Luxating Patella? Does your dog need surgery?

My lovable dog, a mixed breed of Norwegian Elkhound, shepard and a bit of chow, is a terrific dog. He is healthy, sturdy, well behaved, and as my vet told me...he got the best of all his breed. Everything in him was symmetrical and perfectly aligned. When he was about 2 years old, he came in one day from the yard and he was favoring one hind leg. He would hold it up and then kind of twitch it or "kick it out" and give out a little yelp. I figured he must have a thorn in his pad or maybe he stepped on a tack or something. He would not let me near it to take a look, which is very unusual for him. I took him to the vet that afternoon and I could not believe what they told me. She explained that he had a Luxating Patella which means that the knee cap is actually slipping off of the joint and they were not sure why. Most dogs who have this are smaller breeds that are predisposed to the condition and most dogs will have it in both hind legs. My dog is 60 lbs and only has it one knee. The only other way to get it is injury. She asked me if he had fallen or been injured in any way. I said no but.....my dog is a digger. We have several holes in the yard from his digging for stuff and we surmised that he must have tripped in one of his own holes while running in the yard. The only solution to this was surgery. And it's a big one with a long recovery time. If your dog has been diagnosed with Luxating Patella and they recommend surgery let me tell you what you are in for while you decide what to do.

First of all let me begin by saying we did the surgery and it went perfectly. My dog has recovered perfectly with no signs of the injury at all today. There has been no re-occurrence and I am so glad that we did it.

Now I'll tell you how hard it was. First of all it is expensive. My vet could not do this surgery, they needed to bring in an orthopedic vet to do it. Plan on about $1700.00. The surgery involves moving the patella off of the joint and then sawing divot lines into the bone and then re-attaching the patella back over the joint. The troughs or divots as I call them will keep the patella from ever sliding off again permanently. Tendons and bones need to be moved and reattached etc. As you can imagine this takes a long time to recover from. If you don't follow the doctors orders for the recovery time and take it very seriously, the dog will not heal properly and you will have put him through all of the pain and yourself through all of the expense for nothing. Do it right or don't do it at all.

You need to prepare a small room for the dog to remain contained for a couple of weeks and it needs to be able to go out without having to use stairs. I cordoned off my dining room with gates so that he could still see all of his family but not be in the hustle and bustle of the family room and kitchen. For the first week or so he will not want to move hardly at all. I had it ready with his food and water bowl and his bed.

When you pick up your dog after this procedure, his entire hind quarters will be shaved and a very large incision will be stitched and uncovered. This is not for the squeamish to look at. He will not be able to put weight on that leg for quite a while so you may need to sling a towel underneath his back end to help him with going out to the bathroom. The doctor will give you medicine for pain in the beginning but after a while you need to let it hurt him so that he won't use it. That's the hardest part for me. He will have a cone on his head (which my dog was afraid of) so that he won't pick at it. You need to watch the incision closely for signs of infection (thankfully none for my dog)and he'll need to keep very low key in the closed off area for about two weeks. Stitches come off in about 10 or 12 days. Then gradually your doctor will tell you to start to increase his mobility in the leg, like letting him walk on it to go out to the bathroom, then taking short walks up and down the driveway. The entire process of gradually increasing his mobility took 8 weeks. That is 8 weeks of very closely supervised WALKING ONLY and only on a leash, for a dog that is used to running around in a large fenced yard with no leash. It's very hard and takes real commitment! After about 3 weeks my dog felt great and just wanted to go! I had do be diligent and stick to the plan or he would have re-injured it and what we went through would have all been for nothing. After the 8 weeks he's pretty much good to go back to normal.

He is five years old now and he has no problems what so ever. He walks 2 miles a day with me and then plays with the kids and the cats. Now, if he had not had the surgery, my vet told me he would be severely arthritic in only a couple of years and he was only 2 at the time. I had no choice but to do the procedure or this active healthy dog would have a life of pain and limitations. That being said, if he was a 11 or 12 year old dog, I would not have done it. Chances are he would be getting arthritic then anyway and he would not be nearly as active as a young dog. I would not put an older dog through this trauma. It's a big decision and it affects the way you live for 8 weeks. No trips, you need to be there for him every day and your family needs to help. But the rewards are there for your pet if you do it right. I owed it to him to do it right....and now we fill all of the holes in our yard!

I hope this helps with your decision on what to do and best of luck to you.