|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
07-29-2015, 01:45 PM | #1 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 5
| Luxating Patella - 2nd Opinion??? My 8 month old fell off the bed last week and was limping. Due to the weekend I couldn't get him to the vet until Monday, I took the first available which wasn't his regular Dr., the Dr. on call was really young (20's), she checked his leg and said she couldn't tell if it was a Grade 3 or 4 Luxating Patella because of the swelling, even though I still feel popping up higher in his hip and not down in his knee. She really rushed me through the appt. and checked him for like a minute before handing me the # of an orthopedic surgeon who she had mentored with in college. I waited over 30 minutes to be seen less than 5 minutes. She kept going in and out of the room and it's really not sitting right with me after the fact. He's on meds for one more day and she put him on the Glyco-Flex chews and he's on restriction/rest for the week. I would have expected her to say, "I can't diagnose him because of the swelling, so we'll give him meds and restriction for the week and then bring him back and then I'll check and we'll go from there." Not "Sorry I can't tell, but here's the number of my surgeon friend." OF COURSE the surgeon is going to say he's needs surgery... she's the one making $1000's from it. (sorry, I don't trust doctors I don't know) Am I being reasonable to want to wait the week, keep him on restriction/rest and then make an appointment with his regular vet next week to get a second opinion? I'm so confused and it frustrates me as I want to do the right thing. Sadly, if that Dr. wasn't so quick to move on to her next patient after 4 minutes of being in the room with me I wouldn't be feeling this way. |
Welcome Guest! | |
07-30-2015, 05:19 AM | #2 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Canada
Posts: 14
| If your little one doesn't seem like he is in pain I would definitely get a second opinion from your regular vet. My 7 year old just had the surgery on his knee but I could feel the knee popping out of place each and every time I put it back. He also has nerve damage done from the injury. He took the corner in the house on the hardwood floor way to fast and that's what his injury resulted from. It's awful to see that my once very active dog is now limping and dragging his leg. I know he needed the surgery on his knee and was hoping the damage to the nerve would improve but it has been 11 weeks and he is still the same. I trusted my vet to advise me on what to do and if you trust your vet then I would wait and see him/her. I hope your little one recovers quickly |
07-30-2015, 07:35 AM | #3 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 5
| Thank you for your reply! I am so sorry to hear about your little one! I do hope that it's just time that he needs to get back to the way he was. Did your vet say 11 weeks was normal? My 12 year old has arthritis and has taken some spills off the bed and down the stairs but apparently she is made out of Titanium because she hasn't had any problems like our little guy. This morning Mochi seemed to be able to walk a little slow on it, but when he wanted to pick up pace (which I quick grabbed him) or turned around I saw he lifted up the leg. But walking slow on it for a little bit is definitely better than how he was yesterday morning. I don't feel his knee out of place so that's why I think it's his hip joint and not patella. We'll see what happens over the weekend, fingers crossed he keeps healing. |
07-30-2015, 09:05 AM | #4 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Brownstown MI USA
Posts: 18,650
| I would get a 2nd opinion. We took Sasha in because she was holding her right rear leg up when she ran. Our regular vet was out that day and the other vet told us she had mild luxating patella. We took her home and she continued to hold the leg up when she ran but never whined or yelped in pain. Then one day she was running across the family room and went down with a big scream. We immediately took her to our regular vet and told her how she was constantly holding the leg up. She immediately suspected it was not luxating patella and asked permission to do an xray. It turned out it was Legg-Calve-Perthes and that she need immediate surgery. She explained that with lux pat a dog does not usually run around with the leg up. It pops out, they pop it back in and they run on all fours again. She was able to diagnose Sasha because she took the time to listen to us. JMO but you either need to get comfortable with your vet or find another one. They play too important of a part of our babies lives not to be trusted completely. The vet we saw 1st did the same thing yours did. 5 minutes and a diagnosis without any xrays or tests. Our regular vet is wonderful. She always takes time to listen to us. We know that we will usually be waiting past our scheduled time to see her but that is because she is giving all her patients the extra attention that she gives Max & Sasha. I hope your furbaby feels better soon.
__________________ Max & Sasha's daddy |
07-30-2015, 09:45 AM | #5 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 5
| I did make the appointment for a "recheck" for next week with his regular vet, who I completely trust, she's been a primary vet for the last three yorkies we've had so her experience level is 100xs more than the one I dealt with Monday and she definitely listens to us and actually explains ALL of the options rather than handing me a print out and sending me on my way to someone else. Granted, he may need an operation but I want someone who I trust to tell me that so I don't feel like I'm being "taken". I hope Sasha is ok now! |
07-30-2015, 10:14 AM | #6 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Brownstown MI USA
Posts: 18,650
| It has been almost 5 months since the surgery and Sasha is almost back to 100%. Thank you !
__________________ Max & Sasha's daddy |
07-30-2015, 10:25 AM | #7 |
YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Texas
Posts: 1,921
| Sorry about Mochi, poor little pup. I would be at the specialist in a heartbeat, but that's just me. They are MUCH better at coming to a correct diagnosis, they see and fix things that regular vets don't see. FWIW, my Jezebel was diagnosed during a routine vet visit with grade IV lp by our regular vet, who said that it would soon need to be corrected with surgery. Jezebel had never shown ANY symptoms at that point, and the regular vet was steering us toward surgery! (We see a different vet now). A couple of months later, Jez started to limp -- not carrying the leg for a few steps and popping it back into place like you would expect with lp, but actually limping. I took her to a specialist that was highly recommended here and he said that she only had grade II, but that her ligament was torn. She had surgery to repair both the town ligament and the lp. There are others that are members here that have taken their pups to the same orthopedic specialist and he did not recommend surgery, it depends on the diagnosis. If her ligament had NOT been torn, he would not have recommended surgery just to correct the lp, contrary to the advise of the regular vet. If you have a great surgeon, you are going to find that they are in such a high demand that they do not need to drum up surgeries where none is needed, they are beyond busy with no spare time available in their OR. That being said, there is absolutely no problem with the way you are handling this at the moment. Letting him rest and allowing the swelling to go down for a bit before a re-check is fine. It will make it easier to get a correct diagnosis. You have time to take a conservative approach at present. You don't want to wait too long, though, because if it is something more serious the knee will be wobbly and more prone to a more serious injury and damaging and wearing down the meniscus. If that happens, there will be bone-on-bone which is painful and the pup will be lame for the rest of it's life. Do you now anything about the reputation of the orthopedic specialist that you were referred to? I would be googling his name to see what I could find out. Is he board certified?
__________________ Life is merrier with a Yorkshire Terrier! Jezebel & Chuy ... RIP: Barkley Loosie & Sassy |
07-30-2015, 10:28 AM | #8 |
YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Texas
Posts: 1,921
| Is the surgeon listed here? https://online.acvs.org/acvsssa/rfls...VENDOR_TY=VETS
__________________ Life is merrier with a Yorkshire Terrier! Jezebel & Chuy ... RIP: Barkley Loosie & Sassy |
Bookmarks |
|
|
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart