Pharaoh's Story, by Kari

April 23, 2007

Pharaoh is an 11 pound Turkish Angora cat. He came to live with our family in August 2006. We don't know his exact age because we saved him from the Sacramento City Animal Shelter. Our best guess is that he is about 2 years old now. 

It was only about a week after he came home that we started to notice some odd behavior in the way he would sit. He would flop down in a 1/2 standing 1/2 lying position with his back end laying down. At first we didn't think much about it, but then we started to notice that he didn't jump up onto things. If he did get to higher places, such as the bed or couch, he would put his front paws up as far as possible and then pull the rest of his body up. As you can imagine, his upper 1/2 became quite muscular and his back legs began losing muscle mass, he kind of looked like 2 cats put together at the middle. Pharaoh would want to lay on my lap, so I would pick him up and place him, it was when he had to get up that he would cry because it hurt him to bend. Just before we took him to the vet we noticed that he was walking with a limp on his right leg especially and could no longer pull himself up onto things. 

It was mid March that we took him in for complete x-rays (radiographs) to see what was wrong. This may seem like a long time to wait, but the progression was gradual and not until the last month did we know something was terribly wrong. One thing you definitely want to do is shop around for a good price on x-rays, not all vets charge the same and prices can vary in the 100's of dollars. Pharaoh's x-ray cost $250. Well, the veterinarian said that she knew exactly what the issue was immediately upon looking at the x-rays. Pharaoh has Legg-Calves Perthes disease! A disease that is common in small dogs and extremely rare in cats. Basically, the disease eats away at 
the bone between the femur and femoral head in the cat's upper leg and hip joint. It is extremely painful, more painful than just bone on bone because it is bone on deteriorated bone which is painful by itself, let alone grinding on bone. So, we were faced with the decision to not treat the disease, euthanize, or give Pharaoh bilateral femoral head osteotomy (FHO). 

The veterinarian who did the x-rays said the surgery would be about $3,000 each leg...wow! I decided that although this was not a new handbag, I would need to shop around for a better price. I found out that my regular veterinarian knew how to do the surgery and had done countless FHO surgeries on small dogs (same procedure on cats) AND, the great news was that she would do it for only $800 each leg, this sealed the deal and we decided to go forward with surgery. Some factors made him an excellent candidate: his health was excellent all besides his condition, he was light weight at 11 pounds and he is young. 

So, on Friday, March 30th, Pharaoh had surgery on his right hip/leg. I picked up Pharaoh at about 4pm the day of surgery, about 3 hours afterward, he was groggy but doing well. The doctor released him with some pain pills called Torbutrol. She also said we could use Metacam, an anti-inflammatory instead. But it is not recommended to use Metacam for long periods of time because of possible kidney damage so we opted for the Torbutrol. Torbutrol is tricky because it will wear off in about 4 to 6 hours, so you need to be consistent in giving it to the cat so as to not have periods of extreme pain. 

I had a small cage which I purchased at PetsMart for a small amount of money to keep him in (about 2 feet wide, 3 feet high and 4 feet deep. You have to keep them confined for about 2 weeks after surgery so that they don't injure their newly corrected leg. He didn't eat that first night, which is totally normal, but did drink a little water. I set my alarm to wake in the night and give him his pain pill. The next morning he greeted me with a wide-eyed look and was very happy to see me. I gave him his pill and some breakfast and he was very happy. However, he was not so happy about the staples holding his incision together and managed to chew and pull about 3 of them out. So, off to the vet we went to have them looked at and new ones put in. And, this time we went home with a soft collar so that he could not do that again. Pharaoh managed to get the collar off his neck no matter how tight it was tied, so I got creative and put it around his torso just under his front legs, like a skirt. He kept that one pretty well with the occasional adjustment and it kept him from removing any further staples. Over the next few days he got stronger and began to put pressure on his right leg again and actually walk on it. 

The only real problem that I noticed soon after was that although he was urinating well, he was not defecating, he was constipated. The doctor prescribed some Laxitone and said it should work fairly quickly, after 2 days and no event, I called again to have an enema done. It had been a week and he was impacted. The enema was very inexpensive at $21 and he felt much better afterward. Soon after I noticed that his left leg was really hurting him, he was not putting any weight on it and holding it back and not extending it forward. This was the leg he had not had surgery on. I decided to take Pharaoh back in to the veterinarian for another check up, she decided that we could not wait to do the left leg and it had to be done right away. Pharaoh had his second surgery on the left leg on April 12th. The doctor used absorbable stitches that are not visible on the surface so that he would not be chewing and trying to pull out his stitches. This has taken a lot of stress off of us and I recommend to anyone to tell the veterinarian to use these type of stitches upfront. Doctors do not typically like to do this type because it is very time consuming for the doctor, but do insist. 

This time Pharaoh came back very agitated; the doctor even said, "Pharaoh being Pharaoh, he is already walking around on it too much". So, this time she prescribed a tranquilizer named "Ace"; it is usually used to tranquilize pets when they travel. The doctor felt it was necessary to keep him calm and force him to rest. Well, Pharaoh has not calmed down yet and I am so thankful for the tranquilizer, he is simply tired of being locked up in his cage. He feels so much better that he just wants to go here and there and everywhere. The doctor warned that if we allow him to do too much too fast, he will not heel properly so we are trying very hard to keep him at bay. 

Well, one week later and he is moving around feeling better than he did before the surgeries. When he gets tired, the back legs shake a little from the muscles being so atrophied but he is walking and running (yes running) just fine with only a slightly noticeable lag on the left leg. He is happy and we are so thankful we made the choice to give him a new lease on life.

Pharaoh should have at least another 15 pain free years ahead of him.