front leg problems

I am new to Pet Talk so bear with me. Does anyone else have a dog with the same problem? Or is there any advice or information you have about this? My Mom, sister and I are very concerned and don't know what it is.
Our maletese/shih tzu (Gracie) is a female and she is only 2 years old and she has front leg problems. Her two front legs bow outwards (the opposite as pigeon toed). The bones in her little legs are awkward because you can see that they aren't straight. Her legs almost look like a bulldogs front legs. When she stands her little feet point out to the sides in opposite directions like this... \ / instead of like this... | | (I hope this isn't too complicated to understand). We asked our vet a couple months ago and he said she might have arthiritis problems when she gets older but he really didn't say much. He said that her joints pop out once in a while and it is common in small dogs of this breed. She will jump up on my Mom's bed which is pretty high but she will NOT jump down no matter what. We think it might be painful for her and that is why she wont do it. We live in Minnesota and one of our friends suggested that we take her to the University of Minnesota to get it looked at. Any advice? Or has anyone heard of this before? :confused:

P.S. I'll try to get a picture of her but I'm not sure how to display it for people to see just yet.

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Originally posted by dela
We asked our vet a couple months ago and he said she might have arthiritis problems when she gets older but he really didn't say much. He said that her joints pop out once in a while and it is common in small dogs of this breed.

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Joints popping out may be common to your Vet, but it shouldn't
be common for any breed, I would think. Did you ask your Vet if
the dog should be seen by an Ortho Vet ? Is this a correctable
condition? I'm glad she's smart enough not to jump off the bed
as she could really damage bone & muscle.

If the Vet says this can be corrected, I'd do it.

Oh dear:( I'm not very familiar with the smaller breeds but it defiitely sounds like Gracie has some orthopedic issues that need to looked into further! Joints "popping out" is definitely not normal. I have seen some smaller breeds whose feet do turn out as you describe, but, I'm not sure if this caused them any problems/was unnatural. Have you ever had a small dog like Gracie before? I don't how frightened she might be to jump down from a high bed. Still, she's so young...I worry about what problems might lay ahead if she doesn't get treated now (if it's something that can be treated) such as arthritis. I'd definitely look into a 2nd opinon; search out an ortho. specialist. Maybe you could first bring this up with your vet again? Maybe you could search out a Maltese or Shih Tzu forum and ask them if they're familiar with this condition. Hopefully you can get some answers. Please let us know how Gracie's doing:)

it is not normal but it is common, gosh i know the technical name but i just cant think of it now. I believe you can have surgery to help correct it but it is very costly & time consuming. If it does not happen often Most vets just reccomend limited activity & of course keep the dog on the slim side. If your interested in treating it i would reccomend some more info from your vet &/or a second opinion as well as a reccomendation to a specialist.
Ill try to look into it for you when i get a moment.

The condition where the knee joint pops out of place is called
luxating patella. There's more info on that here;

http://www.vetinfo.com/dpatella.html


The Vet school of any major university ought to be a big help
in discovering the problems Gracie has & how to help her. Best
of luck with this.

Thank you so much for all of your advice! It really helped us out. We found a local ortho vet that we are going to call and hopefully make an appointment with. Hopefully soon I can get a picture of her for you to see, she is sooo cute! I will keep everyone updated.