Potential surgery

AllisonW423

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I apologize for the length!

I have an adorable, super-active 2 y.o. Boston Terrier named Chompers. Lately, she has been limping occasionally on her back leg. The vet said that it was due to a luxating patella- basically, her kneecap doesn?t move properly on her leg. This is apparently a common problem with the breed. She doesn?t appear to be in pain (no yelping, whimpering, change in activity), the knee is just not functioning properly.

The most common fix for this problem is an invasive surgery. However, I have been doing a LOT of research and it seems that people have also had success with a combination of supplements, physical therapy, diet change to reduce inflammation, etc. The surgery would be the traditional, mainstream option though; we?d have to go to a special PT/holistic vet for the alternate treatment.

There are some downsides to surgery:

-Dangers of anesthesia

-Long, painful recovery time during which my dog would not be allowed to be her normal, exuberant, bouncy self. I?m really worried that the leg wouldn?t heal well because she?s so active. It was all we could do after she got spayed to keep her stitches closed, and she didn?t have any pain meds.

-There is a 50% chance that the surgical intervention would regress and the knee would go back to where it is now.

The reason that vets tend to recommend surgery is that the knee can develop arthritis if not treated. However, from what I?ve seen, there is a big possibility that arthritis would develop even with surgery!

H and I are the kind of people who would do anything for our dog. Like if we were all three starving, the dog would get any food we have before we ate. This would be a really expensive surgery, but she?s our baby, and we want to make the right decision for her. Has anyone had experience with this issue or any advice on choosing the right option?

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AllisonW423

Also, sorry about the formatting issues. Not sure what that is at the beginning and end of my post...

aggiebug

It depends on how bad the luxation is as to what I recommend. When your vet was evaluating the patrols he should have given it a grade of 1-4, 4 being the worst. my guess is that she has a grade 2 or 3. Grade 2s I see a lot of owners not do surgery on and manage well for life. grade 3s tend to really have issues throughout their life and seem to benefit from the surgery. As far as arthritis goes, the surgery will not stop the development of arthritis in that joint as it is almost inevitable at this point, however an effective surgery should slow the progression of arthritis in the joint drastically. This surgery can be a tough call to make and the answer really depends on you and your little pup. If done right the chance of complications/ regression after surgery is relatively small but it really depends on who does the surgery. Rehab can help train her to use the leg more effectively without luxating her patella and there are joint supplements that may help slow the progression of arthritis but I have found they lose their efficacy the worse the knee grade is.

TheLinkBride

I agree with getting the luxation graded, personally though I would get a consult with an orthopedic specialist to get it evaluated and graded before making any decisions.  My parent's treated their girl's luxating patella for awhile but it did worsen over time and they did get the surgery done by an orthopedic surgeon.  She recovered very well.  She did have arthritis in that knee still but after the surgery things were much better and the supplements were able to help.  I think you are right to consider all options, but I would get an evaluation from a specialist so you know more what you are dealing with.

AllisonW423

Thank you both for the replies! I am going to take her to get an xray and have it completely evaluated, and then perhaps I can make a better decision. We have a great vet school about an hour away, maybe they'll have some specialists that can give me a second opinion. I just wish she could talk so that I could discuss the options with her!