Rascalmyshadow

Please listen and don't jump into the surgery, both my Pomxchi and my purebred chi have each one luxating patella and unlike the two dogs I did go ahead and do surgery on these two are coping much better, keep your dog fit and active, not overweight, and avoid jumping and sudden stops/turns as much as possible.

I have rescued and have made the decision to PTS a couple of dogs, one for aggression and one to serious health issues, yep wasn't easy but it was the right thing to do.

As soon as it was obvious she had such aggression problems and wasn't rehomable.

If this dog is as bad as I'm reading and failed in four homes including with a trainer, why has she not been euthanised all ready?

I have been through this twice and I personally would never do it again unless the dog was in constant pain. Obviously I'm not a vet but in your situation I would be stalling the surgery and getting another opinion.

Parsons Jack Russell would work beautifully, my friend has one, he's smart, agile, tough and loves tearing around with the bigger dogs, his best mate is a fat lazy cat. He has been very easy to train and is also quite happy to just chill out.

I haven't but one of the vet nurses I used to work with has a little MaltxShihtzu that suffered from it, she was treated with a long course of steroids and has never had any more problems. I think that was around 8 years ago.

Have PM'd you.

I think this is a little harsh personally. I have more than one dog but can still take the dogs out separately without any issues. For the most part, when i'm not here, they are able to enjoy each other's company and i'm happy they are happy ... This, we have had multi dogs live together for many years including times there was only two and we have never had a problem if we needed to take out one dog.The only reason they would rely too much on each other is if you gave them no attention. I don't see any reason to put a new dog under unecessary stress if its happy with your other dog. Also just realised the dog in question is only 6 months old, for a lab that is still a baby, not surprising it doesn't want to be left alone especially if its not used to it.

If they are happy together why separate them?

That is not rescue it's moving dogs from one bad situation to another. I knew someone who was fostering, the dogs were kept in a kennel situation sometimes for no longer than a fortnight before they were rehomed, not sure how you can assess anything in that environment, it's the reason dogs adopted directly from shelters often show problematic behaviours a few months down the track, it takes them time to settle and behave in their normal way. Every dog we've ever fostered has had some sort of vice (except the one greyhound) including my own foster failure, some of their issues would have been completely missed in a kennel environment, not to mention how cruel it is for long periods.

It's starting to sink in there's no going back. I feel pretty crappy, for the last 10 years we've always had money put aside incase anything like this happened, I never thought we'd have multiple big vet bills/doctors bills in such a short space of time. It's a really bitter sweet feeling gaining a new baby and at the same time sacrificing so much.

She had X-rays before the knee surgery but I don't think the hip was checked, not sure exactly what the surgery was today my vet did explain it but everything happened so fast I forgot. I had an update the surgery went well and she woke up without any problems.

Just got the phone call they love Chloe, she's going in for surgery today. Looks like we're back to four dogs, the house is very quiet this morning, she's normally the one making all the noise and trying to get everyone to play.

Thank you I have very mixed emotions about it all, I'm glad she's going to someone that will care for her but I wanted that to be us.

I've had a good chat with my husband and the vet nurse that wants to adopt her and we've decided to let her go on trial, they sound like a perfect home and my vet has said they are a very nice family with lots of dog experience, she will have two other dogs for company, two children, someone home most of the time and she will be able to go into the vet clinic with her new owner while she works. Chloe is going home with her tonight and is booked in to have surgery on Fri, if all goes to plan they will keep her if it doesn't work out we will pay for the surgery and bring her home.

Just got news about Chloe and its not good. I have to apologise it is her hip causing the problem although its not dislocated, she has no hip joint the ball has completely disintegrated, we have three choices, do surgery this week, if we can't afford it a vet nurse at the clinc I go to has offered to adopt her and pay for the surgery or we can amputate. My vet does not want to amputate at this stage because of how bad the patella is on the other side. It has been caused by either legges perthes or a fracture while she was in plaster.

X-rays are today leaving in 10 for the vet, fingers crossed there's nothing major going on. I am nervous it's going to be a long morning.

Unfortunately I wasted a lot of money seeing physio's over the years for my own injuries and got very little results wasn't until I found my Chiro that I finally got results and became pain free, so I am very sceptical about taking my dogs and with the cost involved I most likely wont be going back. Unfortunately my opinion is probably going to rub some people up the wrong way but I can't afford to throw that much money away to get nothing out of it.

Yeah that's what my vet said as well, if it gets to a stage where she can't or won't use it and we run out of options we will consider amputating but obviously not without doing everything possible first.

I'm sorry but lol I am so glad my lot don't get up to so much mischief. One of the mums at school has a daschund and she is constantly posting pics of the naughty stuff he does, he has pulled half her pantry apart, jumped on chairs to get onto the counter and stolen anything on there, rips up cushions etc. he is the naughtiest little dog but so cute.

She is highly qualified and is obviously good at what she does but $150 is a bit steep when not much could be done on the day. She did give us two exercises to try but said without surgery there not likely to do much. I didn't mean to suggest she's not good at her job just not happy spending so much money for nothing, especially when it's only $20 for a Chiro visit. Oh edited to add we don't have private health for the dogs all out of our pocket.

Are you sure that's an Animal Physio? They are Human Physio's with an additional degree in Animals. Certified in: Equine Massage Equus Muscle Management Animal Husbandry Levels 1 & 2 Artificial Insemination (A.I.) Reiki Master Equine CST Levels 1,2 & 3 and dissection Emmett Technique Level 3 Member of IICT I don't actually know what all these mean of course! She studied and worked in America for a long time and has worked with racing horses and racing dogs for a long time. She's also involved in horse and greyhound rescue. Very interesting to watch her work. The dogs can get away if they want to but don't and she keeps at the bad spots until she feels some kind of release and often the dogs will do a big sigh or yawn to confirm it. They are definately calmer and more limber. She was recommended to us by a doggy hydrotherapy business who didn't feel our old dog was a candidate for their services. Sounds very positive is she in Vic?

When my old girl had her cruciates done we left her for the first 5 days, then we gently bent and stretched the leg a few times a day and took her for a 5 minute on lead walk as well, gradually we extended the distance and time. All of it was done at her pace and at any time she seemed sore we took a step back. She was 8 i think when she did the first one and just under 2 years later she did the other one, even though she was an older dog she recovered exceptionally well. Your dog will take some time to put weight on that leg but should be toe touching within a few days. Edited to add: I'm not advising to do anything just telling my experience and what worked for us.

Chloe's surgery was not done by a specialist as such but the vet that did it specialises in patella surgery and has developed his own technique. I don't think what he's done is the problem, I think she has jumped or done something else to hurt it. Strange thing is even while we had her on Metacam she still didn't want to use the leg. My vet checked where the physio thought the hip was a problem and the reason the bone feels so weird on that leg is because there is so much muscle wastage. Both my vet, her surgeon and the Chiro all have only found soreness in the knee, nothing in the hip area. Also she was xrayed prior to surgery and it didn't show anything wrong with her hip. Oh well I guess we will hopefully have some answers on Tue, my vet is going to X-ray both entire legs (her other patella completely luxates but causes no pain) so we can get an overall assessment. I just can't believe we are having so much problem with a 2.5kg dog, although the vet did say the littlies can be the worst because they can get around so easily without needing four legs so they often just won't use it again.