# Luxating patella question



## BrewLu (Apr 10, 2014)

My 11 month old puppy has a luxating patella. I had noticed her limping for a few weeks and thought maybe she just hurt her toe, but she never seemed to be in any pain. Well it never got any better and she seems to limp quite often so I decided it was time to see a vet. They said she is about a grade 2.5 to grade 3. She is scheduled for her X-rays in a little over a week and from there we will schedule the surgery---which I am dreading! She is a feisty, super active little girl and runs constantly around the house---I'm so nervous to have to keep her calm for 8 weeks!! 
I have been reading others posts on here about their puppies and how some have decided to not do surgery and use alternate methods to strengthen and rehabilitate...Does that only work on dogs that have a lower grade injury? And was your dog just limping every so often? If there was a chance I didn't have to go thru with the surgery, I would be grateful! But like I said she limps quite often throughout the day and just wondering if this surgery is a definite to make her better!?!


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Molly is one of those who has not had surgery although may well need it at some time in the future. 

She was 18 months when I got her and a few months after that suddenly screamed in pain and did not want to move at all  my vets initially just decided it was a pulled muscle despite x-rays (I was not at all pleased when I found they had totally missed how bad her knees were) She was still in pain weeks later so I insisted on referral to a specialist I trusted who diagnosed her knees. I was never given a grade for them but the specialist is a rehab and physio expert and reckoned we had a good chance of improving her knees. Her diagnosis was Molly had very poor muscle tone and was using her knees very poorly so the exercises were focused on that. 

These vets are around 2.5 hours away and we went monthly with me doing all her physio at home in between visits and my local vet doing acupuncture to support this. His view initially was her knees were awful - he was shocked a vet had missed them and felt surgery was our only option. 

After six months of visits and work we were discharged by the specialist and returned around a year later for a follow up when we had a bit of a wobble and local vet again thought it was time for surgery. Specialist disagreed, we changed exercises slightly and Molly is now 5 and still fit and well. Both local vet and specialist agree that her knees are pretty awful and she will probably need surgery at some point, they also agree however that Molly is very happy and fit as she is and whilst she remains unaffected as she is we will not go with surgery. 

She now never limps but I often feel her knees crunch when I pick her up. I think it depends if you can find a good enough rehab vet to see if they can examine her and give you an honest opinion on whether physio and improving her muscles may help. I am afraid I am in the UK so no use to you there.


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## emjon123 (Apr 9, 2013)

Bailey was also diagnosed with luxating Patela when she was about nine months. Vet didn't X-ray but did say she would need an op. I was then advised to wait until she was fully grown because sometimes it can "fix" itself.

Fortunately for us Bailey seems fine now, she is just over a year and half. When she got her year checkup the vet said it was now really mild and would not need an operation. 

She very rarely has an occurrence, sometimes at the beach it can happen, so we need to be careful. 

I cannot give advise but certainly glad my vet asked for a second opinion because at first my vet was going to operate. I also got great advise from 2ndhandgal, who will hopefully see this.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

Lexi has a luxating patella too. Our vet that we goto now is the joint specialist in the practice. He seems to think that most small dogs are better off without surgery so long as they aren't debilitated by it. Lexi will on occasion limp. But it's a rarity. He suggested normal activity. I also supplement with liquid glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM everyday. It seems to help with both Lexi and Beemer. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## dio.ren (Jan 18, 2013)

Molly has one too but it doesn't seem to bother her much once in a while her back paw will kind of scratch the pavement when she walks but it doesn't do it all the time. The vet said not to worry about it for now.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

One thing I do is keep a close eye on how Molly is using her back legs. One of the easiest things I do is watch when she goes up and down stairs that she is using both legs independently. She is only 5kg so probably one of the smaller dogs here and does not "hop" with her back legs when going up or down - if she starts to I will take that as a sign that things are not as well as they should be,


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## loriwass8803 (Jan 15, 2012)

Our Bucky has had that as a puppy. He is now almost three years old, weighs about 26 lbs. and seems to be okay now.


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## BrewLu (Apr 10, 2014)

Aw Bucky is cute! Did you have the surgery or just let it be?


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## loriwass8803 (Jan 15, 2012)

No surgery. We just let it be. We had one scary episode while he was about a year old when he couldn't shake it out. I had to carry him back from our walk. After about 30 minutes, he still wouldn't move his leg, so we went to the after hours vet. But by the time the very was able to see us, Bucky started to walk on it and seemed okay. We decided to wait and see. He'll be three years old in a few weeks, and he hasn't had problems with it in the last year. He runs up and down the stairs, and sometimes takes flying leaps, runs around the back yard. I'm glad we waited for him to finish growing,


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## loriwass8803 (Jan 15, 2012)

This is Bucky from last September http://youtu.be/MoAEEly3VjI


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