Jack and Spunky, I do a fair amount of orthopedic surgery and these are good questions. Fractures in animals are handled a little different then in human medicine. The fracture must usually needs to be repaired so the bones are very stable and close together (more then just a cast in most cases) because animals are hard to keep quiet after surgery and physical therapy is usually not possible. The fracture that you are discribing involves the femur (the upper leg bone). How these fractures are repaired depends on many factors (How badly the bone is broken--shattered or just 2-3 broken pieces of bone, open or closed fracture, how close to the joint the break occurs, and amount of muscle,nerve or vessle damage).In general these fractures are repaired with a pin down the center of the bone or whats called a KE apparatus (this involves pins that go into the bone and exit the skin, these pins are connected with an external pin--outside the leg). As with any surgery there are always risks including anestheia, length of surgery, skill of the surgeon and post operative care (if the patient is too active the pin or pins could loosen or move and put pressure on the sciatic nerve). Risks are generally minimal and the benefits of surgery (for fractures) usually out weigh the risks. Without surgery you run the risk of a bone that never heals which can be a chronic source of pain for the patient, broken ends of bones that are not repaired can put pressure on and damage nerves. As far as cost that will vary depending on the part of the country you are in. In our hospital a dog or cat fracture is a little more then that, and ferret fractures are about half that cost. Good Luck, Dr Weiss 301-299-4142 [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1125]