# Skipping Cockapoo, But not Luxating Patella…



## JaneyMiss (Jan 17, 2021)

Hey everyone, 

Sorry in advance…
Gonna be a long winded one.

I’m just posting to see if anyone may have any insight or personal experience with this matter.

So basically, my cockapoo has sometimes …not on every walk since about 6 months old, done just one little hop skip on walks outside only. I noticed it, and monitored it, and it almost seemed to be like a quirk, as he was never in any pain, I checked his nails, his feet all the way up his leg. So I’ve left it.
Sometimes the foot will be up and down so quick you’d miss it. Sometimes it looked like it was because he stood in a puddle, or reached the end of his lead and was pulled back, or even on loose gravel surface. It was weird.

Anyway this week, ( he’s now two years old) how the time flies. I noticed it was considerably more often whilst walking that he was doing this skip. So obviously I turn to Google, and panicked that he’d actually had Luxating patella this whole time and I’d missed it. Felt utterly guilty and straight away wanted to get it sorted.

So I booked him in for the vets today, and I took in a video of when he used to just do one skip per walk and another where this week the skips had been a lot more. So the veterinarian says it’s probably Luxating patella…she throughly examines him…twice, and she tells me that on both legs, she’s pushing considerably hard on his patella and it’s not budging. It’s solid. Sooo I’m thinking well that’s good but what the heck is it. 
I asked if it could be anything else like ACL, cruciate ligament. She said no, he’s not exhibiting anything to make me think that, he’s got no inflammation on his hind quarters, she said maybe his muscle mass if she was being really picky might be slightly less on the effected side. It’s always on one side btw. She said as him doing it more often is new I could leave it or opt for pain relief, so obviously I opted for that. So he’s on a 5 day course of inflammatories.

If this continues or gets worse does anyone know what this could be? Or have any other advice.

Thank you in advance.

I've felt very anxious about all of it.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Both of my dogs benefit from regular physio visits to keep them mobile and hurty bits in as good a working order as possible. Molls has luxating patella in both legs and had one operated on a few years ago. She does still have pain from this leg sometimes and this can affect her back as she compensates for a sore leg. 

Chance hurt her shoulder a few years back and this can come back if she does too much so I am careful with what she does and try to keep her as from overdoing it.

Incidentally Molly has never skipped with her back legs and I was initially told she was fine and must have pulled a muscle.


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## Judith40 (Nov 13, 2015)

2ndhandgal said:


> Both of my dogs benefit from regular physio visits to keep them mobile and hurty bits in as good a working order as possible. Molls has luxating patella in both legs and had one operated on a few years ago. She does still have pain from this leg sometimes and this can affect her back as she compensates for a sore leg.
> 
> Chance hurt her shoulder a few years back and this can come back if she does too much so I am careful with what she does and try to keep her as from overdoing it.
> 
> Incidentally Molly has never skipped with her back legs and I was initially told she was fine and must have pulled a muscle.





2ndhandgal said:


> Both of my dogs benefit from regular physio visits to keep them mobile and hurty bits in as good a working order as possible. Molls has luxating patella in both legs and had one operated on a few years ago. She does still have pain from this leg sometimes and this can affect her back as she compensates for a sore leg.
> 
> Chance hurt her shoulder a few years back and this can come back if she does too much so I am careful with what she does and try to keep her as from overdoing it.
> 
> Incidentally Molly has never skipped with her back legs and I was initially told she was fine and must have pulled a muscle.


Can you explain more about why your dogs see the physio? My 7 year old has a luxating patella which only occasionally bothers her. But if I thought I could do something proactively to prevent it getting worse when she’s older I certainly would. Thank you


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

When Molly was first diagnosed she was pretty bad but with physio and getting her to use her legs better she was able to build muscle to hold the kneecap better in place. Exercises have been things like walking slowly, waking uphills and stepping over small poles forcing her to lift her legs and think about using them properly. She is almost 13 now and gets pain from her operated on knee which makes her use her legs poorly at times and this then causes back pain - so we visit around every six weeks and she gets acupuncture to help keep her pain free, she goes on the hydro treadmill and also gets a thorough checkup and massage to ease any soreness. We will sometimes get different exercise to target a particular problem and it all helps to keep her mobile and happy


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