Surgery In our Near Future
 

Emmie has been having trouble lately jumping up onto things. She is seven months old, I thought it was maybe because she was getting big too fast. Sometimes it would take 4 or 5 times to jump, sometimes she would jump and hit the side of the couch instead of jump onto the couch. And yes I tried to discourage her from jumping at all, however, that was not at all possible. So this week I noticed that sometimes she would draw up her leg and hop around but then a few minutes later she would walk fine. She did this off and on randomly with both back legs. Tonight she was playing and suddenly yelped and cried I picked her up and she was shaking. This time was different, I was worried about a broken leg or something. I took her to the vet immediately and after examining her they said.... she may have torn her CCL which is unusual in dogs this young, but she was positive in the test they did. BUT it could have been because her knees are so unstable. Because they also found out she apparently has Bilateral Luxating Patella... Grade 4. So we have been referred to a orthopedic surgeon. I am so sad. I feel like I did something wrong or could have prevented this in some way. Any ideas on how to make things easier on her?

Your vet was right to refer to a ortho. Make sure the person you're seeing is a board certified surgeon. You can check here to make sure www.acvs.org

Thank you. He was. I just got back. There is a tear, the surgery to fix the tear is too expensive and he said the effectiveness for her age and with the grade of her LP may not be worth it at this time. But he said if she cont to have more pain and trouble walking it is something to try. The LP is advanced for her age, he said the surgery he needs to do to fix it, needs to be done at one year but by then it may be too late. So at this point we are going to treat her conservatively and treat her symptoms :(

I am so sorry to hear about your baby. Often issues with luxating patella, albeit a known issue for the breed, are more prevelant when a responsible breeding program is not followed. If well documented health histories are compared to ensure no two historically poor genes are paired before two healthy dogs are mated we reduce the chance of having pups with problems like this. Sometimes these things happen anyway, even with the best of intentions but your best choice is to make sure to go through a responsible breeder who is taking careful note of long term health history not only for the dogs in question but for their siblings etc. It sounds like you were doing your best to keep her from making unsafe jumps that would damage her knees, don't beat yourself up about it.

Thank you. I appreciate that! I sent the breeder a message to let her know. I am not expecting anything from her, but I thought she should know for future puppies. Its funny, I had heard about this so I had been giving her treats for joint support with glucosamine and chondriton. ha. I just don't want her to be hurting or suffer at all because I am unable to afford the surgeries. I feel terrible about that. But the surgeon doesn't seem overly optimistic about them anyway. So we will manage symptoms for now and see what happens from there. She is a little doll though. I just love her.