the power of xrays

Got a call from the vet...they reviewed Bean's xrays [taken as part of her super-uber-exam], and it turns out that some time in the past, she had some pretty serious surgery on her back right leg. It's call FHO [femoral head ostectomy], and essentially the round ball head of the femur is totally removed, and the femur is left to create fibrous tissue in the joint instead. We think it was a result of the dog attack I was told happened to her when she was younger [before I adopted her]; the leg was either broken or severely dislocated, causing bone-on-bone contact and damage to the hip. The intense pain could only be alleviated by an FHO procedure.

So now we know why she has that weird sashay in her back leg...no ball in the ball-and-socket joint to keep her leg aligned.

Weird.