I fostered a lot of very badly bred mill puppies among them many yorkie mixes and yorkies and other tiny breeds ... almost all of them had patella luxation of various degrees from grade 1-4 ... none of them ever got surgery - and I followed them often for a decade and they did ok ... I followed the recommendation of my vet and installed ramps instead of letting them do stairs and I tried my best to prevent jumping. No strenuous huge walks or such for the more affected babies but regular exercise and movement is key. As a human doctor I know how invasive knee surgery is and that there is a a huge risk not just not making things better but also making things significantly worse. I would ONLY have surgery done on a dog with a significantly diminished quality of life/ great pain to preserve the ability to move ... there are great therapy aids like wraps and joint supports you can use if the joints are getting more arthritic with age ... |