I'm assuming the vet didn't x-ray the pup due to its age. If he didn't, I don't see how he could make a firm diagnosis of LP. Many Yorkies have loose knees at a young age that firm up over time but your case doesn't seem to be that.
I mentioned yesterday about a pup I had that had turned in feet that we were able to correct. Things like that are likely due to crowding in-utero. In my girls case, it was slight and thankfully fully corrected.
I do have a girl that is now 3 years old that had a more severe problem. I could tell from day 1 that something wasn't right with her legs. I took her to my vet (now a former vet) at 3 days old and showed her the problem. She said to just wait until she was 6 weeks old to x-ray her since the bones were too soft to get a good picture. Not knowing any better, I took her advice and the legs were x-rayed at 6 weeks. The diagnosis was twisted femurs and at that time the vet told me the bones had set and there was nothing that could be done.
We kept Bijou and today she has a good life but is obviously handicapped. Her patellas look to be out about 45 degrees but it is the femurs being twisted and not the knees being out that makes her look that way. Her problem causes her to adjust her walk for this. She walks like she has peg legs, her back is arched and she carries most of her weight on her front legs so they are over developed. I massage her every day to keep her somewhat limber and give her doggie aspirin when she has pain. Surprisingly, she can run fairly well but she has far from a normal walk.
I wish I could go back in time and deal with this differently. I would have had her at an orthopedist instead of my regular vet and really believe we would have had a different outcome. She likely wouldn't have fully corrected but could have been made some better with proper therapy and/or binding the legs while the bones were still soft. With your girl, since she is not yet walking, there may still be a chance to help her if it is not just luxating patellas. The bones may still be pliable enough to work with since no load has been put on them yet.
I could well be wrong about your little girl but what appears to be LP could be something else entirely. Having been through what I have, I would want a firm diagnosis by a specialist. As I said earlier, Bijou had what appeared to be LP but it was not that at all.
Best of luck with your little one. |