My daughter's dog was hit by a car last night

[MineralMan]

24. We had a cat that was clipped by a car. Her hip was broken.

The vet proposed some very costly surgery at the university veterinary hospital. Something like $10,000 back in the mid 1990s. We didn't have that kind of money, by any means. So, I asked the vet what would happen if we did nothing. She said, "Cats usually develop a false hip joint in that case. She would probably limp, but would probably do pretty well."

Since it was either that or put the poor kitty down, we opted for that. We asked if we needed to do anything special to immobilize the cat. She said that we didn't, and that the cat would pretty much move only as much as didn't hurt too badly. So, we brought her home, put a litter box next to her favorite place to lie, and fed her there, too.

After a couple of weeks, she started timidly walking around in the house, but moved pretty gingerly. After six weeks, she was back jumping up on the bed and had only a minor limp. After six months you would never have known that she had been injured. We took her back to the vet for another set of x-rays, and she had, indeed, formed a false hip joint, supported by new muscle development.

She lived to be 25 years old.

Always ask about alternative options for your pets. We have a dog with Cushing's disease. Our vet gave us a number of alternatives, including no treatment at all. I asked what that no treatment plan would look like. The vet suggested that dietary control could help the dog live almost as long as if we had the full (very expensive) treatment plan and that the dog would not know it had an illness at all.

So, we opted for no treatment. That was a couple of years ago, and our dog behaves no differently than before and seems perfectly happy and healthy.