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Old 09-22-2009, 06:26 AM   #4
dashaway
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Philadelphia
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ugh I always forget about the limiting the jumping...and Dash thinks he's superman - always trying to jump off of furniture. Which doesn't help.

Also keeping the weight down - it's important to make sure that they don't get overweight because it's hard on the knees.

Apparently luxating patella doesn't cause pain, but I can tell you that the first time Dash's patella popped he YELPED. But ever since then when it has popped out he just gets lame and sits down and tries to kick it out. I can manually get it back into place. But while it might not hurt, it leads to arthritis, which DOES.

So I would find a new vet. Because your vet is wrong - there are things that can be done and should be done - such as the preventative vitamins. Surgery is an option if it gets past stage II. And it's definitely something to keep an eye on - for some yorkies it gets progressively worse and nothing good comes of waiting. But the only way to know that is to keep an eye on things. Your vet should have at least told you about the supplements.

By the way, I'm not advocating the surgery, but the surgery basically (in my completely layman non-medical terms so everyone feel free to correct me!!) is that they put grooves in the knee so that the knee cap can sit better and not move around and slip off. Sometimes they actually have to "nail down" the knee cap or maybe the ligaments to keep it in place. But I think that's really only for stage IV or the worst cases, where the kneecap is completely and always out of place and the dog can't even walk.
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