Short Update on one of my puppy
 

Hi guys, it's been awhile. Just wanted to update you on my puppy who was found to have luxating patella on one of her knee as soon as we got her..

We decided to take her to the well known orthopedic specialist near where I live... and she was found to have LP on both of her legs, grade 3... I was crushed. I felt so bad for her..
Surgery came out to be 3.1k for both knees, including extraction of puppy teeth... I thought might as well since she's under anesthesia anyways.

It really sucks since she's only 7 months old, and she has grade 3 LP already... I was crushed when I found out that she had on only one of her leg just when I got her 2 months ago, but finding out that she actually had it on both leg just made things worse...

It's been less than a week and she seems to be healing well already and her incision area looks clean! The doc really did good work on her. I'm so happy. :)

I do feel that she's going to be crated and is movement restricted for 3 months... and that she can't play with her new brother.. but I'm trying to think positive result out of this surgery..

If you have gotten your puppy on lP surgery or.. knew someone who did, could you guys give me some kind of advice on what I should watch out for.. or any kind of advice you guys could think of?

Oh also, my vet is doing this patient of the week thing :)
If you guys have time, could you go to Azzore.com and vote for Nami please? :D

:aimeeyork Thank you in advance!

Glad to see your little girl is on the road to recovery. The hard part is to now keep her calm.
I also voted for her. Good luck

precious baby girl got my vote!

@matese thank you! we were kind of debating on her surgery, since we wanted her to be socialized to other dogs and people before anything happens, but we figured her health and being pain free was the number one priority and just went ahead with it :/ i just hope i made the right decision. and thank you again for the vote :)

@buddybear, thank you so much for the vote :D

Prayers for her recovery. She is a doll baby. I voted for her.

She got my vote ! Glad she is doing well, sorry don't have any advice. Knock on wood, haven't had this issue.

She got my vote too and has a commanding lead!

I just wanted to say that you will be absolutely astounded how they bounce back after surgery! You really do have to try to keep them calm as much as it is humanly possible. Bu tit IS a terrier after all. They ignore pain.
You have spent a lot on the health of your pup, but I promise you, as the owner of a 10K terrier myself, it is TOTALLY worth it.
Got my vote!

BTW awesome to see Nami kicking some serious booty in the rankings!

Poor mom and baby. Nami is adorable. One she is healed, I probably would work with physical therapists to strengthen the legs and do everything possible to avoid cruciate tears. I have no experience with the surgery Nami had. She is a little doll, and I happily voted for her.

wow! 22 votes! thank you so much guys!!! and thank you for complementing her picture.. i thought it came out weird. lol. she looks much better in real life. lol it seems she looked disheveled and out of it, but it was before surgery.. so i think she was just scared and shaking :/

@txvicki, thank you for your prayers and your vote :)

@mzlynnc, thank you! yeah i hope anyone else won't have this problem... :/ it hurt knowing that she was in pain, limping :(

@maxdog, thank you! it was thanks to you guys that she's in the lead now :)

@russpilot, yeah i was pretty shocked to see how she became her normal self within the same day i got her back. o.o; she wanted to run and play with my 3 month pup so much.. she just kept crying in her play pen :( but i do agree getting that surgery was worth it :) whatever i can do to help so she wont feel pain anymore, i'll do :) and ty for the vote :D but your puppy costed you 10k? O_O;

@lisaly, i think for now, only thing she can do is walk a block.. on leash. she usually walks on leash, but she can't do her usual sprint for 3 sec and stop anymore so she hates it.. lol the curciate tears, does that come normally after surgery? the doctor didn't really talk about that i don't think.. just the fact keep walking her so she uses her leg and she can start swimming after 2 weeks. and thank you so much for your vote :)

Such a precious baby. I voted

hi guys :)
i just wanted to thank you guys for voting for nami. she had 40+ votes (i forget exactly how many) and came in 2nd.
first place had 106 votes D:

anyways, her 1st check up is tomorrow, and i can't wait to get her checked out. she's still lifting her legs, but this time its her right leg.. she only lifted left leg before so i'm a bit worried.. :/ i hope she's ok

So sorry to hear your puppy had luxating patella, but so glad the surgery is over and on the way to recovery!

@sharonsnowbird thank you :) i just hope that she doesn't have to have any more surgeries done :/

My advice is to do physiotherapy which should include underwater treadmill work. This will help to strengthen all the leg muscles - and there will be specific exercises the physio should give you to do at home with her.

I would imagine that you do not do performance sports of any kind with her - how-ever please do not do fetch and retreive on slippery surfaces - such as hardwood or tile floors. Do low impact with no fast turns actions with her. Tugofwar Find the toy Find the treat. etc types of things. Long walks keep her lean n fit.

hello gemy. the vet told me that nami can start to swim and such to strengthen her leg and that its low impact. where can i find underwater treadmill? i see some online, but ones i see are several thousands of dollars o.o;;
but ofc, we don't do any high performance sport with her. all we do, if anything, is to walk her out :) i got her checked out again during her 2 week check up and the vet said she was healing pretty well. apparently its expected that she's still holding her leg up, from surgery discomfort :/
but thank you for the advice!

That is good news on the healing front. Look to see if there are canine physio centers relatvely close to you. The actual unit is very very very pricey I had quotes of $50K *gasp*

You can walk her in the bath tub have a non slip mat put down - fill tub to knee level. you can kneel or sit on the floor and have her on a short leash Have the water above skin temperature as well. If she loves her toys she can retreive her toy in the water. If you live in warm climes you can walk her in the lake/ocean water on lead,

Other exercises you can do - create a slanted non slip surface a low stool and a board covered with a yoga mat works fine. Have her walk partway up and stop Now using soft two fingers gently push her weight more onto her affected leg - you push at the hip joint straight across. Repeat this exercise several times. Then have her climb all the way up turn and walk back down and stop part of the way down.

Then you can graduate to have her stand still while you lift one front leg a little off the ground. Change sides and repeat Try to work up to one minute of holdings. In the beginning while she is learning this trick treat her for standing still and holding this position.

Next graduation of the above exercise: stand to her side and lift up together one front right leg and one rear left leg. Work up to holdings of 30 seconds

Balance exercises if you have a wobble board you can usually use this for your small dog Otherwise you can improvise one Outside you can use a teeter totter. Using a couple of bricks or foam blocks as the base place on top a board Now you are either kneeling or sitting one hand in the beginning holds her in place - centered on the board. your other hand will gently and slowly make the board go slightly up then down.

Make these actions exercises fun for you and your gal. If you like music play it.

Walking backwards is an excellent strengthening for the rear legs.

So these are a few of the things you can do with your gal.