thanks for everyones help. I might just see if she cant work me out a discount on another puppy. If not I will prob just have to suck it up and move on...:(

Please do not return your pup. I truly fear for her life if she is returned.

LP is workable. I was in the same boat as you. I have 2 dogs both with LP. And YES it is hereditary. Our dogs were born with the genetic make up for LP. Sure, their patellas aren't luxating at birth (although some cases are), but sometime shortly down the road though, those knee caps are going to start to slip and that's b/c it's in there make up.

Roxy had it worse than TJ. Roxy has very short legs and she NEVER was able to jump up or down from furniture or go up or down stairs. I lifted and carried her at all times. She was first diagnosed at about 1 year old. I had noticed a clicking noise for quite some time, but I didn't think anything of it really. At some point I brought her to the Vet for dental and I mentioned the clicking and he checked her legs and said LP - Grade 2 and 3 in both legs.

She has had surgery to repair and she is a brand new girl.

TJ has LP too, but not that bad. We are supplementing both of them and I have TJ checked every 4 months. If the time comes that her too needs surgery, than we will go that route.

Best of Luck!

P.S. Do a search here on yorkietalk for Luxating Patella
There are soooooooooooo many threads, you'll find lots of great info. ;)

The only thing you can do is talk to the breeder to see how she's willing to work with you. The contract you posted says that it has to be a life-threatening genetic defect in order to receive a replacement puppy and luxating patellas are not life threatening. Also, it strictly says that the original puppy can not be kept in order to receive a replacement puppy and you say you don't want to return your puppy. Lacy has LPs and I would never return her because of it - it's manageable - yes, the surgery is expensive if needed, but it's not life-threatening.

Thank you TLC for the info. I was just checking out some other posts about it. I cant believe how common it is, seems like way too many have it. No I will NOT be returning her, just hope maybe she can work me a discount on a future puppy. I wanted a second one anyway, I will just have to make sure the puppy's knees are checked before he comes here. I really wanted a dog I can show, maybe I will still show MiMi for fun.

I am going to get some suppliments for her joints. We dont have any stairs in the house and she cant get up on the furniture, so that will be helpful I think. Hopefully she will never need the surgery, but at least I know early enough where I can do my best to prevent if from getting too bad and get her the suppliments she needs.

knees
 

Best wishes to you...the breeder should be willing to help you..but I would not be surprised if they feel it is okay to breed your girl anyway...many disregard the problem, that is why it exists.

Just FYI - sometimes Luxating Patellas aren't diagnosed until the puppy is older. The bones aren't done developing until about 18 months of age so luxating patellas aren't always going to show up in a young puppy - might not show up until a year old. So the most important thing is to make sure the parents of the puppy you are looking at have had their patellas checked out and cleared, and it's a good idea to make sure the dogs further back in the lines have patellas that are cleared as well. However, the puppy you have from this breeder has LPs so I doubt the breeder checks her dogs for LPs before breeding them so chances are the next puppy you get from them could have LPs as well.

I recently bought a girl for show out of a very good show kennel
she did not show lp untill 13 months old rated 4 in both back legs as hard as it was for me she was returned to the breeder and i start again
it happens she seemed good to me also untill i was grooming her one evening and heard her leg pop while grooming she showed no signs of lp at all the vet told us she was born with it and it was finally showing signs
that up to 1 or 1 1/2 it can be injury but anything over that is usually
not and that a good breeder would just not breed the girl on the risk that it is not an injury so i took my girl to a second vet who confirmed the first report it happens and you just deal with it and move on sad yes but again it happens so i have learned to let go when i have to easy no i cried for days but the show kennel wanted her back and sometimes there is alot of hard knocks with the school of yorkies and learning so she is now spayed and going to be placed in a pet home the breeder is having the surgery done before placing her

Sorry to hear of that cutiepieyorkies! At least the breeder is having her spayed and not bred.

So sorry...
 

I'm so sorry! I wouldn't get a replacement pup if I was attached to one of my three (Yorkie) babies. My last litter from my dog Paris produced a puppy with a hair problem. His owners still wanted him though. I offered them a pup from the next upcoming litter which will be from Gypsy, who was due yesterday and I think is in the early stages of labor.

Yeah after speaking with the breeder about the situation I determined she definitly was not an ethical breeder. She kept changing stuff around and told me that my yorkie was fine and that she will prob never need surgery and that as long as i didnt have to have surgery she can be bred. Basically she breeds dogs with this condition knowingly and blows it off like its nothing when the pups turn up with it. At first she would give me a new puppy if I returned her, I asked if I could keep her and just spay her and turn the papers over to her and she said no. And she demanded that she be returned UNALTERED! so hmmmm.... she was prob going to sell her for breeding. Then she went back on what she said about giving me a puppy and said she would only do so if I sent MiMi back and if she was a level 3 or 4.

I asked for info on their health(of a litter one of her females just had), such as if the parents had the LP and she ignored all my questions. When I asked for pictures of the parents of the litter she just whelped, she ignored me and I asked her over again and she said "it doesnt matter, I will be picking your show puppy for you and we dont know when that is, so there is no pictures to show you" She was the one who told be that there were "show prospects" in that litter so I wanted to see what the parents looked like. gRR. so i just told her, forget it, i am keeping MiMi and ill take this as a learning experience and i figured an ETHICAL breeder would be will to work a discount on another puppy" she never wrote back after that.

Heavenly Terriers
 

yup, thats the name of their website and the breeders name is Dawn. I have all the emails with the info I just posted so if someone is looking to buy from this lady and want the proof, pm me and I will email you the emails.