Hi. Im looking for some advise from anyone that knows about this condition.

My puppy, Tilly, will be one at the end of October. Over the last few months she has had a very occational limp which lasts only minutes, it has happened maybe 4 or 5 times that i've noticed and has normally been when she's ran after a ball or jumped off the sofa. I was planning on asking the vet about it when i take her for her booster and yearly check up as I thought is was maybe just a bit of cramp or something. Then yesterday afternoon I took Tilly to my local Pets at Home and we were walking around when all of a sudden for right leg gave way and she started crying, i picked her up and felt at her leg and thought i could feel something clicking. I phoned my vet stright away, they said to take her in. After examining the one leg my vet diagnosed Luxating Patella and gave me some anti-inflamatories to give her once a day and said come back in a week. She said that the anti-inflammatories may help in the short term but surgery may need to be considered at some point. I then took Tilly home quite shocked at what i'd been told. She wasn't herself all evening and was unwilling to walk at all, when i managed to get her to she was limping badly. This morning she was a bit better but still limping on and off so i took her back to the vets first thing. It was a differant vet this time who gave her a good examination of both legs. His news was awful, that Tilly has this Luxating Patella in both back legs and it is the worst grade possible. He gave me some morphine based painkillers for her and we have an appointment to see an orthopaedic surgoen on friday this week, she is going to be sedated and have x-rays taken. Tonight she is moving around better and i think the painkillers are helping, she isn't herself at all though and i'm really worried for her.

Sorry for the long post. I just can't believe how this can have got so bad so quickly, before we went to Pets at Home she was absolutlely fine.

Hi,sorry to hear about Tilly.
I had a jack russell with slipping patella.She had it quite badly in one leg that would cause lameness for a few hours after vigourous excersise and midly in the other leg that resulted in an intermitant 'hop'.
I was seeing a holistic vet fortunately with her at the time and he was only for using surgery as a last resort.
We pt her on glucosamine,fish oils and a natural diet and she recently passed way aged 16 years having led a very active life.
Interestingly her patellas gave her alot less trouble the older she got,my vet explained that this was because they 'stiffen' as old joints do and slip out less often.
Obviously arthritis is likely as the joint is unstable but with supplements and keeping her active we avoided surgery.
Don't want to contradict your vet and it may be that your Tilly has a more severe case but i just wanted to give you a bit of good news.
Hope it all works out ok for you

Thank you for this. I am hoping that the orthopaedic surgeon we see on Friday might have some treatment options other than surgery. I shall look into seeing a holistic vet though as that sounds like it could be useful. Thanks again.

The first thing is try not to panic!
One of our cocker spaniels has this in both back legs too and it was diagnosed at 8 weeks at her first vet check.
I was heartbroken and worried sick.
She has to rest more than the rest of the dogs we have (as we have 5 all together!) but she has always had to do so, and doesn't know anything different.
We asked the vet for a prognosis - if we have the surgery, she would have to be crated 24/7 for approximately 6 weeks, just going outside on lead for her business. Then once that leg is healed, she would have to have the other one done.....
The outcome would be when she gets to 6 or 7 she may have really bad arthritis.
IF we don't have the surgery, so long as she has no complications /problems in the interim, when she gets to 6 or 7 she may have really bad arthritis.
So, we have decided not to have the surgery at the moment. She is now 2 1/2 years old, she has had quite a lot of hydrotherapy which seems to have helped quite a lot and she is a really happy, bouncy little girl.
We have to ensure she keeps fairly slim as any extra weight would put pressure on her legs, but that is also not a problem.
We have taken the decision that so long as she is pain free and happy, we prefer to give her an active and happy life!

Please don't panic, and make sure you get as much advice and information as you can before making any decisions - also, hope your dog is insured!!!!

Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to pm me!

I personally went with the surgery for my Brussels Griffon. She is young and healing from the surgery now will be faster and easier on her. From my discussions with the vet and what I have read, I believe that not having the surgery could lead her to have greater problems in the future.

She is quite an athlete and I wanted her to be able to be as active and pain free as possible. Interesting how my decision is based on the same things as PennyH but that I came to a different conclusion as to what was best for my pet. So obviously it is a personal choice too.

I just had her one back knee done that was causing her pain. My vet told me 3-6 weeks of recovery. She is either in an ex-pen, her crate or leashed. We have finished our first 10 days. She will get her staples out next week. Get an x-ray the week after and then we will see where she is.

This is a very common surgery where I live at with a good prognosis. I will continue to supplement her with glucosamine. My vet has told me that her other knee is also bad but that since it isn't causing her problems or pain we do not need to do anything yet. Although again, if it is going to get worse, I would prefer doing surgery while she is young and able to heal better and faster than waiting until she is older.

I do know that one dog had surgery but had gotten so use to not using that leg before the surgery because of the knee, that even after the surgery they had a lot of work to get her to start using it. So that is something you want to be aware of.

I just wanted to share the perspective from somebody who opted for surgery.

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Theresa, Gigi <woof>, Anisette<arf>, Le Beau Ouiseaux Rouge<chirp>, Enchanté<ruff>

My Yorkie is 20 months old and we was told a year ago that she had Luxating Patella in both back legs, the vet said we could see a consultant if we wanted to or wait and see how she goes. We decided that we did not want her to have surgery unless she really needed it and the vet agreed. The thing not to do is panic. We make sure she keeps active and at the correct weight although she is only just over 2kgs.
I had a Yorkie that had it before and she lived happily without surgery for 16yrs.

Hi there. Thanks for the information you gave. I am going to see what the surgeon says on friday and take it from there. At the moment the knee cap on her right seems to be popping in and out virtually all the time when she is trying to walk. If it settles and she is ok in herself i would be happy like you to leave her for now and see how she gets on, but surely it cant do her any good if the knee cap is going to be continuously popping in and out. The painkillers are really helping and she is a lot more mobile and isn't crying about it anymore. Not sure if these painkillers can continue long term though. I am going to write a list of questions for the surgeon on friday.

Hope it goes well on Friday let us know how you get on, that's a good idea writing the questions down before you go. What made it start, what did she do to make it so bad so quickly. Would be good to see an xray.

Hi again. Just to update people. I took Tilly to the orthopaedic vet this morning. He looked at both of her legs and said that the right knee is so unstable that he would recommend immediate surgery. I had taken my dad with me so we talked about it for a few minutes and decided to go with the vets advise. We left her at about 09.30 and i have to ring at 15.00 and see how she's doing. I really hope i have made the right decision for her. She is only going to have her right leg done today, the vet advised leaving the left for now and see how she gets on. I did kind of suspect that the only option would be surgery but thought it wouldn't be until next week at the earliest. The right knee has just been so unstable since tuesday, she didn't have her bedtime dose of morphine last night because we were going there this morning and she was crying so much when he was examining her right leg. I'm worried now that she's going to associate me with painful experainces as i had to hold her while the vet looked at her.

I'm quite sure she won't, you have never hurt her in the past.
I really hope things go well. All the really hard work starts now, trying to keep her from doing too much for a few weeks.
It will be worth it to get her out of pain and give you a dog that enjoys life, pain free