Luxating patellas surgery
 

I just adopted a yorkie girl, she is 6 years old. I adopted her from a couple that can no longer take care of her, she had surgery on her knee last week and they work all day so they can´t take care of her.

I´ll try to be brief since I don´t know much about the case. She had surgery and the vet suggested physical therapy twice a week for what they said it looks like luxating patellas, I don´t know the vet that performed the surgery and how trustworthy he could be. The previous owners said she never had any issue with her knee, she doesn´t have an X-ray or anything to confirm why she needed surgery.

Right now I´m trying to get her to not move too much, I walk her to pee and poo and carry her on stairs.

If you ever had this sor of issue with your dog please tell me about your experience, I am willing to do whatever is necessary to help her feel better and be happy.

Thanks in advance
Lida:animal-pa

LPsurgery
 

First it was very caring of you to adopt this little girl and take care of her.
What surgery did she have on her knees, was it for luxating patellas or something else? I ask as you say later that the vet says it looks like LPs??
If she did have LP surgery I have not heard of having to get physical therapy post op for that.....but I may be wrong?
Usually post op one has to keep the dog quiet, confined, and limit activity that could hurt the knees...no jumping etc. it sounds like you are doing all these things. Also sometimes one has to take steps to prevent the dog licking the wound, but often that is not needed.
I assume you will be having a follow up visit soon with a vet you trust and that she will do well.
Many here have experience with LP surgery and I am sure they will be able to better help you, but I think a vet visit would be in order soon to check on her progress. Good luck and I hope she gets better soon and that you have a very happy life with her.

Hi Dottie, thank you for your reply.

Tomorrow we are going to the vet that performed the surgery to find out more about it, then according to what he says I will be taking her to my regular vet, for what the previous owners described it sounded like LP but I´ll find out more tomorrow and I also been doing some research and do not see any mention of therapy on cases like that.

I hope tomorrow to have more information, right now she is wearing a elizabethan collar cause she took the stitches out the day after the surgery so she needs it. Stitches are coming off on friday, we both can´t wait lol.

Thank you for your prompt response and the tips!

Lida:animal-pa

Mine has had LP surgery on both knees. You need to keep her in a pen or crate all the time for about 8 weeks. You need to find out the vet because there should be a few check ups needed. No jumping at all!

Surgery
 

Thanks :-)
I can see it must be hard taking over the care your girl after a surgery that you do not know details of! Hope you get more answers tomorrow about what happened and where LP issues come in. So the little monkey attacked her stitches!! Now she has to wear the cone of shame for her trouble, ;-). Often they do not seem to go for the stitches, but you were unlucky. You will all feel better when the stitches come out and she is healed externally at least. Hoping her recovery is normal and speedy. Look forward to hearing how the visit goes tomorrow and she is doing well.

Is she on any pain meds?

I can´t wait to know more about what really happened and then after that taking her to my vet of trust. Reading here and there I´ve found that yes she needs to be crated and walk only to potty which is fine. The vet mentioned that she needed physical therapy because she wasn´t putting any weight on her operated leg. That seems "sketchy" to me, of course she would not put weight on her leg she had surgery two days before, but then again what do I know.

The former owners didn´t have her crated or inmovilized so she could walk and roam the house, I really hope this does not cause any issues for her healing process. Last night when I went to pick her up she was in the backyard in the rain, tsk, tsk. I really don´t like that, not in a healthy dog and much less in an injured dog.

She was on pain medication for 5 days, last night was her last day.

Today she´s being loved by everybody here, Olivia one of my other dogs is very protective of her and growls if a cat comes near here with "bad intentions" darn cats lol.

She loves to have her belly rubbed and is settling nicely. I´ll keep you updated about vet visit tomorrow, wish us luck.

Thanks again for your replies!!

Lida:animal-pa

LP
 

Thank goodness she found you to love and care for her! Poor baby being left out in the rain so soon after surgery, that is so sad. Also being allowed to roam freely after the surgery???? I do pray that this did not wreck the surgery site and mess up the healing. I am sure you can't wait to see the surgeon tomorrow to have her repaired injury assessed and be advised what to do from now on. With this post op history you are very brave and kind to take her and see to it that she is well taken care of. What would have happened if she were left in the previous home?
As for therapy for the sore leg??. As you say, of course she would not walk or put weight on it at this stage. Slowly she will test it out and in time will be able to use it. They really do recover quickly and heal well.
So happy she is accepted in the family and that she is settling in to the comfort of a home with love and belly rubs :-). She will do well in this environment and recover soon.
Hope you all have a peaceful night and a good vet visit tomorrow.
Thoughts and prayers.

Thanks for your well thoughts, we did have a good night. Little update our visit got postponed for tomorrow darn it!

The previous owners I think were a bit ignorant about her care and needs, not that they didn´t love her but really didn´t care to find out what she needs.

So today she will be relaxing and enjoying cuddles while we wait for the vet visit tomorrow, got to learn to be patient I guess.

Vet
 

Glad you had a good night, but sorry the vet visit was postponed. As you say one has to be patient. She will be one day closer to healing by tomorrow. :-)
I am sure the previous mom did not mean to be neglectful, but it is still sad that your baby had to go without proper care. Now she is fine and will quickly learn what a loving home is.
We await tomorrow with positive thoughts.

Sounds like she is lucky you found her.

Thank you, Lovetodream and Dottie! We´ll we are both equally lucky, she is a doll and I really hope she is happy.

Oh I´m sure the previous owners did all they could, it was just tons of misinformation.

We did manage to talk to the vet today and he said that she had to have surgery because she is obese. I have no idea how much she weights but she is tiny, I guess tomorrow that they´ll weight her I´ll find out how heavy obese is. To my very untrained eye she looks great

Thanks again for keeping up with our adventures :)

I'm sorry but that dosen't sound like a good vet and I would run. I would get the records faxed to your vet and just stick with you vet. No dog ever needs surgery because of being chubby. If it was LP even then weight can make it worse but dosen't cause it.

Update:

Well we finally went to visit the vet and as I imagined I was very unimpressed. He mentioned that she tore a ligament and had to put an implant bla, bla, bla, he never showed us the x-rays, only mentioned that this situation and added that she also has luxating patellas made it a very special case and thats why she needed the laser and ultrasound therapy afterwards and also keeps stressing that this happen to her because she is obese, grrr hate that term.

Then we went to the therapy, the therapist is his wife, she seemed like she knew she was doing, 30 min and we were done, it didn´t cause Ofelia any discomfort, she is recommending 10 sesions of therapy. We tried to write down as many terms as possible to tell my vet tomorrow.

So, yeah not really liking this vet, lets see what my trusted vet says tomorrow, thanks for being here for us.

The surgery he did should have been done by an orthopedic specialist and you may need to go get a consult from one or let one see what the vet did. I have heard terrible story's of regular vets doing those surgerys and them having to be redone by a specialist. Being overweight would not cause that and it sounds like he is just doing things to pad his pocket book. X-rays would not have shown LP or the torn ligament.