Dianne
I'm sorry to hear about Toby's Grade 3 LP but as I shared with you last night by email, our Daisy has lived a very normal life and just turned 10 despite her TWO grade-4 luxating patellas.
Daisy was diagnosed at age 8 weeks - she too is a puppy mill dog - given to us by a local petstore after we purchased Barney. She did fine with both legs until age 2 when she went completely lame. We had used Rimadyl for two weeks with very strict cage rest but she still could not use the leg at all so we had to do surgery as a last resort. She recovered very well from the surgery and her surgeon was right when he said "my knees dont fall apart" because her knee never has in all these years. It looks great on an xray too.
As for her other leg that is grade 4 - it has gone "out" from time to time over the years - I'd say maybe 3 times in 10 years where we had to crate rest her. As she is liver compromised with microvascular shunting, also called Hepatic Microvascular Dysplasia or simply "MVD" we can no longer use drugs like Rimadyl or Metacam. Her last leg issue was dealt with using Tramadol and although not an anti-inflammatory medication, it is a powerful pain medication and it kept her pain free during the crate rest. She was back to herself after each episode very quickly (less than 4 days) but crate rested for a whole 2 weeks to make sure she did not aggravate things.
Her surgeon will not fix the knee until the dog is completely lame. I've tried to push to get it taken care of when she was younger but I was not lucky in pushing the surgeon and I guess he was right
I know it is hard to crate a pup that has been caged in a puppy mill - however, you need to get him used to confinement that is positive because this will protect the knee. You do not want him running around and jumping or it will definitely lead to you to surgery down the road. Toby is a young dog and not yet too stuck in his ways (heck I can even teach old Barney renewed manners and he's a tough one!). If Toby were my dog, I'd lure him into the crate and reward him each time with something delicious (i.e. meat) and make it all happy and positive. Once he accepts the crate, shut the door but stay there and tell him how great he is. My dogs will run into their crates on the command "Kennel up" because they equate everything with food. You can change Toby's mental state if you work with him and you are consistent.
As for supplements and such for LP - I know people suggest it, I've never done it and our vets have never recommended it. I don't do it. I feed a natural home cooked diet of quality organic food properly balanced and this has resulted in good muscle tone, strong bones, healthy skin and coat, bright white eyes and teeth and overall good health despite some bumps in the road that were inherent in bad breeding and/or development.
I wish you the best with Toby - feel free to contact me any time. And yes, Dr. Jodi is pretty good - watch her though - she can be a little bit of a whackadoodle/quack when she pushes you on various vegetable concoctions that she claims are magic potions
