My yorkie had an undiagnosed luxating patella for many years and every year when she went for jabs I mentioned her limp to the vets but of course she didn't limp at the consultation. A year or so ago she broke her cruciate ligament and they had to carry out surgery immediately, and found that she did have luxating patella so they fixed that at the same time. The recovery period was a bit arduous, though I think that was mostly because of the cruciate ligament rather than luxating patella aspect, but she recovered 100 per cent (until her recent hip dislocation, but that's another story).