Luxating Patella Surgery

G

Georgia'sMum

Forums Regular
My sheltie who will be one on boxing day has been operated on for LP almost 4 weeks ago. Thankfully she is recovering and the vet is happy with her progress. I was just wondering if anyone else has had a sheltie who has needed this surgery and how did he/she recover in the long run.

This has been a scary time for us, we've never had a dog need such serious surgery. But hopefully we get a good outcome.
 
I'm so glad that the surgery went well and things are progressing nicely.

I have no experience with this specifically, but did have a long road with rehab / reconditioning my dog from a severe soft tissue injury. I'm very empathetic for your situation in dealing with a young dog.

All the best to you and keep us posted.
 
Hope all is going well, I do not have any experience with that kind of injury. My pup is just finishing six weeks of medication for an injury, so I can sympathize.
 
I do not have any experiences to share with you, but I am glad that she is progressing nicely.

Please keep us updated!
 
Thanks everyone, the vet said her main issue at the moment is loss of muscle mass in the thigh area on top of the knee. Its making the joint weak, but thank goodness everything is in place. At the moment we're going on three slow walks up and down the street a day. In a couple of days I plan to increase the distance a bit, as she seems to be coping with it. In a couple of weeks she can start swimming, I think that will be great for her.

The thing that shocked me is that she's lost so much fitness in a short period of time. Although thats improving a little bit each day too. Only a week ago, she would absolutely exhausted walking up 10 houses and back, she'd just flop on the floor the second she was inside. Thats hard to see in such a young dog.
 
My Gypsy had this done just prior to her first birthday. If I remember correctly she limped for about 2 mos after but really showed progress when I added Glucosomine. She is 3 1/2 and has many health issues and is not as active as I would like her to be. When she over does it the limp returns.when she gets groomed I can tell it bothers her for a couple days after so I wouldn't say it has been a total success for her. The plus side is her Knee cap is not popping out every third step she takes. I think if your dog has no other health issues you will probably see a better outcome. I guess I should add the surgery was done properly I just don't consider it a total success because she still has pain issues in that leg.
 
Luxating patellas are not a common problem in shelties as some other breeds. I have not seen one in practice but I have seen many dogs of others breeds. The main factors that go into success of the surgery seems to be experience and skill of the surgeon mainly(huge factor-I refer all mine to specialists), next followed by age and weight of the patient(overwieght tends to have more problems) and next PT following the surgery.

The majority of my patients who have the surgery done by good broaded surgeons have had really good long term outcomes. A couple even do obedience and agility.
 
Justicemom said:
Luxating patellas are not a common problem in shelties as some other breeds. I have not seen one in practice but I have seen many dogs of others breeds. The main factors that go into success of the surgery seems to be experience and skill of the surgeon mainly(huge factor-I refer all mine to specialists), next followed by age and weight of the patient(overwieght tends to have more problems) and next PT following the surgery.

The majority of my patients who have the surgery done by good broaded surgeons have had really good long term outcomes. A couple even do obedience and agility.
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I did a lot of research prior to the surgery, as I really wanted her to live a long, happy and painfree life. And the two main factors that came up was you need a great experienced surgeon, and you need to take real care in the recovery period. Well the surgeon we went with does this surgery on a weekly basis and came very highly recommended. I went quite a way from home to go to him, it also was more expensive but I think its worth it. This is not simple surgery, imagine how skinny those little legs are under all the fluff.

And whilst she's been in recovery I've done everything the vet has advised. If anything I've taken things slower than the vet recommended because Georgia wasn't coping early on. But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Her strength and stamina are improving everyday, she's a happy go lucky girl, whose happy with life in general.

She does walk on all four feet, and only hops if she wants to run or walk faster. She still doesn't go anywhere off lead, she's too eager to run and jump for that. We found out once the x-rays were done that this was caused by an injury. It wasn't anything obvious like being hit by a car, she could have jumped and landed funny, we'll never know. As the vet said this is not common in the breed, we were just very unlucky and so was Georgia.

Thanks for all the good wishes. It helps to talk about it. I've been home with her virtually the whole time since surgery, so its been a very long 4 weeks for me.
 
I can certainly relate My Ember had surgery in Aug to repair a displaced superfical digital tendon. I too went to a speciallist. The road to recover was not easy. We took it very easy with recovery and she had to be in the cast 4 wks longer than first stated(total of 6 weeks). I had 3 rechecks with the surgeon and there was talk of going back into the joint because she wasn't responding as she should. The swelling that occur in 1 day after the cast was off was massive. It occured 2x and Ember would scream in pain. As long as the joint was immobile it was fine.

We decided to give it week with the cast off as I really didn't want to put her back under unless really needed. She was kenneled 24/7 and only walked on leash to go potty. She did nothing else. Thankfully she turned the corner that week as she slowly use the leg. I did rehab with range motion, tendon loading exercises and slow walking followed by massage and ice. That was the beginning of Oct.

In the last 2 months I have added more and more exercise and only just around Thanksgiving was she allowed to run and exercise as she likes. She is now as strong as she was before she surgery. I still worry she is going to reinjure herself and have really worked on her weight to make sure she is carrying at little burren on that leg as possible. I am hoping to start up agiliy again after the New Year if we met our weight goal.

Keep working with Georgia, it sounds like she is progressing just fine. Sometimes it just takes alittle longer. 4 weeks isn't too long after such an involved surgery. Sending good thoughts for a full recovery.:smile2:
 
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