Bengal cat receives first feline hip replacement surgery performed at Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital

July 19, 2018 by Tim Doty, Purdue University

Fridgey, a 2-year old Bengal cat uses an aquatic treadmill as part of a rehabilitation program after undergoing a full hip replacement at the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Credit: Purdue University photo

As busy as it is beautiful, the Bengal cat is an energetic domestic breed that tends to have a lot in common with its cousins in the wild – high jumping, climbing and even a love for water. So, imagine the pain and disappointment when Fridgey, a 2-year-old Bengal cat, started to have problems with his hips.


That's where the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine comes in to help. The hospital's orthopedic surgery team began treating the cat in 2017, initially performing a commonly done surgery on his left hip called a femoral head ostectomy (FHO), which involves removing part of the femur bone.

When Fridgey later began to have issues on his right side, his owner, Tyler Goldsberry of Schererville, Ind., again brought him to the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital. This time, the surgery team led by Dr. Mark Rochat, clinical professor of small animal orthopedic surgery, and Dr. Sarah Malek, assistant professor of small animal orthopedic surgery, proceeded to perform a procedure commonly used in human medicine but never before used on a feline patient at Purdue – total hip replacement surgery.

"The technology has been around for years; it's just that the availability of the systems and training for the people performing the procedures weren't as commonplace in the past," Malek said. "Now it's much more commercially available and technically feasible."



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