luxating patilla surgery

Hello all. I posted about a year ago that Phoebe was diagnosed with luxating patilla. At that time she had jumped off the couch wrong and ruptured the cartledge under her knee cap. Her vet (whom is an orthapedic surgeon) said she didnt need surgery YET. Well the past week or 2 Ive noticed she was favoring that leg more and more. Also, walking with her back a little arched. I called the vet Fridy and scheduled her for today. Lastnight at the dog park after playing her little knee gave out and she lost her balance and about fell over, then was walking with her foot turned in. Today, she had her appointment. My friend had taken her there (she had an emergency visit for her pug at the same time so picked her up on the way) I met her at the vet after work. My friend said while walking her into the vet her knee gave out and she looked as if she fell off the curb but there was no curb around for her to fall off. Well she had her examination, and her knee got a lot worse over the past year. She no longer has any cartledge under her knee cap. He thinks it happened within the past few weeks since he didnt notice any difference since diagnosed (she has been to the vet quite a few times, since I take her for ever sniffle) The vet wants to do the surgery ASAP. I will be taking her in at the end of next week (once my tax return hits my bank account) Im sure a few of you have experience with this sort of thing. I need all the advice you can give. Potty times, crate time, should I find a sitter for Aiden for a few days? Also I live on a 2nd floor apartment. I know I will have to carry her up and down the stairs. What kind of recovery time am I looking at? I can tell shes in pain. She came home from the vet, had her dinner and went to bed. Which is about 3 hours before her normal bed time. Thanks in advance!

It usually--up here--takes 8 to 12 weeks--but that's been my experience with bi-lateral knee surgery. For at least the first 4 to 6 weeks, the dog shouldn't do anything except eat and excrete. After that then I think they can do some leash walking, but very very minimal and must be crated or X-penned for the rest of the time.

I know that Brian, one of our fosters who had bi-lateral surgery--is on a 12 week minimal exercise regimen and is carried up and down all stairs and goes in every 2 to 4 weeks for X-rays of his knees.

We just had a rescue pug in, Bleu, that had double knee surgery (one at a time). Blanche's estimates are about what we were told with him-the first 4-6 weeks, strict crating. Then you can gradually add in leash walks, but that depends on the recheck too. Poor Phoebe!

I went through the LP surgery for my pug Ichiro.

There is some controversy now about the merits of strict crate rest versus using the knee in moderation sooner. I believe Allie went through this with one of her pugs and was told to let them use their knee sooner.

When Ichiro had it done, he was on restricted use for 4-6 weeks, although that was damn hard for a 1 year old puppy!!

My most vivid memory of the whole thing was the asshat vet. They demanded I leave Ichiro at the clinic overnight - except no one was there to monitor him overnight. WTF? Why would I leave him there, with no one to check on him? I was adamant that he was not staying un-supervised. I had to sign a release to get him out. And, we never went back to that vet again. I spent the next few nights sleeping on the floor with him. Never, ever regretted it for a second.

Thanks for the advice. Looks like its gonna be a rough few weeks for our household. They don't know if she will have to spend the night or not. Depending how it looks once he gets in there. Either way it sounds pretty painful. I'm sure I will be just like you Renee, sleeping on the floor with her.

Poor Phoebe and poor you! Sending you major healing thoughts and prayers.

Sounds like I'll be going through this with you with my 4 year old foster Murdoch. He only needs one knee done and is going in on Feb 21. What you describe sounds like she may also have a ruptured cruciate ligament. What happens when the patella luxates and doesn't go back into place is that the knee has to rely solely on the cruciate ligament. This puts a lot of strain on the cruciate and makes it very vulnerable to injury. You can have an xray done from the side aspect of the knee which will show if the cruciate is ruptured, but the surgeon will be able to get a first-hand visual when s/he goes in to operate on the kneecap and would fix it at the same time.

Murdoch's surgeon said recovery will be 12 weeks and there will be progressively more rehab exercises so crate restriction won't be that long. How the heck I'm going to stop him from wrestling with his crazy chihuahua puppy brother, I have no idea! Maybe he'll need to be crated more than the vet advises.

Sending good thoughts for everything to go super smoothly.

I am sending my thoughts and yes it is tough to keep a puppy calm...Julian had the cone after his surgery at 4 months...I have more grey hair than ever...but I slept with him on the couch and my daughter and I took shifts bc he had 24hr supervision...Good Luck

Thanks again! She is scheduled to go in next friday. Im a little nervous for the surgery, but my vet is also an orthapedic specialist, which makes me very happy that I dont have to take her somewhere that Ive never been. They will be doing an xray before they start to know what they are getting into. I dont know if I will get her back friday, or if she will have to spend the night for supervision. My friend is going to take Aiden for a few days so he doesnt tourament her while shes trying to to recover.