in all of this is how you are going to handle the recovery. You have a kitten that needs lots of attention and is likely going to need to be crated for several weeks. I slept with my head near or in his crate for weeks, read to him daily and was awakened by him regularly. So keep in mind what that course looks like as we have some very social and needy beasts that are going to be a challenge keeping their ego intact.

 

[John Popp]

Just wondering if there is an update on Obi?