Luxating Pattellas are back

[edel]

Im am sorry to say that Lady's luxating patellas have returned with a vengence. After I visited Tom Farrington, the homeopathic vet a few months, her knees improved immensely and the condition seemed to vanish after taking her remedies. However since last week it has returned and seems to me to be much worse.

She is having real trouble getting around at the moment and has to be lifted onto the sofa. I feel so sorry for her watching her hobble around like an old lady, she is only one year old and she looks so sad

So i rang Tom and he sent me a bottle of Forever Freedom which is Aloe Vera with other additives. I have to bring her down to see him either this saturday or next. Does anyone know anything about Forever Freedom?

I just wish she could have the surgery done once and for all, she does seem to have any quality of life, how bad does she have to be before its done?

[Karlin]

I'm sorry to hear this, Edel -- how frustrating, especially after so long a period of improvement. Tom will be a very good judge -- he wouldn't let her continue on with a lot of pain. But there's always a chance that knees will right themselves up to when they are about 18 months old. Maybe she did something in jumping or whatever that caused an injury? And that is what is creating the problem, rather than a worsening of her patellas? I don;t think they suddenly would worsen after such improvement but I don;t really know much about patellas except what others who are far more experienced have posted in the past.

Dogs are still growing til they are about 18 months including those joints and the wiser vets I think acknowledge this and wait til it is very clear that surgery is advised. The recovery from surgery is quite long and dogs need total restriction and crating for many weeks so I'd really have surgery as my very last choice. Cathy and some others who've gone through this can tell you more what the surgery recovery period is like.

[Cathy T]

So sorry you are going through this. We are lucky in that Shelby doesn't seem to have any discomfort from her knees. She has luxating patellas on both back legs and surgery on the left did not correct it. This is very unusual as the surgery is 92% successful. We are meeting with her surgeon next month to make sure we are doing everything we can for her (supplements and what not). The recovery from the surgery isn't that bad. Well, once you get it over with We had her confined, no running, jumping or playing for 2 months. It was a long 2 months, had the surgery repeated because it didn't hold, and went through another 2 months of confinement. We set up an x-pen in the middle of the family room and if she wasn't on our lap, on leash so she couldn't jump down, she was in the pen. She was very comfortable in there as we put her bed and some toys in there. It was hard...but you get through it. Keep us posted on how she's doing and feel free to ask any questions. If I can help with an answer I will.

[Buster]

Zola is just recovering from having both of hers done. We started in late October with the first one I think and then had the second one done in February. She is just getting back to her normal self now (she's still a bit limpy, but improving)and it is a long road. The one thing that kept us from getting too down about it was knowing that without the surgery, she would be reasonably sure of being crippled later on with arthritis in her knees, never mind the pain she was in when her knees "popped", so it was a case of some discomfort and lack of mobility now in exchange for a lot of pain later.
It is remarkable to see her gettting back her old verve again and the joy with which she gets from her walks now as she was deprived for so long. We get such a kick out of asjing her if she wants to go for a walk now, as we couldn't even mention the word "walk" when she was recovering, as her head used to spin around and the look on her face would break your heart. We had to start using the word "Siúl" instead!

[joanna]

So sorry to hear this Edel, especially as you had seen such an improvement. I have an appointment to bring Daisy Boo to UCD in two weeks. I have decided not to go ahead with any surgery yet as she is only 10 months old and it could still fix itself. However, she is not in any pain so that helps. I'm hoping to get an idea of the grade and try and treat it from there. Best of luck to you and Lady.

[Karlin]

Let us know how the visit goes, Joanna.

[Claire]

Ditto on that one, hope she stays well.

[Luv2Camp53]

Molly had luxating patellas on both her legs, and we had them repaired as she was in quite a bit of pain. They did the first one when she was about 14 months old, and the second one 2 months later. I expected a long and painful recovery, but she bounded back so fast. After the first surgery, she had to stay pretty restricted for about a month. I carried her most places, and she really only was allowed to walk a little on her potty breaks. After a month of this, she wanted OUT. She had recovered so quickly that our vet was astounded. Then her other leg went from bad to worse, probably because of the additional strain from using it while the surgical leg healed. So, we did the second surgey. That one took a little longer for her to recover from, but six weeks after the surgery, she was ready to start her walks again, and once we started the walking, the rest of her rehabilitation was very fast. I started her on Gloucasamine immediatley after the first surgery, and she takes it to this day. I think that may have helped speed the healing process up. All told, even given the two months between the surgeries, she was her old self six months after the first operation. She is a tough little cookie.