Urgent need advice for patella ligament
 

MY 5# 5 year old hurt herself jumping for her favorite ball. The vet wants surgery but also said that anesthesia could kill her. Does ANYONE have any ADVICE? I'm desperate.

Well sorry to hear about this. Does your girl have any health problems that makes the vet feel she would not survive?

Anytime a vet would say that to me I would be on my way for a second or third opinion!!!


I would talk with a Board Certified ortho vet - but then I admit to being a Board certified doc believer.

Keep us posted!!! I'm sure others will weigh in on this as well. Is your baby in pain?

You really need to understand why, and I am assuming here it is a general vet and not an ortho specialist said your gal could die under surgery. That is such a serious statement that unless there was a competing life threatening condition which a torn ligament is not; even if worse came to worse with a torn ligament and she lost the use of a leg - she would quite frankly still be alive! Many dogs live quite happily on three legs.

And for the record surgery any surgery carries a usually very very small risk of complications which usually hugely outweighs the health benefits of having that surgery.

You need to see a specialist and if you have a teaching hospital relatively close I would get the referral there to an ortho and once appt booked I would call up that general vet and ask her/him just what they meant by kill her? Why would they say that?

For example when my gal had an aggressive fast moving cancer and we saw the oncologist she was very very clear about her condition - but she also said we better hope that she does not require surgery as she is so weak that she would not survive a surgery. So you see there should have been at least one good reason offered. The specialist was correct in my opinion.

Let me know if I can help further.

Let me clarify further you said Patella ligament Did you mean cranial cruciate ligament sometimes referred to as Anterior Cruciate Ligament? Or did you actually mean the Quadriceps muscle tendonous attachement to the top of the knee cap? It is usually the later rather than the former ie ACL.

Also there is something called conservative medical management for the ACL tears. It would not be cheaper than surgery but requires no surgery and if your gal responds all well and good. So you can treat this injury without surgery.

Sorry not enough information
 

She is or has been in super health. The diagnoses is patellar luxation. The only vet that would see her on Sunday was not her reg vet we see her tomorrow. The Sunday vet made a comment that such small dogs don't fair well with anesthesia and at times pass over. Hysterical I was. I was wondering if anyone knew of anything like brace, glucosamine anything that would help with her quality of life.

Sorry to hear your baby has patellar luxation, commonly referred to as LP.

I would go to a ortho specialist to determine what grade the LP is, 1 - 4, with 4 being the worst. Not all Yorkies require surgery.

I would also seek out another vet with experience with small dogs. It is not true that "small does don't fair well with anesthesia." Talk to the vet about the anesthesia protocol, and do pre-op blood tests. Anesthesia is a risk to all living beings, small and big dogs, and humans. Those risks are minimized with proper preparation.

I completely understand being nervous though! I hate when it is necessary.

You can read more about the anesthesia protocol here: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...-protocol.html

Thank you every one. One last question has anyone heard of using glucosamine, prednisone (short term of course) and a brace?

Okay, take some deep breaths if you can - bc it will be okay; I know you're worried. And on top of that, your vet made an utterly unscientific untrue comment about small dogs and anesthesia. Perhaps they made that comment bc they are not skilled in this area - so steer far away!

Instead, go to someone who is experienced in surgery, knee surgeries, and small dogs. ALL 4 of mine have had to go under and all 4 have done beautifully. My 2 smallest yorkies are 3.5-4 pounds, so they're small...they did awesome.

As long as you do the pre-surg bloodwork - everything should be just fine; there is no reason your girl would do poorly merely bc of her size. Just not true.

Stay away from that vet!!! I would not trust him with my pup ever. That is a ridiculous statement...and if he is having pups die under anesthesia something is wrong with what he is doing!!

You definitely should see a specialist. You can find a board certified surgeon here:

www.acvs.org