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Originally Posted by Ellie May  Too many vets are jumping into surgery. A very large portion of small dogs have LP. Ellie's vets don't recommend talking to an ortho about surgery unless it's problematic for the dog. If they are carrying the leg a lot or are in pain which is possible... You may deal with arthritis later, but it's not a surgery that should be taken lightly.
As Mary said, keep her lean. For the best chances of her never needing surgery, control the jumping.
The latter has not been something we can do easily here. Ellie loves to bounce around so much. I don't regret not stopping her. It probably has made her knee worse though and it almost certainly contributed to or caused a very serious back issue. But she enjoyed being able to do it for so long. So the level of control is really all about what an owner thinks is best for the physical and psychological health of their dog. Stairs are great and hopefully she will use them. They wouldn't have fixed the problem for us though because she likes to walk across the back of furniture. And she sometimes slides on hard floor which is incredibly difficult to train a dog not to do! I just have to remember not to throw a toy in the kitchen for her. |
Alice walkes across the back of the furniture too, my dh calls her "the little mountain goat" lol. Stairs would be usless, I've just been trying to teach her to go back down to the lower seat (dog stairs would be higher than the seat) of the couches instead of thinking about leaping off the side, she's 95% of the time good about it though. It's only if she's really excited that she gets bouncy, more running around like the wind than anything though lol. I've also told dh and my family who visit often, not to let her jump off their lap, to put her on the ground instead. I already have my other two on cosequin (senior beagle ,and Akita just because she's a large breed), so that won't be a hard habit to get into, just wasn't sure if it was necessarily recommended for a puppy. Keeping her lean dosen't seem like it will be difficult at all.