Patellar Luxation - Surgery?
 

Hello,

My 2.5-year-old Yorkie, Blake, jumped off the bed onto the hardwood floor (which she often does) today, then started limping and holding her leg stiffly away from her body. I thought she'd broken her leg, and took her to the animal hospital. It turns out that she has patellar luxation, a congenital problem in Yorkies where the kneecap dislocates.

The emergency vet recommended surgery right away (apparently she has Grade III patellar luxation). I'm going in to get a second opinion from Blake's regular vet tomorrow, but a few friends have told me that their small dogs had the same thing and it didn't require surgery. Have you gone through this with your dog, and if so, did you decide to do the surgery or not?

Thanks!

Many small dogs do well without surgery- some do end up needing surgery and can go on to live very active lives after. I have one yorkie who has LP now and does not require surgery, however, I grew up with a poodle who did require the surgery and she was fine after the surgery.

I would suggest you skip the regular vet and get a second opinion from a board certified orthopedic surgeon- they will be best suited to tell you whether surgery is necessary or not and if they do recommend surgery they will be the best person to do it.

Good Luck!

EDIT: I just noticed you are in NYC, Animal Medical Center at 62nd and York is a great facility and has board certified orthopedic surgeons- all the specialists I use are there.

Hi! I'm sorry that Blake is going through this.

Gilmore had surgery for this the Friday after Thanksgiving. He was a happy healthy 11 month old puppy running and playing before that and never had a problem. He was running and then next thing we know is he was screaming in pain and holding his leg up. He recovered but when it happened again the next day we went to the vet. She put him on anti inflammatory medicine and 10 days of crate rest. On Thanksgiving it happened again 4 times and he was crying and crying. We took him to the hospital and he had surgery the next day. We had no choice as he was in constant pain.

The recovery is intense. He is on 12 weeks of crate rest. We have survived the first two and a half and it has been tough. He is doing great and was able pretty much right away to use the leg. We were amazed.

Please don't hesitate to ask any more questions. I live in Long Island. We are neighbors.

ArmaniMan, thanks for the advice. I used to bring Blake to the Animal Medical Center, but switched to Greenwich Village Animal Hospital when I read the barrage of bad reviews about the AMC on Yelp. I never experienced anything negative there, but didn't want to take any chances. For her emergency care today, I brought her to VERG in Cobble Hill and had a very good experience.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that this happened to poor Gilmore. It sounds like his pain was excruciating! Blake didn't show any indications of pain at all--she was just limping and sitting around sadly. The vet did say it's a Grade III (Gilmore's sounds like a Grade IV), so I'm seriously considering the surgery, but since it's only happened once I don't want to just rush out and make her undergo this if she doesn't absolutely have to. On the other hand, I don't love the idea of just waiting around to see if it happens to her again...

I know a lot of people who have dogs with this and they lead happy healthy lives without having the surgery. You should ask about having Blake take a joint supplement. I was nervous after the first time it happened worrying that it would happen again. I don't know what I would have done if it had stopped after the first crate rest ordered by the vet. It's not an easy decision to make. For us I guess it was made easier because we had no choice.

My Lulu was just diagnosed with Grade 3 luxating patella. I got a second opinion as well. For now we are trying 2 weeks of crate rest with Metacam. We are also doing Glucosamine & Omega 3 supplements. Vet said those are good for every dog, especially those with joint problems. We have an appointment this Friday for our 2 week follow up evaluation. I am a nervous wreck. I am pretty sure that we will end up having to do surgery for Lulu. Fortunately, my new vet has a great relationship with a board certified surgeon with whom we have been discussing our situation. So I feel that Lulu will receive the best care. (But that doesn't make me feel any less worried)

I would definitely inquire about the Glucosamine & Omega 3 supplements. Good luck with your decision. I know exactly what you are going through & I know there are many her at YT who can relate as well.

Shelby had this surgery.... I do recommend going to an orthopedic vet.... they have experience and do this surgury often..... we were very pleased with Shelby's recovery.

My Pixie had the surgery in May. She walked off the bed and the next day couldn't stand on her leg. She would keep falling over. I took her to the er and they said LP. I took her back later that night for xrays and they confirmed grade 3 LP and said she needed surgery. Took her to my regular vet and she agreed and referred me to a board certified surgeon who said surgery. Pixie's knee would not stay in the socket at all so I did have the surgery. She did fine but I would only do it as a last resort. My Cali has grade 4 Lp in both knees and is doing fine at 5 1/2 years old with out surgery. I would get a second opinion from a board certified surgeon. Hopefully rest will do the trick.

Thanks so much, everyone! I have appointments with two surgeons on Tuesday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can go without surgery.

My yorkie, Libby, jumped off a table...which she shouldn't have been on in the first place, and ended up with LP, grade 2. My vet said to keep her skinny and give her glucosamine complex and she should be fine. For about the first couple of weeks, she would have bouts of pain and hold up her leg, but then she improved and hasn't had a problem since. I give her Flexicose, which is a liquid glucosamine complex. I hope Blake doesn't have to have surgery.

I wanted to share my experience with Luxating Patellas with you.

My Daisy, a puppy mill dog, was diagnosed with TWO Grade Four luxating patellas when she was just 8 weeks old. She did fine without surgery, until she was just 2 years old and then went lame. We crate rested her for 2 weeks with medication but she still could not walk and she therefore was a candidate for surgery. The other leg never had surgery and although we've had to crate rest her with medication a couple of times over her life, she never became a candidate for surgery because our surgeon would not operate unless the dog was lame. Daisy is now 10 and she runs around like a 2 year old and the knees are good, despite her horrible breeding.

I also wanted to add - Daisy's surgery was performed by a board certified veterinary surgeon who had performed many of these surgeries.

Lastly, I do not use supplementation in this dog - many will use glucosamine with chondroitin (a product called Cosquin) but it has never been recommended by our vets for our dog.

Good luck!

I have pups with varying degrees of LP and none have required surgery. One of my fosters had a problem after jumping off of furniture one day and took anti inflammatories for a week and is now fine!

I use a board certified surgeon and he has not recommended surgery on any of them. My regular vet also does not recommend surgery on these knees unless absolutely necessary. If the knees are not causing discomfort and difficulty walking they both advise leaving them alone.

It is important to keep their weight down and also to prevent a lot of jumping on and off of furniture. Get some steps or a ramp and teach Blake to use them!

Good luck and let us know how things go with the surgeon!

Just wanted to wish you luck with your next appt. Lulu goes friday for her re-evaluation. *keeping fingers crossed*

Update
 

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded. It really helped to hear about others' experiences with their dogs, and what their decisions were!

I met with the board-certified surgeon at Blake's regular vet's office, and he said that he feels surgery should always be the last option. Since this is the first time it's ever happened to Blake, and since she appears to be responding well to the pain medication (straightening her leg, putting weight on it, etc.) he'd like to just keep her rested for a few weeks. He said that even if this were to happen once a year, it wouldn't necessarily indicate surgery--he feels that should only happen in cases where the kneecap just won't stay in place.

Feeling much better, we then brought her to another surgeon (recommended by my brother's girlfriend) just to get another opinion. The second surgeon said basically the same thing.

So I guess I've learned two things from this: (1) don't assume that surgery is immediately necessary when a vet at an emergency care facility recommends it; and (2) don't let the dog jump on and off furniture!

Thanks again, everyone! For those of you who did have the surgery, please post updates on how your little ones are doing!