| MadDeDo | 06-13-2010 08:22 AM |
I have two spayed girls with LP. My tiny girl (3.5 lbs) had a grade 4 in one of hers by 6 months of age. She couldn't walk on that leg...she held it up to run or walk all the time. It never really got her down...she could still move just as fast as the others, but not being to use the leg was a clear sign that surgery had to be done. I believe it was done at 8 months of age, a tibial transplant because it was so bad that the deepening the groove did no good. So he had to actually reform the knee entirely and use wires to hold it in place. He said that scar tissue should build up around the wires and they would never need to be removed. So far, so far, and that was over a year ago. She moves like a normal dog now, bending that knee is difficult for her because of the wires, but she can jump, run, and play with no problems. She was on bed rest and doing physical therapy for a couple months, but she came out wonderful. Now she has grade 2-3 in her other knee, but they do NOT want to do surgery on her other since she has full use of the original leg with the issue. She does not limp or skip on the other knee. She is a naturally active dog, so she has never been overweight, in fact I have to fight to KEEP weight on her. She eats like a pig but has an extremely high metabolism. So that is actually great for her.
My other girl that has it has not had surgery and is not really a candidate. She has grade 3 in both knees. Now with her, I have to watch her food intake and MAKE her exercise, she is lazy and tends to get chubby. You can truly see a HUGE difference...when she gains weight she has a lot more trouble getting around and does a lot of limping. When she is down to her ideal weight you can hardly tell that there is anything wrong with her knees. I was told to put her on a treadmill but she hates it, so instead we go for walks. She loves the park so I make it a point to drive up there at least a couple times a week and bring her and one of my others to walk for a couple miles. It has been great for her. There may come a point where they get worse and she has to have surgery, but right now they do not want to put her through it if I can keep her maintained with diet and exercise. They could do more harm than good with her, especially since she needs both knees done. I was told that the best solution is to have them both done at the same time, and buy a front carrier (one where the legs come out) and carry her everywhere with me for a month while they are healing. I was told that doing only one at a time wouldn't be good for a dog who has two bad knees, because one would be healing and all the pressure would go to the other bad one, causing it to be very painful and probably further injury. So, if I ever decide to have hers done, I will get them done together and just carry her around for a month, that way it's over and done with all at once.
You can PM with any questions, I have done a lot of research on it. I am so sorry to hear about little Pixie! | 