I cannot really read xrays, but with what little knowledge I have I did not see any major issue in either leg. But, again, I am not schooled in reading them.

Clearly this pup is having a problem with her left leg in her video.

As I figured, the R on the xray was merely a marker so that the person viewing would know which was which.

Kellie

The vets in our area send all digital xrays to this guy - have you heard of him?

Veterinary Imaging Consultation
RD SANDE DVM, PHD, DACVR
22 Sand Road
Pullman, WA 99163

He reviews them and gives a second opinion and oh it only costs $85 lol. He writes up a report and dee dee's report says

INTERPRETATIONS:

Lateral and cranial caudal projections of the pelvis and hind limbs and dedicated cranial caudal projection of the right hind limb are compared. There is poor axial alignment of the stifle joints. Patella are flattened and elongated by proliferation at the proximal and distal margins. Femoral patellar trochlea is not developed.

The supratrochlear bone of the distal femora is thin and osteopenic probably as a result of fluctuation of patella and inconsistent and incomplete pressure stimulus and chronic synovitis. I am not aware of predisposition to fracture or chronic arthritis associated with this finding.

IMPRESSION

chronic bilateral luxations of the patellae. These stifles are predisposed to instability unless luxations are reduced and patellae are stabilized.

what is your take on this?

you can compare it to this xray where it shows the LP on the left leg here in this link- dd both legs xray look like the one on the left in this so both her patellas are out permanently:(

Medial Luxating Patella - VeterinaryPartner.com - a VIN company!

I leave that up to my vets. I don't try to read xrays since I have not studied them.
I have a few pups with LP and a couple are out permanently. They do just fine. They are older and came to me like that.
LP is an extremely common occurence now.

yeah i just see so many going into surgery that maybe do not need it :(. DD would have to be lifting leg and in pain for me to do surgery but there is so much controversy over surgery or not and does it cause arthritis etc. I am just not big on it unless the dog is in pain and it is affecting quality of life. It is intense surgery they move bones and stuff i was like oh heck no and went to orthos lol.

Kellie what is your take on this?

yeah that's how i see it but the leg also needs to be palpated by the vet to determine if it is indeed luxated. the x-ray is only as good as the person taking it.

with the digital x-ray machine i used at work, when the x-rays were put on a disc they also put the program on the disc to open the files. i've never put it on my computer so i don't know exactly how to extract them and then put them on here.

yeah i have the disc and loaded it on my computer and i was able to email the file but the person i emailed to had to have the program too :( oh well as wanted you to check it out

i don't know him. that guy is probably just the radiologist in the area. we used the one that was associated with our hospital.

my take on dd's report is that her stifles are unstable and luxation needs to be reduced. :p LOL

i never had to interpret the reports from other doctors. its a whole lot of medical terms, so all i read in the top part is usually blah blah blah. i look to the end to see what is suggested and go, oh ok, then hand it to the vet for him to tell me what it says

if its going to help the dog then i say go for it if that's what the vet thinks should be done. the surgeon's i worked for didn't feel comfortable doing LP surgery unless the dog was showing signs of pain or discomfort in most cases.

its up to the vets and owners to decide what to do since each situation is different.

lol

yeah this guy is out of state though. I called a few vet offices and they all send xrays to this guy as a second opinion. Of course we pay for it lol.

Luckily she is ok not showing any issues no lifting no pain or anything yet :( I am sure she will have arthritis but don't we all get that anyway lollll Any way this is the least of my worries with this girl. The allergy thing is the killer that is never ending lol.

His title means that he is a Professor of Veterinarian Medicine Specializing in Radiology of Small Animals and a Board Certified Diplomat of Radiology. So basically he is a working Radiologists that also teaches medicine at a University and is recertified every 5 years within this field to keep the Diplomat ranking. Pretty impressive IMO.

If you take a medical terminology class you can break down all of the medical terminology to understand a little better what this report is saying. But at the same time you would need a A & P class to begin to understand the bones as well. Then you can put it all together and make sense out of the reports a little better. But I wouldn't begin to diagnose what the radiologist is saying in this report.

Daisy update
 

Ok here's a little update on Daisy.

First of all, she is feeling better. She is not holding up the left leg as much now and she is no longer vomiting. We determined the tramadol and her liver were not the cause of the vomiting. It was a new treat I gave her that we stopped.

As for her xray - I was never confused as to which was R and L on the xray itself - the confusion was which leg was bothering her. This was partly because my husband and I were not on the same page and when they took the xray, everyone thought the R leg was the problem when in fact her left is injured. This was because the R patella is off in space and not where it should be. The xray quality is fantastic, you can zoom in on it and everything.

As for the update - we went back to the vet today and two vets (including one who does alot of ortho surgeries but is not bd. cert.) examined her again. They palpated it. They are not sure but they think it moved slightly which could mean a partial tear. The patella is intact in the left leg. The problem is that Daisy is hard to examine because she is a tough nut. If this was Barney, he'd be crying like a baby and milking the attention. Teddy who knows what he'd do, probably just chatter his teeth.

We are opting to keep the appointment with the bd. cert. orthopedist to get a better exam and an opinion on both legs. I'll update everyone on Thurs.

I am so happy to hear that Daisy is doing better! :) Hope all goes well with the specialist this week. :)

Good to hear that she is feeling better. Hopefully she will continue to improve over the next several days and that your appointment brings more good news. :)

I just wanted to add that this Small Animal Radiology is a very specialized field and I am sure they arena of this specialty is even smaller. Digital Xrays are the way to go since they are much clearer to view, easily transportable, and there is the capability of "zooming" the images.

Now to go totally off topic~as women this is the way to go with your yearly Mammographies as well. Digital Mammography is able to take very clear images through dense tissue to see calcifications that were not before visible with regular mammography. Make sure to ask when you go for your next exam if they are using the latest digital imaging. :)