[107barney]

I would never let a regular vet determine if an LP warrants surgery. Generally speaking however, the grading of LPs is not a diagnostic scale -- it is a prognostic scale. So a grade 1 means dog wont need surgery, grade 2 means dog will most likely not need surgery but could, grade 3 means probably will need surgery but maybe not and grade 4 means most probably will need surgery.

I have dogs with LPs. One of my dogs who is 11 has an LP that is a grade 4, the knee cap sits to the medial side of her body where it has been since she was a baby. The dog has never gone lame for longer than a couple of weeks at which time we have crate rested her with meds and she recovers. She's never been on a supplement and xrays show no arthritis. Her hips are a solid as a 2 year old's as well.

So my feeling on this is that no reputable surgeon (diplomat of ACVS) would consider operating on LPs of dogs at that level. At least not for an adult dog who is showing no signs of clinical problems (it may be different for puppies). And just by way of example, I have met two ACVS vets in my time owning yorkies and neither one of them suggested surgery on grades 1s or 2s or said anything about arthritis if surgery was not done.

If you are concerned, I'd see a ACVS vet and get an opinion, ask the vet to burn a copy of the xray to a disk for you. Until then, I'd put the general vet's opinion in the part of my brain labeled "dismiss"