Garden Girl Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Hi all - my 9 month old Border Terrier boy is going in for an x-ray on Monday because he has been limping on his back legs. Vet thinks its his patellas but wants to check its not his hips causing the issue with his legs. If he needs an operation what is involved, whats the recovery like, do they even need an operation of is there physio or something instead - of course I forget to ask the vet all these things when I'm there - but now I'm home, had a good cry and a bit more composed I have lots of questions... Of course my pup couldnt care less - he doesnt seem to be in any pain, I'm far more upset than he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavandra Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Many young dogs especially 6-9 months can have growth spurts, hind end can go taller than the front, going straight in the stifle & can show weakness in the patellas, of which they usually grow out of..I would be most reluctant to see surgery done on such a young dog. most Vets are not trained to know muscle/chiro procedures, and often they treat with drugs & surgery things that were not needed to be treated with such..........a good muscle guy/chiro guy would be my recomendation, often dramatic gait problems are fixed in one session......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Baggins Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 My first Cav had surgery for her patella at 3 years of age. I used to put it back if she strated limping. But then it was going out too often so opted for surgery. Very quick recovery never looked back. And no others popped out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garden Girl Posted November 5, 2008 Author Share Posted November 5, 2008 Cavandra thats what I thought too - that we should at least wait till the dog has finished growing but the vet thought otherwise. I'll see what the x-rays have to say on Monday - surgery would be my last resort - I'd much rather chiro or something like that as a solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jed Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Agree with Cavandra. It may be a growth spurt or something else. I'd wait and see what he was like when he has matured, or take him to a good chiro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavandra Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 (edited) Cavandra thats what I thought too - that we should at least wait till the dog has finished growing but the vet thought otherwise.I'll see what the x-rays have to say on Monday - surgery would be my last resort - I'd much rather chiro or something like that as a solution. GOOD Breeders are experts, they have heard of, seen all, know someone who has....will find out how what if or when...........cos they always know someone who knows someone who............GOOD breeders spend hours upon hours researching & speaking to like minded people for years upon years upon years, forever expanding their knowledge...... vets dont!!!........small scale, blinded by drugs & surgery.............cant possibly know much of the nitty gritty that breeders know, dont have time to further their knowledge.........they arent exposed, or are so close minded they wont listen to the GOOD breeders.........true story I had a show dog return to me the other week, I thought I might have put down when I saw his behaviour!!!!!!!, as I was quite sure it could only be one disasterous thing...........my greyhound guy turned up at the show I was at, and I said go over him............he was out in spine from his head to his tail, and he had tears in both his inside thighs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeeekkkkkk...........In 5 minutes the dog was a new dog, he then gave him injections into the rips in his thinghs, and although excruciating for a weee while the dog is now symptom free completely............all for $20 ........yes.....$20...........NO Vet would have diagnosed or been able to treat this dog, if I was a pet owner thsi dog would have gone to a main stream Vet & had test after test, scans, xrays , thousnads of $$$ later & no answer........... Edited November 5, 2008 by Cavandra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff'n'Toller Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 What did he inject into the tears in his muscles???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pennyw74 Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 My puppy just had hers done just over three weeks ago - both done at the same time and she is great. She was very unhappy before the surgery, must have been in a bit of pain. She would sit around and not do anything. Now she's back to playing and bouncing around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loving my Oldies Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Just remember that when you're cut, you're cut. Can't be undone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pennyw74 Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Izzy's surgery was done differently to the way most vets do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsfevr Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 What did he inject into the tears in his muscles???? I would imagine it is the jab thats helps the muscle tears at this time.I have had a dog have a similiar issue & the jab is the final touch in recovery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kermat Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Sorry don't mean to hijack this thread but I would also be interested in people's experiences with this operation, recovery times etc etc. My 2 year old beagle Judd has a luxating patella and we were told after the initial x-rays that he was borderline for surgery so we decided to manage it with fish oil and Joint Guard supplements as he didn't appear to be in too much pain. Last week I was at the vet for his annual vaccination and she gave him a check over and said his knee is luxating approx. 70-80% of the time (poor little fella!!) and that we should now seriously consider the surgery. Vet suggested we bring him back in 3-4 months and they'll have another look and we can discuss our options. I'm pregnant and our baby is due in June next year so I was thinking maybe I could start my maternity leave early and get Judd's surgery done then if he's going to need constant care and monitoring - or is the recovery time fairly quick?? If its only a week or two I was thinking maybe we could get it done before the Easter break then my husband and I could just take a few days off each or maybe get my parents to look after him. Thoughts?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julesluvscavs Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 (edited) Hi JME A few years ago when Joey was younger, he suddenly went lame, was hopping around and was in a lot of pain. My first thought was it was his patella ! Even the vet thought that at first. He went on to have a series of xrays and medications. In the end after a about a month or so of strict crate rest, he came good !!! He's never had that problem again, thank God ! Yeah vets aren't always that spot on with things..... Hope it's nothing worse, and that it is perhaps something like what Joey had back then .. which was more than likely him being young and running and twisting around too quick at the time.. All the best. Please keep us updated. Edited December 11, 2008 by JulesLuvsCavs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garden Girl Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 Hi all - well since I posted this I have been keeping Soap pretty quiet - walk him on lead at all times and not really long walks - the rest of his exercise is playing in the backyard with his little sister - Soap is nearly 11 months Holly is nearly 4 months. So he has small spurts of running around and all looks fine. On the few occassions I do let him off leash at teh park he is much much better nearly 100% actually. So for the time being I'm managing it this way - probably for at least another few months. He'll be due for his 12 months injections at the end of Jan and that will be with our proper vet so will get him checked out again then - if its still a problem. thanks for all your comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailwag Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I have a small terrier x who also had the op done on both hind legs, i got a second opinion at the time as her first op was done when she was 12 months, 2nd done at 16mths, luxating patellas are also graded from 1 (good) to 5 (very bad) jaz was a grade 5 in one leg and a 4 in the other, you could extend her hind leg out and it would displace bang like that. When she had her surgery i used a good orthopod here in the ACT, he pinned and wired both her legs, she had physio straight after the op and then again through her recovery she was doing agility again within 3 months. Good rehab really helps. My other terrier was graded a 2 but with good physio, etc she never had the surgery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pennyw74 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Kermat - when Izzy had both hers done, she was walking quite well in three days. I crated her for the whole week, just letting her out for a little while at a time but she was quite good about it, took it easy anyway. Her stitches came out after 10 days and she was walking really well by then. I thought she'd be limping for a long time but it's amazing how quickly they recover. I would definitely keep them quiet for a week, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Kuntz Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I have to put my two cents in...I take offense to the comment that vets don't care to keep up with the literature, etc. That statement is a gross generalisation and I see so many vets attending continuing education in order to keep up with currents trends in treatment. I am a specialist surgeon and I spend a HUGE amount of time teaching, reviewing the literature, reading journals, lecturing, etc, etc and I ONLY use surgical techniques that have been validated by PEER REVIEWED methods in highly regarded journals. I would venture a guess that this is in contrast to what is recommended by other "health practitioners" who have very little objective data to support their recommendations. I am all for alternative methods as long as they are used reasonably and that things that have known success rates are considered as well. Specifically, regarding patellar luxation, this is a condition that is easily corrected. There was a study in a peer reviewed highly reputable journal that showed that in dogs with bilateral luxations with only one repaired, that the one repaired had less arthritis than the one that was not repaired. We recommend surgery for most cases where that patella completely dislocates out of the groove (Grade II or above) with a 90+% success rate. I have personally operated on over 200 of these with success rates in the 90's. I recommend a transposition of the tibial crest (the attachment of the patellar tendon) as opposed to deepening the groove (which results in marked damage to the cartilage). I have seen this in dogs that were referred to me for a second attempt after a "groove deepening" procedure had been attempted and failed. I think gross generalisations are inflammatory and don't really serve to help anyone. Vets, like anyone else, can be viewed as being on a bell-shaped curve. You are going to have great ones and crappy ones, but most are pretty good (within a standard deviation of the mean, to put it in statistical terms). Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puglvr Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I have to agree with Charles here. I have had first hand experience with his clinic on two occassions and they did everything within their power and knowledge to help our dogs. Out of the box thinking and care. Also my regular vet is also a trained and probably a leader in Accupunture and alternative methods. She uses both. I was stunned on one occassion when I took my GSD in to her. She wasn't eating with her usual gusto and I knew there was something wrong but not what. She had a feel around and said let me do some accupuncture. After she finished I asked when would I expect to see an improvement. She said "tonight" and she was right. When I put her food down she ate like normal and was back to her old self. She had somehow managed to "hurt/pull/do something" to her diaphram and eating caused her alot of pain. I have a great deal of respect for my vets and after 18+ years of being a client, they have a great deal of respect for my knowledge of my breed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now