Luxating Patella Surgery
 

I'm new to this forum but i've been here the past few days looking for more info on patellar luxation. Every person's experience has been helpful to me so I figure I would share my story for those who are like me and have to deal with this :(

Dee is a 7 year old yorkie. She was diagnosed with luxating patella (both knees) early on in her life. I'd say maybe 2-3 years old. She started showing symptoms about 3 years ago. She'd go through phases of limping for a few days, then she'd be fine. Or she'd limp a few steps and back to normal walking. It was about a year or two ago that she started not being able to walk very far. We'd get two blocks into our walk (half way) and she would just stop. She's never been one to jump on beds or couches. I bought a low bed specially for her so she could jump up easier..never happens. But she would run around fine (with a bunny hop though) and go up the stairs fine.

A week and a half ago she totally changed. She would lay around all day without moving much, and she'd lay in really weird spots too..almost like she was trying to hide. (I remember my gpa's dog doing this the day before she died..i was scared!) No appetite, wasn't playful at all. She was alert but that was about it. Took her to the vet and they gave me a quote for surgery ($1,800 for both knees) and gave her some pain meds to take home. As of today, pain meds don't seem to help. If they are helping i can't imagine what she'd be like without them. Anytime i pick her up, she whimpers. She doesn't eat, hardly drinks. She can barely walk. It's tough. I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner...

I have surgery scheduled for Thursday at the vet clinic i normally go to. The founder of the clinic is board certified and specializes in orthopedic surgery. I know she is in good hands. As nervous as i am about it, I wish it was today. I can't stand to see her in such pain.

I will continue to update as the days go along. I know somewhere down the line this will help those out there who are faced with this same problem.

I am sorry your little one has to go through that. I will keep her in my prayers. Dee is adorable.

I will keep Dee in my prayers for a safe and successful surgery and a speedy recovery. My Pixie had surgery a few years ago on 1 knee and did really well. That's a great price for both knees. Pixie's one knee was 2300.00 Please let us know how she is doing.

Usually a regular vet is not board certified. Maybe yours is, but to be sure about that, look for a certificate on his wall from the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. The price they gave you sounds very cheap which is ok but could be a concern.

As for information about luxating patella, the ACVS site has quite a bit...also has a search engine for vet information.

American College of Veterinary Surgeons

You might also find this of interest:

Yorkie Haven Rescue - Patellar Luxation Info

Good luck with the surgery! Please keep us posted!

Thanks for all the information. Dee broke her foot when she was really young and the same dr. had to do the very delicate surgery on her little foot and she's never had a problem. I feel comfortable going back to the same surgeon even though this one is more extensive. I was also told this clinic does luxating patella surgery almost every week.

Yes, many general vets do that surgery. Not something I would prefer, but if you are comfortable, that is all that matters.

Good luck to your little Dee. Let us know how it works out.

Agree. I'd never let a non-boarded vet do ortho surgery on my dog.

Le sigh....interesting you posted this, bc I'm in a bit of the same situation. Our Wylie has always had LP...but never, ever limped or showed a single symptom. He is almost 8.

Just recently, he has been limping occasionally...he'll limp for bit, then fine, then a day later...a bit of a limp, then better. It's only one leg right now. I need to take him in, and I really don't want to :( bc I'm scared they'll want him to have surgery, poor baby.

I sure hope it goes wonderfully for your kiddo, and I wish Dee all kinds of fast healing and good thoughts :love:!

Prayers going out for Dee for her surgery Thursday.

Are they sure that this is just LP?

There are a lot of general vets that do this surgery. I'm thinking of a couple around here that I would never let touch my dogs' knees. i do know a non boarded ortho surgeon who is amazing and I would not hesitate to have them do surgery. Do what you are comfortable with.

I guess my only concern here would be that she was fine and then all of a sudden she's not. Did they do x-rays and other tests to verify that there isn't something else going on? If everything else is ruled out and it is verified that it is only the LP that is bothering her, then I'd go ahead with the surgery. You already stated the vet is board certified and specializes in orthopedic surgery, so she should be in good hands. Sounds like a very reasonable price for the surgery. I would just make sure there is nothing else wrong first. Good luck!

She was dropped off this morning. They are doing blood work before hand, also testing for Lyme disease since i did find a tick on her a week and a half ago. The results will show whether or not there is something else going on.

They did do xrays. I forgot to mention that in my original post. The surgeon used those to make the decision to have surgery. The xrays also showed ligament damage. I only met with him for a short time but maybe it seemed so sudden because her ligaments finally gave way..who knows.

The past two days though she has been doing really well. They upped her dosage for pain meds to twice a day and it seems to be helping now. Eating and drinking just fine. Walking around more, but still with trouble.

She should be going into surgery in the next few hours..assuming all the tests came back normal !

Sending good thoughts and prayers. My Hot Rod went thru surgery for this 3 years ago. He also progressed quickly. His ligament was off to the side which cause his little leg to bow out.

Please let us know how she does. The recouperation is a long process and I recommend that you follow your drs orders as it will help to aid in her recovery. Hugs.

Good luck with the surgery and recovery!

Dee is home from surgery. I was able to bring her home instead of keeping her there overnight. She had both knees worked on, ACL repair in both, and a teeth cleaning. In total, she was in surgery for 3 hours. Dr. gave me a discount on the ACLs since they were already doing work on the knee.

She hasn't eaten much since being home, just the cheese i wrap her pills in. I will try to give her some chicken later in the day. She's been drinking a little bit more this morning than last night.
Last night she just slept on her pillow all night. Once we went to bed i had her sleep next to me..she seemed to do OK but every hour she was up trying to get comfortable. She started shivering too. So i put a blanket on her and that didn't help so i gave her the pain meds an hour before i was suppose to and the rest of the night she was fine.
I haven't been able to get her to go potty. She is able to stand but it's too awkward for her to walk so i'm out there holding her, trying to spread her legs down. Nothing. Then she sits with her legs out to the side and i don't think she is doing anything in that position either. She just started drinking this morning so maybe she's just been on empty?

She goes in for her first laser treatment on Saturday. I haven't seen anyone here mention laser treatments after surgery but I've done a fair amount of research and it's been shown to be effective.

Poor Dee. Wishing her a speedy recovery. She looks so sad.

My suggestion is to call your vet and ask him how you can assist her to walk and relieve herself. I have never had a vet wrap pups legs like that after surgery....at least not two of them. When my surgeon does CCL repairs, they have a tiny bandage on them .. not wrapped straight like that. I don't have a clue how Dee can walk that way. Surely they will have ideas for you.

Poor baby. I hope she has a speedy recovery and feels better soon.

It may be a little bit before she goes potty.... Seymour had surgery on one leg last week, but has no bandage or cast. Our little girl Shelby had LP surgery 6 years ago and she had both legs in casts. We used a cloth and went under her tummy with it and helped her "sit" a bit easier went she went peepee. We used a long strip of soft material. It took a couple of days before they did a BM after the surgery... which is normal.

Dee is progressing really well. Yesterday she was back to eating and drinking normally.
I FINALLY got her to go pee and poop. I was getting really worried because her stomach was feeling really tight, she was breathing heavy and grunting. So at 2AM she decided it was time. I gave up trying to do it outside and instead put a potty pad in a corner of the living room that she likes to leave presents every now and then. She was able to walk around a bit and she did both jobs on her own without me holding her up.

Today she hasn't gone to the bathroom at all and its 1pm. Took her to the vet for her first laser treatment. They take off her bandages in order to do so. They decided to keep them off because both legs are looking good (well as good as they can look at this point).
When she had the casts on it was difficult for her to walk but they kept pressure off her knees so she was able to stand and sort of walk. Now that they are off, she's unsure what to do. Her knees are obviously too weak to hold any sort of weight. I have a towel to use as a sling but today will be another interesting day as far as getting her to go to the bathroom.

Poor little girl. It will be very difficult for some days for her. I know this is hard for you, too. It's tough to watch them in that position and not be able to help. Let us know how she's doing.

Third day. Dee slept through last night really well. It was her first night with the cone collar on. I put a thin cloth through it so she has something soft to rest her head on which i think kept her a little more comfortable throughout the night.
She seems to have less of an appetite today. She peed once this morning otherwise i haven't been able to get her to do anything else.
She is able to stand for a short while on her own, but she hasn't be able to take any steps. She tries to get up on her own but her legs are just too weak yet.
I've noticed one of her legs looks more swollen than the other, so i've been putting ice on it twice a day. Otherwise she is doing really good!

You can put an ice pack on her legs about six times a day for about 10 minutes at a time unless she shows discomfort with you doing so. You don't want her to struggle trying to apply the ice pack is what I'm trying to say. It sounds like she is doing better. It will just take time.

Bless her little hear. Dee sounds like a little trooper. Hopefully the ice will help and the swelling will stop.

I offer soft cone collars for post surgery care. You can click on the link in my signature to check them out.

Day 4 (i meant to write this yesterday)

Dee is gaining strength back in her legs. She is now going to the bathroom every time i take her out, i do still use the sling to help her along. I think she'll be able to go on her own by the end of the week. She's almost able to get up on her own now from laying down but it's still a struggle to get into the full standing position.

The problem now is..she won't take her medication. She takes two pain meds..Trimadol (?) three times a day and Metacam once a day. The metacam is fine because it's in liquid form. The other one though, i've wrapped it in cheese..she got sick of that. So i started wrapping it in chicken and after one day she's sick of that! I'm at wits end trying to figure out how to get these down her. I welcome any suggestions..

Hot Rod has to take a pill every day and he loves sweet potatos. I usually can give him a big chunk of the sweet potato and put the pill in the middle of it. He's never refused it, yet. Good luck.

Awesome! I knew something like this had to exist somewhere. The ones i found at petco weren't really what i had in mind plus they were heavy and $27.99!
I'll keep this in mind..my other dog will be spayed later this year!

I learned how to just put them down their throat and hold their head up with the mouth shut until the pill went down a long time ago. With the tramadol, you could probably just hide it in some boiled chicken alongside her kibble and she'd not notice it.:p

it's been a week since her surgery.
I realized the reason she wasn't taking her pills was because the Tramadol isn't a coated pill so the bitterness is very easy to smell and taste. Her antibiotic pill is coated and she has no problem taking that with some cheese. So i'm lucky if i get her to take one a day. I've just been giving her two doses of metacam instead.
For the past week she didn't really make any sudden movements or attempts to jump. I could leave the room for 10 min come back and she wouldn't have moved an inch. But today she jumped off the couch while i walked out of the room to get something to drink. I'm sort of freaking out thinking her surgery has now just reversed but she didn't cry out or anything and she doesn't seem to be limping so i can only hope it didn't do any damage.
She also didn't do a whole lot of licking the first 3 or 4 days so i rarely used the cone collar. But now if she's not eating or chewing a bone...she's trying to eat the staples on her knees.
She's been going potty fine but she hasn't pooped in quite a few days. I'm done with the sling as of today and i will be using a leash from this point on. She takes FOREVER to poop and use to walk back and forth across the yard for a good 10 minutes before dropping. So she won't like to be limited to a small patch of grass but hopefully she'll get use to it!

Please don't put her up on furniture. You need to advise the vet of this as well. Be sure and use the cone or she will get to those incisions and that could be catastrophic. Sending you our very best wishes for a safe recovery.