Hi all

Just interested in people's  experience with any dogs you have or do own that had this and how it affected the dog, treatments , whether effective or not, excercise regimes you use/d and if surgery was done how well that went.

I am doing some research to see whether to take on a rescue boy who has HD ( no issue as have good experience with that condition ! ) and a grade 1 luxating patella.

Also are general vets able to do diagnosis and treatment plans or are specialists best placed to do this ?

Thanks
Lucy

My little Patt had LP and had the op 6 weeks ago approx, she did not have the full 'groove in the bone op' but had the tendon tightened to hopefully stop the knee cap from coming out. ( sorry no technical words )  she was grade 2. I kept her in cage rest for 4 weeks and then 2 weeks of gentle lead very short walks. My vet has said that now at the 6 week mark she can begin to walk and run normally, but no long walks.
So far she has begun walking on 4 legs most of the time although she still uses 3 legs sometimes, I am not sure if this is habit, but she is so much better than before.
My vet decided the best op for her and operated himself.
I understand that the full bone groove op has a much longer healing time and cage rest has to be extended
Cost was around the £450 mark I think, but with the lead up appointments etc I had a cheque for £650 from PP

Thanks for your reply. So was this something that happened over time or through an injury ?

I think it depends on the age of the pup/dog as to whether it will correct itself as they mature.

My mums dachsie would be running around and suddenly pull up and be screaming in pain, the first time it happened I thought she had stood on something sharp in the carpet, when it continued we took her to the vet and he said her patella was slipping but then going back in on its own, as she was under 3 months old we were told to wait and see if as her muscles and tendons matured it would stop, it never happened again after that vet visit.

This boy is 18months and a large lad. I can get a full medical history if needed. Just having a think about things before I make the next step as want to be comfortable with this before info any further.

He is the right age but they have also said he is only walked on the lead which I have a concern about as we do lots of off lead walks and he is a strong lad who pulls so need to consider that as well .

I had a young Irish Setter years ago that had luxating patella. It was diagnosed by an orthopaedic specialist vet (Malcolm Ness) Cassidy had various X-rays to establish the problem. I was advised to allow lots of running and jumping exercise shock horror To build up the muscle which should help hold the joint together in the correct position. We were only offered surgery as a last resort, and it never came to that. The excerise regime worked a treat.

Dawn R.

That is very interesting Dawn thanks for that . It makes sense to me as Puds has a lot of free excercise and her muscle tone and fitness levels are excellent ( well she has a poorly front leg at the moment so not HD related ! ) . Our vet alway comments how fit and well she is consider how bad her hips are !

lots of running and jumping exercise shock horror To build up the muscle

That sounds great except my Patt was running on 3 legs all the time and would only have built up muscles in one back leg that would eventually have distorted her body / spine and caused her a lot of discomfort in later life. She used to hop and skip and run on 3 legs as a pup occasionally but gradually it got worse until it was 3 legs all the time. She is now 2 years and I feel the op was well worth it

I had a Toy Poodle with it back in the 70's.  I now know that the line was known for it.  I was grooming her one night when one of her back legs slipped as I lifted her front end up, and I thought that she would never stop screaming.

This was back in the days that dogs were put in an RJ splint after surgery.  It was the full groove job, and taking some bone to reposition the tendon.  I was told to totally restrict movement for 12 weeks.  I always 100% follow vet orders, yet know lots of people that got fed up of it, and had huge problems with their dogs.  However, that's another matter.  She eventually had the second back leg done, so again was crated for lengthy periods.

Many years later when she had an x-ray for something or other, the pin could clearly be seen, still in place.  I lost her just before her 17th birthday, but she could do a standing jump to my shoulder well into her teens.  I never for a moment, regretted having the operation.  She was almost a year old when she had her first leg done.

However, last year I had a bitch that had  the operation on one leg only.  She is 5 years old.  Different breed, but a huge difference when I found out that they are no longer splinted.  And not even loads of padding and bandages!  Different vet, but told exactly the same.  Sucess rate depended on restraining my bitch for 12 weeks.  He did admit after the operation that he was glad that he hadn't had one this bad when he first qualified, so I guess he had his work cut out.  He prefers to use 2 clips but there just wasn't room.  And the repositioning of the tendon was extremely difficult.  (I guessed because it was so badly out of line.)

I had to work at getting weight off her after all the rest time, but it was worth it, and I can see such a huge difference now when she runs chasing my Border Collie.  :-)

My Lowchen was born with this problem in both knees but it wasn't confirmed until we got him at 7 months - x-rays showed that it was grade 3 or 4.  We took him to a specialist vet who was willing to operate but advised a wait and see approach.  We thought about it for quite a while and in the end decided to leave things. Buddy is now almost 11 and has had absolutely no problems with his legs - he can run, jump and play without any signs of pain or discomfort.
For him, doing nothing, was definitely the right thing to do.

Thanks for all your feedback it has really been very useful hearing  people's experiences and like a lot of things not one fit for for all.

Well I have spoken to the current 'foster' parents this morning and a home visit is being arranged so let's see what happens as we may have a big soppy brown bear on his way to us !

Here are a couple of pictures

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a229/moosesmummy/745B579B-5329-4568-BBB1-53788627B3E2-2391-0000023481FD91D6.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a229/moosesmummy/E6B018DC-5DCF-45A0-916A-F05E6621150A-2391-00000234C2DE0F08.jpg[/IMG]

Oh Lucy what a lovely big lad,wish I had room for him.

Sheila xx

He does look a lovely lad so let's see what happens :-)

Absolutely adorable, who could resist that face !!!

Hi - I have an 8 year old flatcoated retriever who had luxating patella in both legs, diagnosed at 4 months old.  She would stand with her knees out, looking like she was trying to pee.  when the vet saw her he said her knees were very hot and big.  She had two operations, deepening the grooves, moving the tendon.  One leg went perfectly, the other, the pin came out and had to be done again.  It failed again and we had to go to a specialist surgeon.  After the third operation, she came home with a really bad infection, after that she had physio and finally hydrotherapy.  She still wasn't walking on the leg properly, so after some discussion, it was agreed that my own vet who is an orthopaedic vet, would operate again, remove the pin and wire work and take a culture of the joint fluid.  She was found to have an MRSA infection in the joint :-(

anyway, got that cleared up and she started walking properly.  The leg isn't pretty, but she is now 8 and we just have to keep her slim and dry the leg if she has been in the water.  It doesn't seem to bother her.

Just thought I would update on this.

We have had Bailey now for six weeks and a change over to raw and and a more off lead excercise routine ( he was given a very conservative regime on the old vets advice ) he has improved significantly.

His muscle tone and overall fitness level has improved no end and a visit to our vet today to have a check over has confirmed what we are doing is exactly what he needs and he is very happy with his overall condition. He had his knee examined and it seems very stable so it has been stabilised due to the change in excercise !

We have however had one thing confirmed he is officially a big wuss as weeks of trying to allow us the examine his ears ( growling and even a bite ) he had a good look and there is absolutely nothing wrong and is just a sensitive boy ! I managed to get some thornit in last night using a carrot as a bribe after we failed miserably using biscuits and other nice treats so a dangling a carrot method certainly worked for him !!