Luxating patella
Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei
Anyhow i am sure you have all heard me mention one of our peis who has hip
displaysia in both hips and two luxating patellars. One knee has been
operated on and the other one hasnt.
The knee that hasnt' been operated on is slowly deteriorating to the point
the other knee was. We have had advice that a Deangelo stitch would help.
This would save the operation for a while and stitches the knee and joint to
stop it moving as much.(I am sure there is a more technical explanation and
forgive me for mine). Has anyone had this experience and does anyone have
any advice for us. We are very reluctant to have his knee done again as it
took months of recovery with the other one and being he now has severe hip
displaysia, don't think his joints can support him being on three legs for
approx 6 weeks.
Please help, thank you.
Judi Todd
problems. Poor boy.
I've not heard of this procedure myself, so I can't tell you much about
it. But I do know that the normal patellar surgery usually offers
immediate relief for the dog so to be honest, I'm sure that even tho
he'd be a bit unstable with hips like they are and the other knee done,
I'd say it still sounds like the best option for him.
Have you tried putting him on glucosamine and chondroitin? Also MSM is
good for joint health. MSM is cheaper than the other two combination.
Also, if he tends to be on the 'heavy" side, you might cut his calories
and take some weight off of him to put less stress on not only the
patellas, but the hips too. Vitamin-C has also shown to be of some
benefit to dysplastic dogs, and might even help with the patellar
subluxation.
All in all, I guess I'd go ahead and have the surgery done, put him on
the glucosamine and chondroitin, and also the MSM in high doses, slim
him down a bit if he's not slim now, and keep him from being active
until the knee heals from surgery. Unless the vet can give you very
high scores on this other method, I'd not mess around. I'd just get it
done and help take some of the stress from his hips.
Good luck with him, and keep us posted on his progress. Oh yes, and
give him a hug for being such a good boy even though he has to be in
lots of pain.
Judi
Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei
He has been one skeletal nightmare, but we love him to bits and will do
anything we can to help him. He recovered well from surgery last time but it
did take approx 6 weeks to fully recover. He is on Catrophen injections 3
monthly which help him with his athritis, as he has arthritis in both knees
and hips, is this similar to what you are referring to? I am taking him to
the vet this week and will ask him about all this.
He is actually a lean dog as we have never really been able to keep weight
on him(probably a good thing for him), so that isn't an issue. With all
these problems he still does go up stairs and runs around, just not quite as
often and we do try to restrict him from doing such things.
Thank you for your advice and I shall discuss all this with my vet. My vet
is fantastic, but will refer him to a specialist for surgery.
I shall let you know how he goes.
"Judi Todd" <Blugr...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:10559-40...@storefull-3134.bay.webtv.net...
Judi Todd
Judi
Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei
opinion that surgery is not the best option for our Rolly. He believes it
would do more damage to the other joints and at the moment he is not in
severe pain and it only goes out approx once every two days and only for a
couple of minutes as he has learnt to put it back in himself. So we will
continue on his arthritis injections and even give half doses if required in
between his 3 monthly dose. He is doing alot better already since his
injection. They do help in the meantime and although not a cure it eases the
joints for him. He is still pretty lively so only time will tell.
"Judi Todd" <Blugr...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:26358-40A...@storefull-3133.bay.webtv.net...
Judi Todd
heard of this being done for a luxating patella. And if it is a
steroid, I'd be VERY concerned as to what it can do to the other organs
in the dog.
I somethings think vets like to "prolong" treatment of dogs' ailments in
order to make the most money off of it, when they know that in the end,
it WILL need to have surgery.
If the shots are steroids, those are only "masking" the problem. Much
like an aspirin can make our headaches go away, but if we have recurring
headaches, they "may" be an indication of something very serious going
on.
The vet's comment that doing surgery may do harm to the other joints
kind of baffles me. Why would repairing ONE joint harm another? If
anything, it was take the stress off of the other joints, lessening the
chances of severe arthritis developing in them.
Take me for example. I shattered my right ankle 16 years ago. I was on
crutches for a year. In the meantime, when I started putting weight on
my ankle, I had to "over-compensate_ with my left leg, to take the
stress off of the shattered one. This in turn caused me a lot of
problems in the joints in my left leg, especially the knee as I had to
walk with a different "style" of movement in order to be able to walk.
My right ankle does not "bend" as it used to so in order to be able to
walk, I have to (very difficult to explain here) walk with a different
gait than I normally would, so that the right anlke can move forward
without my stumbling. (try walking without benidng one of your ankles
and note the difference in the gait of your other leg).
So if your dog has a bad kneecap (luxating patella), he will overuse his
other legs and joints in a way that can cause wear and tear in the other
joints. He will most likely lift that leg and move in a hopping motion.
If you were to watch this hopping motion in slow motion on tape, you
would see the extra exertion that the other legs and joints in the body
must perform to make up for the one leg's lack of locomotion.
Gee, didn't mean to write a book, but find out WHAT the injection is the
vet is giving your dog, and let me know. You may very well see that
your vet is only soaking you for more money in the long run, when he
knows surgery WILL be the end result anyway.
Judi
Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei
The injection is called Cartrophen and is used for Arthritis in dogs. Our
dog is full of athritis, which is why he is having these injections. There
are numerous articles on the internet about it and it is used a lot of the
time for hip deisplaysia and luxating patellars. Our vet gives us the vial
of catrtrophen and saves us about 75% of the cost of it. It is used one
injection every 3 months and can give half doses if dog seems to be severe.
We done a heap of research on this before we decided to use this treatment.
Our vet that performed the patella surgery recommended this (as a heap of
athritis was scraped out of his knee. Chris can tell
yhttp://www.compasnac.com/cancvp/12/1240/1240000.htmou as he watched the
surgery) and our regular vet definately encouraged this and said it was a
great treatment. this is a good article, but if you do a search on the
internet, you will find a heap of articles
www.compasnac.com/cancvp/12/1240/1240000.htm
The reason our vet is skeptical of surgery is that he will be putting all
his weight on all his other crappy arthritic joints soley for approx 4
weeks. We had the other knee done two years ago and 12 months ago had x-rays
of hip hips and knees and the one that had surgery on it, was already
showing signs of deterioration.
It is the opinion of two vets that initially the first patella operated on
would have definately sped up the process of the other patella as he would
have had his weight on all the other joints. (if that makes sense)
let me knowhat you think
regards robyn
"Judi Todd" <Blugr...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:17947-40B...@storefull-3136.bay.webtv.net...
Judi Todd
was giving steroid shots into the joint. You know how dumb some vets
can be with this breed.
Judi
Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei
I, like you have probably lost count of all the e-mails and phone calls we
get about vets and their stupid comments, and diagnoses. I understand
totally. Our vet is a vet who will listen to anything we have to say and
will always give us things to read up on if we ask and will go and do
research himself. For example he wasn't familiar with Amyloidosis in
shar-pei and he went off and done his research. This is also a vet who will
ring you at home on a Saturday night at 8.00pm. We are lucky we have him,
but we do also use other vets for eye tacking/surgery ect... We have also
gone through a lot of vets to get to this one and always have a back up vet
just in case. Who would be a breeder really?????
Robynnews:15894-40...@storefull-3136.bay.webtv.net...