Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk hunting after total hip replacement?

I may be looking at getting a hip replacement at some point in the next couple of years, given the way mine is going. I was wondering if any of you have experiences with getting back to elk hunting after THR. The surgeon I talked to didn't seem phased -- he's more worried about contact sports, running and jumping, and NOT too worried about carrying a pack and gun. But I'm prone to stepping in holes and falling on ice and tripping over stuff, and there's always the possibility of needing to carry a load of meat out of a canyon. Do people get back out there with a fake hips? With what kinds of limitations?

You need to PM Coyote Hunter. He just had his done. In one day, out the next. Hardly any pain with frontal replacement method.

My wife had both her hips replaced. There are a few restrictions initially but most go away pretty fast. Certainly nothing to keep you from hunting.

I don't know if I would be thinking about packing heavy loads of elk meat though. Things like that probably didn't help your own hips to begin with.

I have had 40 pound weight restriction since 2007 due to major back surgery and I have not missed an elk season because of it.

One of my elk hunting partners has been functioning on 2 bionic hips for years. You can't tell that he has them. He's 68 now.

Not to scare you out of surgery...but have a buddy who had his replaced over a year ago. He is worse off now than before. Dr's insist there is nothing wrong and can't find anything wrong. I keep telling him to get a second opinion. Just make sure you go to a DR who does lots of replacements a year or is a specialist. Do some checking around. Ask others who have had it done where they went and how it went.

Have had 3 hip replacements. 4th scheduled this summer. My original Ortho convinced me to get hip resurfacing vs total hip and both hip components failed. ( My hipsvwere beat up after a helicopter crash in military, a few bad jumps and being hit by a car as a child) Had to have revision surgery with conventional total hip replacement on left 2 years ago and right hip to be redone this summer. Based on personal experience and speaking to many respected orthos go with ceramic on plastic. Watch closely for blood clots after op. Get in best shape before surgery and do the PT religiously. I was up and walking, painfully, day of surgery. I

ski, play tennis racquet ball water ski. I just take it easier now. Of course the more you use it the faster it will wear out. Avoid jarring activities.

I packed amule deer buck out a mile in some pretty steep terrain 3 months after last operation. I still elk and deer hunt in mountains and pllan on being out again this Fall. I became a big believer in using hikingnpoles. I like lekis.

Yep
Go with experienced Ortho . ask how long and how many surgeries. I travelled 150 miles to find a good Ortho and hospital. The two weeks after surgerry sucks then the road to recovery begins. IMO

Mine is 26 years old this year.
S-Rom Prosthesis, which is a titanium implant and Poly cup.

One comment I'll make is not based on personal experience with a hip replacement, but watching others both with hip replacements and similar (if lesser) surgery: The physical therapy afterward has as much or more to do with the success than the surgery itself.

One example is the carpal tunnel surgery my wife had a couple years ago, on both hands. It turned out a local rancher we know was going to have the same surgery within a few days of Eileen's, with the same surgeon. When we ran into the rancher a couple months later, Eileen asked how he was doing, and all he did was bitch about how he was as bad off as before, if not worse. BUT it turned out he had never done the PT, whether icing his wrists to reduce swelling, or exercising as they healed. Instead he'd just gone back to ranch work less than two days later.

The same thing happened with a friend who had knee surgery, and a relative who had a hip replacement. All somehow thought the surgery by itself was a cure-all, and it ain't.

Having gone through knee and now shoulder re-hab after surgery, I would second that. It also helps to be in as good of shape as possible before the surgery.

The advice to find a surgeon who does a lot of the same procedures and has been doing them for years is good. And if the surgeon is not concerned about your continued elk hunting, that's telling because as a rule, they tend to be very conservative on both the pace of your re-hab and the activities they "approve" for you.

On the carpal tunnel I had both wrist done, but the doc told me the left hand had more nerve damage in it and would not ever be as good as the right. Which turned out to be true. Darn thing still bothers me, even with the PT.

On hips and knees. The PT after the knee is very important. MY wife's left hip did great and she did the PT. On the 2nd one, the femur cracked at the end of the spike and she had to be on crutches for 6 weeks while that healed. She did PT after that, and there is no difference between the two.

One thing that sure helps is to get the upper body strength up before the surgery as a person has to lift themselves out of chairs after surgery.

PeaEye,

You don't have to quit elk hunting after a total hip replacement. I had both replaced last year - one in April, the other in late June, and was out hunting elk the 3rd week of September. I was pretty careful at first, and had to avoid getting into much blowdown. By mid-November I was getting around pretty well, though was still not in great shape due to so much debility beforehand, and nearly 6 months of downtime during healing and recovery.

I would certainly recommend the anterior hip replacement. Less downtime, faster recovery, virtually no chance of dislocation. The only thing is that they do cut through the hip flexor to get the job done, and the Doc did caution me to use care to not overwork the hip flexor with leg lifting while it was healing so I would not build extra scar tissue. High-stepping over tall blowdown, and other things that really work the hip flexor can make it sore after a hard day. I started some relatively tame xc skiing at 6 months out on the second one.

You do have to remember that the bone will be healing to the implants for quite a while after the incisions have healed. My Doc said it would take about a year to reach “normal”.

By 8 months out you can do most stuff you want to, but you will still probably want to be a bit more careful than you used to be. Hard falls would probably not be good. I didn't get an elk, so can't speak directly to packing meat. I do know I would not have tried a whole hind quarter a time (or more) as I used to do. My strength was not up to that yet, and common sense said don' t push it.

I did use a walking stick for help in balancing, and also aid on getting up slick hillsides. But then, with the amount of disability I had for the couple years beforehand, I had been using some kind of stick for aid anyway.

Deer hunting was actually fun again, and successful.

Don't wait so long you are really in bad condition and too stove up. Recovery is easier if you have not been a long-term couch potato because walking hurt too much.

Oh, and as mentioned - like Mule Deer said - make sure you do the PT. There is less for anterior hip replacement, but the surgery alone does not make it all better you have to work on range of motion and rebuilding strength. Mine did not make me 20 years old again, but it made me feel about 20 years younger than I had been feeling. You need realistic expectations, and you do have to do some work after the surgeon does his part.

You can PM to discuss further if you wish.

PT seems to be a big key. Grandma was a nurse for over 40 yeras.

Said the first knee hurt to bad to do PT. Ended up not much better than before.

She vowed to differ on the 2nd and did her PT no matter.

Said she made a bad mistake on the first.. not doing all the PT as hard as she could.

PT does not need to cost money and take a long time.

My surgeon is legendary in orthopedics to the point he is rarely referred to as "Dr", his name is enough.

He told me to go to the local swimming pool and walk the edge in the 3ft end balancing with a hand on the pool edge. The buoyancy of the water takes the weight off the hip and permits you to walk your way to strength.

Times change since my THR 26 years ago as do PT methods and recommendations, but free is free and I will do this again when revision becomes necessary, if ever.

I have hunted for years with an outfitter who had his hip replaced at an early age, and he does great. Riding, hiking, packing -- he does it all, and usually better and faster than the rest of us. I would say you have nothing to worry about, and actually will make it so that you can hunt longer and farther than the alternative.

Also, I should mention, I am an orthopedic surgeon, so I know a little bit about this

S-ROM is a fantastic hip, and one of the best. Not titanium though - nickel cadmium

Bert12
Thanks for the info. The only question I have is whether the modular design of the S-Rom permits partial replacement of the worn componentry such as the poly cup and perhaps ball with the implants remaining in place?

Would this simplify revision surgery and speed up recovery if possible?
John

Absolutely. Most designs allow for replacing poly cup and/or head. The S-rom also allows for easier revision of the stem, by keeping the collar in place (proximal fixation), and exchanging/altering rotation (version) of the stem. It's a great design. Often copied, rarely duplicated.

Thanks Bert.
That's an answer I hoped for, but never got clarification on. Changing countries also changes the rules.
John

To the OP,
I hope we have given you some good info here.
Yes, you can hunt anything you want, ask for a S-Rom prosthesis and you have the best and it would appear one of the longest lasting according to the abuse I have witnessed first hand.
All the best to you,
John

PeaEye -

As saddlesore mentioned, I'm less than a week out of surgery. Was in the hospital under 25 hours total. My surgery used the newer anterior (frontal entry) method, which required a 10 centimeter incision and doesn't cut through muscle, as is done with the older posterior (rear or side) method. There are a lot of restrictions with the older posterior (rear or side) methods but essentially none with the anterior method.

While I've been told not to drive for 3 weeks, I currently have less pain when walking than I did before surgery. And it has been that way almost since the day after the surgery.

My hunting plans this fall include taking all three daughters on a Wyoming antelope hunt and Daughter #1 on her first elk hunt. Doc says it won't be any problem at all, although I do plan to take it easier when elk hunting than I do most years.

The surgery has been a learning experience and something I put off for 6 years. The main thing I'd look for are the experience and reputation of the surgeon, the method used (anterior/frontal is the only way I would go) and the hospital record on post-op infections. Saddlesore made a surgeon recommendation to me and, after seeing three and researching a fourth, that is the one I went with. PM me if you're interested in that info. I see you're in NM, my surgeon and hospital are in the very south Denver metro area so not necessarily out of the question for you and highly recommended by myself, every nurse and the three physical therapists I've talked to since the surgery. Definitely worth looking into even if you go another route in the end..