Buttons Hip Surgery

In May of 2002 I was out in the back yard walking around when I heard Buttons start crying.  He was walking on 3 legs and was in terrible pain,  I had no idea what was wrong, my first thought was that he may have stepped on a bee.  This was on a Sunday and there wasn't a veterinarian available to take him to until Monday morning.  He was still in pain on Monday morning when I took him out there.  His doctor told me that Buttons hip was out of joint and I left him there so they could try to put it back in.  Neither of the vets could get it to stay in the socket, so the only alternative was hip replacement surgery, I felt so bad for poor little Buttons.  They kept him and the next morning he had his surgery.  They had to cut off the top of his leg bone and wrap it with his hip muscle to create an artificial ball to go in the hip joint.  After a week at the vets my guy got to come home.  It was a long slow recovery but if you saw him now you'd never know that he had a problem.  He gets a little stiff now and then, but as a whole he is doing great!

The top two pictures were taken the day Buttons came home.  The bottom photo was a couple weeks later.