Legg Perth Disease?
 

My yorkie Fiona is a year and half old now, and i have had her since she was 7 weeks old, about a month ago she started limping....I made an appointment for her at the vet, they did xrays under sedation and are ruling out Legg Perthes Disease? Is surgery the only way. She is controlled on pain meds and is now walking on her bad leg. She is not crying nor has her activity level decreased, it just makes me nervous because in doing my research on this it is blood line, and I have a 11 week old yorkie Cooper who is from her same blood line.....I really wish to avoid her having surgery!!!!!

bump! I haven't dealt with Legg-Perthes, but I know that several people on this forum have...Omega's baby just had the surgery for this recently.

I dont understand what you are asking since you said the vet ruled out Legg Perthes. Why are you worried about surgery if she doesnt have Legg Perthes? Does she have luxating patellas then or why did the vet say she was limping? I am confused.:confused:

So, she does or doesn't have the disease? :confused:

My Brea had the surgery and came through it just fine. She is still healing and hasn't regained full use of her leg yet, but that takes time. She only weighs 3.6 lbs, so I was a bit worried about the procedure myself, but there were no complications at all. I brought her home the same day.:)

Oh - I also have her half sister - they have the same dad and with that dog I have had no problems at all. Brea is 7 months and her sister is 1 year and 5 months.

So I thank everyone for their replies. I just talked with the vet yesterday and we had to wait for the official xrays to be read by Ohio State. She does in fact have the disease, and I am really skeptical about surgery. I was having issues with them sedating her for her xrays. So it is nice to hear that all the other dogs that you know of who had the surgery did well with it. I just was not sure if surgery was the only option or if there were other cases of yorkies that has this disease and did not require surgery.

I am sorry to hear that she does in fact have Legg Perthes. One of my dogs that I purchased last year had it too and he had surgery last Friday. The surgery is really not a big deal. They do in and cut the head off the bone (about the size of a small marble) that is collapsing and Trace has a scar that was about and inch and a half long. He wanted to get up and walk immediatley when I brought him home. He took pain pills for the first 3-4 days and antibiotics. He never seemed to be in pain at all. I kept him caged the first day because I didnt want the other dogs jumping on him but he wanted out. The second day I went ahead and let him out and he did fine. He is starting to barely put it down to walk now but I think has gotten so used to hobbling around on three legs that he isnt even trying to use that leg so we need to work on getting him to use it. I think once he realizes it doesnt hurt to use it anymore he will be back to good as new in no time. I think there are other options like keeping them totally confine for a long time but that wasnt an option for me. You may as well do the surgery because the longer you wait the less chance they have of making a very good recovery. Good luck with whatever you decide but I wouldnt be scared about surgery if I were you. It really was not that big of a deal.

If someone sold you a 7 week old yorkie then they are very irresponsible and probably know about the Leg perthes in their line and dont even care. That is why it is so important to buy from ethical breeders who truely care about their dogs. I hope you got a health guarantee.
Please do call the breeder and make them aware of this defect in their line.
I dont mean to sound cold but I hear about this all the time, and a pup being sold at 7 weeks is a pretty big tipoff for neglect.
I hope all goes well with your babys surgery!