Hiya,
I have a very fit and very active border terrier who recently started kicking his back leg out on the lead, which i reconised from an old dog i had as being a luxating patella.
The vet had a good feel and feels the same, but the specialist is yet to have a look and plan what to do, eg, leave it alone or operate.

Has anyone else had this? I'm a bit gutted as dog just loves to run, gets loads of exercise and i would hate to have to limited this long term.

He is only 16 months old, the vet says some dogs have this all there lives and it does not effect them, others have an operation and problem solved! Others develop arthritus....breeder has never come across it in her dogs either and is genuine too.

Anyone else have any advise!!?

Thanks!

Pam/Holly is the member to chat to, she has the same problem with her Yorkie.
Why don't you pm her incase she misses your post?

Hi Bohi

My dog Tilly has luxating patella. She had her first operation in August on her right hind leg and is due to have the left done at the end of this month. She has just last month turned one. Tilly was diagnosed after occasionally limping and then all of a sudden one day her right hind leg just went while walking. She ended up on morphine and anti-inflammatories and we got an appointent to see an orthopaedic vet a few days later. When i took her to see the specialist he said the leg was far to unstable to leave and she was operated on that day. Please do PM me if you what anymore information. I sought advise at the time from this forum as well, a lot of people advised to hold off on the operation if possible put Tillys case was just so bad that an operation was the only option. I am now hoping that she recovers as well with the next leg as she has with the first!

I know its not a dog, but our cat had this problem she had the operation when she was about 18months old, she is now 12ish and never had a problem since.

mo

I had a jack russell diagnosed with luxating patella at 12 months old.

We decided against surgery and she was put on supplements and kept very fit and active.
She lived til she was 16 and during that time was used on shoots flushing pheasants working several hours four or five times a week.
She also went rabbiting and ratting running miles daily.
Her patella never stopped her living a very active life,infact the vet did say that it was her lifestyle that kept the arthritis minimal and she only showed a stiffness in the last year of her life.

I hope this eases your worrying a bit xxxx

Thanks alot everyone, the last comment esspecially!

He is si fit and active it be really hard to think of him lame at about 4 but i might just be over reacting abit!!

Thanks again!

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).

Well i have been chatting in the park about it and a few owners started looking at there dogs and were like 'hold on a minute...mine does that!' ..and this is after the usual sprinting around the park.

Ill see what the vet says, if it a case of a simple operation that will fix the problem and then all back to normal, ill get it done i guess...but need to wait for the orthapedic(sp) specialist to have a look as diagnosed by a 'gp' type vet.

What supplements did you give yours 'bucksmum'?

Many thanks!

I gave her fish oils,glucosamine,msm,cider vineger(1 teaspoon in dinner).
Most of these i got through a Higher Nature,a health company,as my vet does an animal supplement range for them.
I think keeping her fit and slim and active played a big part in preventing arthritis getting too bad.

I have got a 3 year old terrier now that i rescued and he has the same thing in both back legs(the terrier hop) and he is coming out on the shoot running miles each day with no problems.
Mild luxating patella seems to be very common in terriers and i have known many live (and work) with it with no pain or problems.

Good stuff! Many thanks...