Well Ziggy is neutered and he's pretty fluffy in the pants area, so it wasn't to hide his junk! LOL I think it was partially just the whole hindquarter area.

But yes, Jerry, that's the plan now. His hip itself is fine as far as I'm aware so his pelvis should be fine, her intention is just to go in and remove the piece of femur that's left in there now. If the issue had been infection only I think we probably would have decided to try the antibiotics first, but if we did that and it fully cleared things up we'd still be left with the issue of the bone. Stump in his case is kind of misleading since it's pretty much flush with his body.

Krun, like you said with Maggie, for the first maybe week or two when Ziggy walked, we could see his muscle working under there but just muscle, you know? And it happened so gradually that I didn't really realize it, but it's the most obvious when he lays on his back and stretches his front and back leg out - it's almost literally the cut end of the bone with just his skin covering it. You can see the shape of the end of the bone moving under there, and the vet's concern about an aggressive course of antibiotics is that there's still going to be nothing padding that bone so he would be at high risk of pressure sores.

Incidentally I think that may also be what's causing a lot of those fits that we assumed were phantom limb pain. We kind of suspect that there are times when he's playing and lands wrong, or his brother kicks or bites him or he hops down from a low perch. There's absolutely no padding over that bone other than his skin and whatever fatty layer is under that so he's basically landing on the end of his femur and that must hurt him, poor baby. So I think maybe he's just having a little fit until the pain passes, and that right there is enough to make me agree to the surgery option instead. He's been through enough already, you know?

Well, a cone contraption in theory, LOL. We might still have to get a baby shirt or something to put over it, just to make the laces harder to get off. I'm absolutely dreading the cone battle all over again! It should be a MUCH smaller incision and hopefully this one will heal well the first time... Fingers crossed!

Ziggy Stardust is exactly what we thought too! He had those long hairs when he was a kitten so he looked a little fuzzy, like a star!

I'm still at a loss to explain his cone antics. That last time when he escaped the shoelace harness without even untying it, I honestly just think he teleported out.

The culturing is a good idea. I didn't know they could do that and the more I think about it, it is worrying because he was on Veraflox for so long - from his initial surgery all the way through the suture removal, which was almost 4 weeks later. Maybe I'm remembering wrong and she said the infection got in through that pocket but I don't think so. At any rate I'll ask her to call me Monday after I drop him off for surgery. She's always really open to questions so I always bombard her!

No clue about the blood panel either. They usually do whatever they want with him so she may have and just didn't mention it. He's on Veraflox again now prior to the surgery to try to clear things up but at the very least I'm going to ask her if she's sure that's the best antibiotic for him and why the infection got to the bone when he was on it/why it should work this time. I really appreciate you guys pointing that out, I was so flustered and upset by the news that I didn't even get to thinking about that. She gave him a long-lasting antibiotic injection yesterday and she said she's going to give him a few more in his post-recovery along with the good stuff in terms of pain meds. Hopefully when we get him back this time he won't be as listless as he was the first time 

It's great advice, Paws! I had no idea culturing the bacteria was even something that might be done in instances like this, so you really are helping tons!

AHA! I just want to state that my wife is a genius.

I was sitting here asking her if she remembered what the vet said about how and when this infection happened and my intent to ask her why Veraflox should work now when it didn't before, and she sighed and was like "I don't know, why don't you google Veraflox?"

I am not a smart woman, LMAO. Turns out Veraflox in cats is for skin infections, not bone infections - that was what the first antibiotic shot she gave him was for. Right now the Veraflox is to clean up the infection that spread from the bone back into his muscle and that pocket of skin so that everything will be in better shape for the surgery. Basically we're treating the bone infection by removing the troublesome thing, and then a course of Veraflox for a while afterwards to make sure the skin and muscle stays clean.

So! He'll actually be treated with two different antibiotics, the Veraflox and then the long-acting one that I don't have the name of cause it's injected and injections are not something I want to know about. The fear of needles is real, y'all.

I can't ever say enough wonderful things about our vet! They do so much for us, and she's so welcoming with all of our concerns and questions. This last call she said they were all so upset by this because they really consider Ziggy part of the family since he (and we) have been through so much with this. I can't even say how much I trust her when it comes to his care, she's incredible.