Luxating Patellas

Mellie and Brian M, it looks like all three of us are going to go through LP surgery with our cavaliers together. :flwr::flwr::flwr:

India was just diagnosed with two luxating patellas - one is grade 2 and the other is grade 3; the vet said there is no evidence of arthritis.

I'm certain she injured her knees running in the snow and slipping on our icy deck in the back yard. She was running very fast, and I heard her slip and bang against the steps very hard. She is 5.5 years old and had patella surgery on her right leg when she was 1 year old (it was a small cartilage tear due to injury). Her right knee has held up very well over the years - she was as good as new after her recovery period.

We plan to make an appointment with the surgeon this week; I'm wondering if it is better to have both knees done at once or have them done one at a time. I'm sure the surgeon will have an opinion, but if he leaves it up to us, I'd like to know what others have done when both knees are affected.

I'd like to wish all of you a GOOD LUCK for your upcoming surgeries!! Faith has one LP, and although my vet refuses to grade *I haven't seen a surgeon as of yet*, she doesn't have problems with it at this point so we're on "watch and wait" for now.

Kosmo, on the other hand, as some of you may recall, had bilateral luxating patellas. One of his legs was a grade 3 and the other a grade 2. My surgeon asked me if I wanted to do 1 or both and I decided I would rather do both at once. She told me that they would do the bad leg first, and depending on how long that took them (in regards to anaesthetic time and what not) if all looked good they would do the other.

He ended up getting both. Honestly I haven't looked back after this decision. Having 2 done was the right decision for us. He wasn't able to "favor one leg" because both had been done, he was only under the knife one time (which saved me $$ because I didn't have to pay for anaesthetic twice), and it made for one time follow ups and a one time recovery.

Having said that, I did buy a pet stroller and I am SO glad that I did. During our recovery process, sometimes he could walk 5 minutes and sometimes he could walk 10. When he got tired, he just sat down and so then I put him in the stroller and kept going. He seemed to like riding in the thing and kept sniffing the air as we were going :lol:

If you have any other questions I'll try my best to answer them. Good Luck! :flwr:

Thanks Sara, I was hoping to hear about Kosmo, as I remembered you had both of his knees done simultaneously. Those are very good reasons to do it that way; I'm hoping we can go that route with India.

The stroller sounds like a good idea too. I've been thinking I could use it for Geordie in the future. I think I'd take the dogs out more if I had a stroller I could pop 1-2 of them into it when needed.

The stroller sounds like a great idea especially for a dog with two knees done at the same time.

I'm so sorry you are all going through this :flwr:

The surgeons here won't do both knees at once, as it is too hard to manage after surgery. Peaches had one knee done, and we had planned to do the other once that leg was fully recovered {long story but sadly she took ill and we weren't able to do that}. That was her worst knee, she had no groove at all and the patella was running down the INSIDE of her knee

The one probably most helpful piece of advice I was given was by Cathy T {thanks Cathy :lotsaluv:}, that they shave a LOT of coat off, the poor wee leg looks like a chicken leg and it's a bit of a shock if you're not expecting it...it does grow back quickly though.

They need a lot of help and support post op - get them used to sleeping in a crate or a pen BEFORE the surgery, even if you have to raise the crate on a table or soemthing so it is the same height as your bed {if they can see you they settle better}.

Wishing you all well.