Hello YT family. This post may be a bit long but I am in desperate need of opinions about Layla's LP.
Here's what I know:
Layla saw a specialist and she has grade 3 LP. He says her knee is spending more time out than in.
She has a slightly bowed leg so the muscle that attaches to her knee cap and the bone above and below is constantly pulling the knee cap out. Strengthening her muscles/tendons will really only make things worse.
When we went to the specialist she was not walking normal. She favours that knee however, she has never pulled it up in pain. He wanted to make sure that it is in fact the knee cap that is causing the issues, not say- a muscle problem.
Since then she has gone back to full exercise. Last night when we walked I could see her knee popping out (not unusual), however she quickly sat down twice during our walk- not sure if it is knee related.
SO here are my pro surgery and con surgery.
Pros-
Her knee is bothering her sometimes- how often, I don't know
- Most of the time I can see it pop out (no idea if this causes pain??)
- She is young (6) so her recovery would be better than say if she was 10
- It is not going to get better
- If we have it done in July I can spend two months taking care of her
- Her bow is making things worse
- Her vet said if we don't do surgery, arthritis will likely set in.
Cons-
*here is the biggie* from what i can tell- she is not in any obvious pain (this decision would be a million times easier if she yelped or pulled up her knee in pain)
- I don't want her to have any surgery. I dread the idea of something going wrong.
- Long recovery
- I feel like this is an "elective" surgery because it isn't an emergency
- I don't want to make things worse.
So this is what I know. The pros and cons occupy a good part of my day. I go back and forth. I knew I could come on here and hear from people who have been there and know more than I do. I don't know what to do. Help
