Missouri couple travels to Sudbury for their cat’s surgery

A couple from Missouri made the trek to Sudbury to have their cat’s hip replaced after breaking its femur.

Ravioli is a year and a half old, and his owners, Michael and Natalie Lewis were told he has a disease called Physeal Dysplasia, which is common in large male cats.

Six weeks ago, he had an object fall on him which triggered the disease and ended in a broken femur, which resulted in needing a hip replacement.

Michael and Natalie Lewis made the 15 hour trip from Missouri to have Dr. PJ Rocheleau complete the surgery.

“It was terrible. We didn’t think we had a lot of options and then of course any type of surgery whether it be for humans or dogs or cats there’s always a big risk,” said Michael.

“It was very difficult to find a veterinarian who does this, there’s not very many in the world that do this. I think he is actually the most experienced one that’s practicing now so we got the best care that we could do.”

The Lewis’ say they called multiple vets in the states and were told the wait time for Ravioli’s surgery would be approximately six months, and the cost would be roughly US$10,000.

“So, we found the doctor here and he was able to get us in probably within six weeks or a month and the cost is 4,000 US dollars. So, it’s less than half and that’s what brought us here to use his practice,” said Michael.

The Espanola Animal Hospital, in Chelmsford, is known for its orthopaedic and spinal surgeries.

“That’s all we do…hip replacements, broken bones, knee surgeries, that type of thing. Our situation is very unique and allows us to get the cost of these procedures into a range that people are able to handle, and that is one of the reasons why we do so many of these,” said Dr. PJ Rocheleau, veterinarian.

“Surgically, it’s very important to us that we are doing these large numbers of these procedures.”

Dr. Rocheleau says his clinic does more cat hip replacements than any other facility in the world.

“If you have a cat or a small dog in Canada that needs a hip replacement right now, you’re coming to me... I am your only choice,” said Dr. Rocheleau.

“We fly animals in here from all over the country routinely. We’ve had one recently from Vancouver, Halifax, we’ve had animals come down here from Nunavut. We do some stuff here that the access to is extremely limited.”

As for Ravioli, Dr. Rocheleau says the surgery went well.

Ravioli has now been reunited with his owners, and will soon be back with his siblings in Missouri.