2 y.o. Dog with patellar luxation - non-surgical methods to try?

[lastreetpreacher]

Hi! I have a 2 yr old female pup - she’s supposedly an Australian shepherd/blue heeler mix, but she’s only 25 lbs and doesn’t really resemble either breed visually. She’s extremely active - her biggest joy in life is running and jumping as high as she can to catch her frisbee.

A few months back, we were playing in the backyard and as she was running back to us with the frisbee, she just went down. She just sat there and cried for about 30 seconds and was holding her back leg up, we rubbed her leg and then she stood up and seemed ok. We went in for the day, but continued playing frisbee with her over the next few months.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago - she started limping on and off. Sometimes she hops around on 3 feet and holds her one back leg all the way up, and sometimes she weight on it and seems to be okay. She never cries out or acts like she’s in pain, but I’m not sure if she would.

We took her to the vet last week and he diagnosed her with patellar luxation. Since she’s so young and active, he recommended surgery. He also put her on anti-inflammatory meds but those don’t seem to be helping.

We are definitely willing to go the surgical route if we need to - Cali is will be miserable if she’s not able to play frisbee anymore. But the risks are concerning to me. So I’m curious about non-surgical things we can try before going through with the surgery.

We have treats with glucosamine/chondroitin that we’ve been giving her. She isn’t overweight at all so losing weight wouldn’t be a factor. Any recommendations on foods, other supplements, or anything at all would be appreciated. TYIA!

 

[americandeist]

@lastreetpreacher I think in the case of a dog that wants to run every single day to and jump around etc. Surgery would be worth it. I can see for a cat or small dog breed it’s easier to keep them resting but for a herding dog that needs a job and will otherwise be restless and anxious. Reducing exercise long term is not an option. But note, I don’t know much about the issue, my opinion doesn’t carry a lot of weight.

I would google the issue more and get a better understanding of the pros and cons. Also, get a second opinion to make you feel more confident moving forward with a decision. There is never anything wrong with getting a second opinion. It’s a helpful no risk option.

You could also post in ask a vet sub.

 

[lastreetpreacher]

@americandeist Thank you! I did post there also, hoping to get a response. But I agree with you - she’s so young and she’s really the most active dog I’ve ever been around, we can’t take that from her. I guess I was hoping there’s be something we could try before really considering surgery.. but if I’m being honest with myself, supplements/healthy food isn’t going to fix the actual issue. Getting a second opinion will be next on my list

 

[bfoj1950]

@lastreetpreacher Vet Tech here. Did your Vet grade the luxation? Mild luxation can sometimes be treated with Physiotherapy and controlled exercise. Range of motion exercises, swimming, massage, knee braces. You're wanting to build up the muscle to help stabilize the knee cap.

In higher grade luxation, surgery is usually the answer. After surgery, strict rest is needed for at least 6 weeks.

Either way, to avoid future issues and luxation, you want to avoid high impact exercise. I know that's rough, esp for dogs who live to jump and run.

 

[aurelia]

@lastreetpreacher I had a cat go through this last year. The vet immediately jumped at surgery because it makes them $ and, although we were willing, the vet just totally ghosted us when he said he was going to discuss with the surgeon. We think the surgeon said it's not severe enough, and the vet didn't want to admit it because he was so insistent, so he never contacted us. Obviously we switched vets after that.

I took her to a new vet later that year, I explained the situation and she said surgery is only for extreme cases where the kneecap floats WAY out of the joint or doesn't go back in easily and she said they have lots of other treatment options they can try first, so I recommend finding a vet who treats surgery as a last resort unless your dog is in immediate pain. One option I read about for dogs is a brace that she can wear that will hold her leg in place to allow it to heal. There was no such option for cats, but I would 100% recommend you do this before trying surgery...

Our cat seemed really similar to you. It would only happen when she was active, and we're relatively certain it only started because she must have injured a ligament around her knee, which weakened and destabilized it. Otherwise, she likely would have had it happening in both legs because it would be genetic and not curable without surgery.

So basically we did two things

1. Glucosamine powder in her food 2x per day
2. LOTS OF REST

The 2nd one was hard, but probably the most important. We had to put her in a room with no furniture so she couldn't jump up and down from surfaces, and just kept her super inactive for about a month. She REALLY wanted to go out and play, because like you said I don't think it hurts when it happens it just scares them.

So I recommend not taking your dog for any walks or playing at all for 2-3 weeks. It's going to be tough, and she's going to be sad, but it could prevent you from having to do invasive surgery that may or may not make any difference.

It took a total of 3 months of the frequency of the dislocation sloooooowly decreasing to no longer occurring. in December 2021 it would happen multiple times a day, January maybe every few days, February once a week, now it hasn't happened since Feb 2022 and she's back to how she was before the injury.

Long reply, but I hope this helps. It was scary while it happened, especially in the first few weeks when it was bad, but she's a happy healthy cat now and we avoided spending thousands on surgery that could have ended up making things worse.

 

[lastreetpreacher]

@aurelia I’m so happy your cat was able to heal up after all that! It definitely is scary. I really appreciate your suggestion and will def. talk it over with my husband but… I think she would be in more pain from us not allowing her to play lol. Me saying she’s an active dog is an understatement. We have been keeping her indoors except taking her out to pee/poo, but even indoors she finds ways to play. She’s always bringing us her toys and flinging them onto our lap, then she just looks at us expectantly like, “why haven’t you thrown it to me yet?” Lol. I guess we could lock her up in the laundry room with no toys, but man, she’d be miserable, I don’t think we could do that for more than a few minutes let alone a few weeks.

 

[aurelia]

@lastreetpreacher Oh it was miserable, but don't forget surgery would make her even more miserable and would still require the same activity restriction, with a bonus of extra pain.