The BIG DAY!

Shmi's much anticipated day was finally here and we kept reassuring her that we were really trying to help her! It's hard to try to convince a scared, stressed animal that you mean them no harm - but as we got her prepped for surgery, we tried to talk calmly and give her massages.

Dr. Clary arrived with his entourage for the surgery just prior to 11am - and Shmi was pretty much sedated the entire time he was there. Finally, with her feeling no pain, he was able to do a thorough exam and his findings were rather grim. He pointed out where it looked like part of her fractured bone was already trying to attach to the wrong place, and was able to show just how much shortened the injured leg was in comparison to her good leg. He explained that the difficulty with this surgery wasn't going to be the break itself, but rather the amount of time since the injury.

For the next THREE and a HALF HOURS, Dr. Clary and his assistant, Margaret, worked tirelessly to piece Shmi's leg back together. Since Shmi is a young cat, in otherwise excellent health, her bones had no problem trying to heal themselves and already started to regenerate new bone. Unfortunately, since the fractured bones weren't anywhere near their proper alignment, the new growth was actually a hindrance and had to be meticulously scraped away. A pin was placed through the length of the bone - but another discovery made the plan a little trickier than expected. Unable to be seen on the x-ray, a segment of Shmi's femur had become completely broken off from either end of the bone and was not in a usable form. Dr. Clary decided that a plate would be needed and this would be her best chance for a smooth recovery. He inserted a plate along side the re-aligned portions of the femur and screwed in 11 screws. One was not able to be inserted due to the missing bone fragment. Shmi's femur will grow back from either end and reattach over time. The plate, unless any unforeseen complications should arise, will stay in her leg for the rest of her life. She will not be able to go through any metal detectors ;-)



We set up Shmi in a cage for the rest of the day - with warm blankets heated in the dryer, warm lactated ringer bags, and kept a close eye on her until closing. Dr. Kirch, the vet at the Cat Hospital of Durham (where the surgery was performed - thank you!), wanted to be able to dose her with more pain meds later that night, so she kindly took her home (thanks again!).