Zoie Not Doing Well-Luxating Patella

Zoie's not doing too well these days, her knee problems are getting worse. She was 'unofficially' diagnosed with luxating patellas. When she's playing or if she jumps funny or something, she'll hang her leg, so I just push the joint up and it'll pop back into place and she'll go on her merry way. It's generally only the left leg that does it, but when the right leg does it I can pop it back in but she'll limp for a little while. This morning after being let out she came in with the right leg hanging, and it didn't pop back in. I think she may have popped it in herself, but she was walking around without putting weight on that foot for a good hour or two...now she's still sore on it. She keeps coming up to me like Mum...why can't you fix me this time? I know that the only option for luxating patella is surgery, which makes me nervous. The first step I know is official x-rays and such and we'll see her normal vet, which I will do in the next week or two. It's getting a little tight around here with Christmas coming up.

I never really thought of large dogs getting luxating patella. Well, she's not really large, but she's about 35 lbs. Generally you think of poodles, shih tzus, cavaliers, etc.

Has anyone here ever dealt with it, or gone through the surgery? What's the estimated cost of surgery? Tips are appreciated.

I guess she needs some good thoughts and prayers. Hopefully she'll work out of it today, but it's getting increasingly worse. And she's only about a year old now. :( My poor little girl.

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Originally Posted by areias

"luxating patella" ...
I know that the only option for luxating patella is surgery ...

Has anyone here ever dealt with it, or gone through the surgery?
What's the estimated cost of surgery?

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Use the basic "Search" window and enter "luxating patella" - WITH the Quote Marks -
you'll get upwards of 25 threads to check out.

A lot of us have dogs with Luxating Patells - some have had surgical repairs;
some of us get away with drug thearpy rather than surgery.
My Smokey has learned how to manage his luxating patella quite well -
it's been several years since he's "knocked it out" - but both he and I got
pretty good at "popping"
it back into position when he had a problem ... he'd try *shaking* it - and if that didn't work,
he'd *yelp* once and hop over to me with the bum knee held out for "repair" ...
I'd push the kneecap back in and he'd give it a trial shake - then dash off on all four!

He's been given 1,000 mg of Glucosamine since he was diagnosed at age 18 months -
and I just switched him to the combination Glucosamine/Condroitin/MSM 750 mg -
given every 12 hours. Between the Glucosamine and his learning how to run without aggrivating the knee -
it took about a year - he now leads a VERY Active and pain-free life.

/s/ Phred

Never had a pet with that but it sounds painful. :( Poor Zoie.

I hope a quick fix can be found for her.

Hey sorry about your little one having a ''poppy knee'' (thats what we here call them and we have seen a few :D )
We have had them operated on and to be honest i think it was the best (for us and our little girl) all round.
We took her in,in the morning and our vet whom we trust 1000000% worked his magic,yes she did have mobility problems after the op,and yes she had to stay quiet,and yes it was hard work on all.....but she got to be pain free and she even started to jump again...so for us it was worth it.
I will say that she had to have it done twice :( simply because the grove to hold her knee in place was still not deep enough after surgery so she had a pin placed there to stop it popping,no it wasnt painful to her....and yes i would have known,she would have point blank told me :eek: if anything was bothering her.
Cost wise it came out at around $800.
I suppose the best thing for you is to go to your vet and discuss whats the best option for you and yours.
hope it all goes well :)

Sierra's left will pop out, and when it happens right away she'll FLICK her leg straight out behind her and it will pop right back in like nothing ever happened! The vets have looked at it but when they manipulate it, it doesn't move around a lot so they're not too worried about it as far as surgery goes.

I'm sorry Zoie's gives her so much trouble.
:(

Thanks for the advice everyone. Yes, she is on glucosamine/chondritin supplement, and it did help with how often it was popping out. It just seems now that when it pops out it takes longer for her to recover.

She fell in the pool this morning and couldn't get out. I'm not sure where she fell in and if she swam, but I heard someone crying and I looked outside and her head was peeking up from the steps. She does get in the pool on the steps by herself, but usually not when it's cool out (this was at about 7 am) but I felt bad, I was yelling at her to get out and she wouldn't. I went and picked her up out of the pool (that was refreshing!) and her leg was popped out. Poor thing, I'm glad she got over to the steps :eek: .

Poodleempire-$800? I'm sure it would be a tad more for zoie considering shes a bit bigger, but that's not too bad. I'm sitting here picturing figures of $3-4000.

I guess I will go talk to the vet in depth, and get xrays to see exactly what's going on.

If it is managable with just some drugs and special care, that would be awesome. :)

I have avoided this thread as I know its a gut wrencher- but yes- 3000 grand is about right... Its 1400 for each side at a going average rate.
The surgery does work though. Recovery care is critical but it does work. You can pm me if you want, but the first few weeks after surgery, if good care at home to contain and limit, the recovery is amazing.

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Originally Posted by borzoimom

I have avoided this thread as I know its a gut wrencher- but yes- 3000 grand is about right... Its 1400 for each side at a going average rate.
The surgery does work though. Recovery care is critical but it does work. You can pm me if you want, but the first few weeks after surgery, if good care at home to contain and limit, the recovery is amazing.

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It would depend on your 'babies' size and also how specialized your own vet is,it can be more expensive if your vet feels he/she is not qualified enough to handle such a proceedure.
'borzoimom' is quite right when she says the surgery does work and the benifits are three fold for the paitent...but like she says the recoevery after is as important as the op itself.
I personally feel there are no right answers for this kind of dilema,only you know your baby and like you say when you get the x-rays back from your vet you will have a better idea of how to procced
Just a thought have you not got pet insurance?
I hope all goes okay for you :)

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Originally Posted by poodleempire

It would depend on your 'babies' size and also how specialized your own vet is,it can be more expensive if your vet feels he/she is not qualified enough to handle such a proceedure.
'borzoimom' is quite right when she says the surgery does work and the benifits are three fold for the paitent...but like she says the recoevery after is as important as the op itself.
I personally feel there are no right answers for this kind of dilema,only you know your baby and like you say when you get the x-rays back from your vet you will have a better idea of how to procced
Just a thought have you not got pet insurance?
I hope all goes okay for you :)

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Very true- also the specialists and the extent of the injury. Maybe our area is just more expensive. My specialists was in Northern Va. which is really expensive for anything. And watch the days that follow like a hawk.