Just to let you know that Buddy had his knees looked at by the orthopaedic vet yesterday. It was a useful visit because we learned a lot more about his condition. However we still have to make the decision about whether to have the surgery done or not.
Going by what we were told it seems that if we have the operations done now, the problem could be sorted and his legs would be fine for the rest of his life. But,there is a 50% chance that the surgery would need doing again or that it might even cause further problems.
If we don't have it done, Buddy could cope for many years as he is now - no pain, no restrictions, etc. Or in a couple of years he might start to feel pain from the wear and tear on the back of the kneecaps. It would still be possible to have the surgery done at that stage but of course his bones would not be as 'soft' as they are now. The operations would involve deepening the groove and repositioning the tibial crest. We also leaned that the kneecaps could, if necessary, be removed altogether without causing any real problems - I certainly hadn't heard that one before!
In the absence of a crystal ball, our gut feeling is to leave things alone and see how he gets on. The vet in no way tried to influence us as he felt there were no guarantees whatever we decided.
If it turns out that our decision was the wrong one, I'm hoping it will be easier to live with knowing that we did what we thought was best for Buddy at the time.
I would be very interested to hear any views.
Thanks
Joyce

Hi,
I am not able to give you any advice at all, but I am sure you will do what you think is best and you can do no more than that. If you have done your best then you should never have a guilty concience.

I wish you and Buddy the best of luck.

Hi Joyce,looking at it as if it was my own dog with this problem I would go with my gut feeling to leave well alone. I wouldn`t feel guilty because I`d know I`d made the correct decision at the time with only a 50/50 success rate.
Christine2

Hi Joyce. As far as the removal of knee caps is concerned, in humans this seems to be a motor cyclist’s problem. A friend of mine had to have one of his removed after smashing it. I still have both of mine although one creeks a bit when I walk! The one thing I will say though is that the function of the knee cap is to protect the knee joint and without it a certain amount of care would be kneaded to ensure the joint did not receive too much in the way of knocks.

As far as the deepening and remodelling is concerned, I would go with Debbie and Christine and say go with your feelings. Remember you can fall back on surgery at a later date if needed.

Regards, John

As far as the removal of knee caps is concerned, in humans this seems to be a motor cyclist’s problem I smashed my knee in a car accident 8 yrs ago when the engine came through the dashboard and the steering column made contact with my knee.

It heeled quite well but I damaged it again on Chris motorbike when he got t-boned at a junction. I went flying through the air and landed on my knee :(

I'm due to have mine removed, just as soon as I get to the top of the list - I'll probably be an OAP by then though :(

Joyce, I've left my knee for several years now and I'm happy with the results. As long as you keep Buddys' weight down and don't let him get overweight he should be fine for a while yet. Has your vet suggested swimming with him? That's great, depending on which way his knee dislocates.

Good luck,

Fiona
x x x

Joyce, difficult one. I've no experience with luxating patellas in dogs, but humans get along fine without any kneecap at all and in people the age when the patella is removed doesn't matter much. We were offered the same sort of decision about Pixie when she did cruciate as a young dog. We were told that if it was one of the giants they'd operate, but with small dog (then anyway) the results were not quite so good and a small dog could go on for years without problems. We decided to leave well alone, and Pix is now !7 (and totally senile :-(), but her leg is fine, and she has little trouble with arthritis. Throughout her life she did 'go off' the leg occassionally after a minor bump, but always recovered without treatment in a few days. That said, I couldn't be better pleased with the results of Lewis' OCD surgery - real new dog job - and all the various screws, wires etc that have been inserted in various dogs at various times. I'm sure the one you've gone to is first rate but all I'd say is that if you do have any sort of orhopaedic surgery on Buddy, investigate the vet up, down, left, right and sideways first. Vets are like human surgeons - and I wouldn't let some of the latter operate on an axolotyl!.

Oi sis, :D..Leave my Axolotyl out of this, he hasnt got any kneecaps :) lol

Are you sure? Ja:)kie

Well actually, now you come to mention it, no, Im not !! :(

NB: Reminder of jobs to do today.....I must find out if my Axolotyl has knees!

I wondered that too Jackie :D!

Thanks for all your responses - all interesting and helpful stuff, even if the kneecap stories made me wince a bit !! We are happy that we have made the right decision to leave things and just enjoy Buddy as he is.
(Sharon - you know I told you that my primary vet wouldn't write the referral letter until he got his £12, well this orthopaedic vet, who we had never met or had any contact with before, trusted us just to send him a cheque when we get his invoice - what a difference !)

Regards,
Joyce

Hi Joyce, well thats one of the difference between good & bad vets I think. By the way did you ever get your xrays?
Christine2

Yes, Christine, I did get the x-rays. In the end I had to collect them to take to the referral vet. All day I was dreading seeing her again - we'd had no face to face contact since our 'argument' - but I needn't have worried, she was nowhere to be seen when I got to the practice. Hiding in a kennel round the back, I reckon !!
Joyce

Hi Joyce, had missed the post about the £12 but have looked it up now - ugh! Glad that the orthopaedic vet is more helpful. The way he explained things and left the choice to you sounds good as well :-). Think my own gut reaction would be to leave alone for present too, especially when a couple of different ops can be done later if he does run into problems. Best of luck with Buddy.