Question by i think my answer is best: my dog has luxating patella and wondering whether to have surgery or not?
My dog is a pomeranian cross and she is adorable! she is five years old and just recently the vet has informed us that she has luxating patellas in her two back legs. no other vets had noticed this beforehand (idiots!!) newayz i have never really noticed her having any pain in her back legs, except we have always noticed that she doesnt like to run up stairs and sometimes has trouble jumped up heights and when she runs she kind of hops around which is one of the reasons why we love her.
now the vet said we should get surgery but the problem is it costs $ 1,000 per leg which is a huge amount of money! is it even necessary to get it done?
the last thing i want is for my dog to grow older and get bad arthritis so she cant walk and its too late for surgery =(
advice pleaso
also i dont want to put my dog through the pain of a surgery if its unnecessary as my dogs a sookie baby!

Best answer:

Answer by nekkiddoglady
I would have her knees graded to see how bad they are before considering surgury. Get a second opnion if necessary.

Surgury or not, she will most likely develop arthritis. If its a low grade luxation, pain management would be a better option than surgury. There is always a risk with surgury.. it can make things better, no change, or sometimes make things worse.

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Question by live2ride4eveh: Opinion on ACL tear surgery for my dog?
Recently my dog started limping, we took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with arthritis. We gave her prescription dog food and she started to improve. A couple days ago we threw the ball for her (3 times total she was looking sore) so she stopped and let her rest. When she got up, she couldn’t put any weight on her left hind leg. We took her to our vet yesterday (I trust him a lot, I spent my summers working in his office and he knows what he’s talking about) and he said since she had cranium something movement on her knee (which means her knee can swing towards her head -which it shouldn’t do) we should get it x-rayed. We did and it showed an ACL tear.He recommended surgery and said many of his patients have recovered completely sometimes even better with the surgery. ( I know this because I have helped him perform these surgeries and check up on the dog later) so I was talking to my dad about the best option this morning. Whether to leave it and let her rest pr the surgery. I was almost completely dead set on surgery until I found this website http://www.tiggerpoz.com/ and this is making me second guess on what I should to with her. What’s your opinion on getting the surgery or doing what the website suggests?
Thank you!
My dog is 7 years old and she’s a boarder collie blue healer mix so not small but not huge.

Best answer:

Answer by Critters WCX
I think witht his condition VERY STRICT crate rest may solve the problem. If anything, it won’t hurt, and at least you tried that route first.

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Question by •Poppy•: DS: Advice/Opinions? (Possible surgery on an older dog)?
I have an 11 year old, male, unneutered (if that even matters) Sheltie named Sam. He’ll be 12 in mid-October.

He’s never had any kind of surgery whatsoever. He’s, in fact, a very healthy dog overall – a bit of arthritis and he had Parvo as a pup but since has been in good shape.

Last spring, I noticed he had a bit of a bump on his eyelid, touching eye. Naturally, I was concerned and called the vet and explained it. She said if he didn’t seem overly bothered by it to wait until his vaccinations that were coming up (she seemed to know what it was).

Anyway, she looked at it and said that it wasn’t a big deal – I forget what it was. She said if he began to paw at it, or if it began to get puss-y to bring him back in and she would remove it, or if he ever needed another surgery she would remove it then.

Anyway, his eye is starting to get sort of puss-y and we have made an appointment for him tonight. I’m just concerned (maybe unnecessarily) if she suggests any kind of surgery for this dog what may happen. Obviously I will talk to her about the risks beforehand but this dog is just everybody’s favorite little guy and I cannot fathom something happening to him.

Anyone out there had anything similar?
Thanks for the answers so far. He’s got pretty great teeth, so he’s never had them cleaned, no. His appointments at 5 so I will keep you posted as to what she says.

Best answer:

Answer by Premier Snow
As you probably already know, there is always a risk when anesthesia is used, and probably more so with an elderly dog. The Vet will want to do blood tests before the surgery, to see if his counts are all in the normal range. I don’t think the Vet would even risk putting the dog through surgery if the blood test results came back poor. So, I guess you really don’t have much of a choice since this thing seems to be bothering the dog and is indeed getting worse. I have several friends that have had surgeries on elderly dogs, including a surgery for bloat. All were successful. I personally haven’t had any experience, thus far, with a senior dog needing to have something like this done.

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Question by ♥♥Mum to Superkids Baby on board♥♥: Surgery for an 11 year old dog. Risks?
I have an 11 year old staffy X lab. He’s in pretty good health, he has arthritis and slightly failing eyesight, but health wise he is good, very slightly overweight due to exercise restrictions lately. He needs to have surgery for a torn cruciate ligament and I’m just wondering if his age poses any extra risks with the anesthetic or recovery?

Best answer:

Answer by confirmed
Blood work-BEFORE- will show liver problems.

Surgery is NOT necessary in most cases.

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Question by SuzieD: Laser surgery for dogs – for arthritis type issues? Any one familiar with this?
My 8 year old yellow lab has fairly bad arthritis in on rear ankle from OCD. (puppy growth too fast). It is hard to see her be so slow on walks. Now I have a border collie puppy who has become her best friend. But you can tell she wants to really run and play. She is on low dose prednisone and sees her vet regularly. I just wish there was some way to help. It is the hock (ankle) joint and arthroscopic surgery is very tricky and often not successful. I took her to a veterinary specialty practice today for some allergy testing. They had a card on the front desk – saying Laser Therapy Heals. Drug free , surgery free, non-invasive-. They mention conditions like arthritis, infections, tendons, tissue trauma. I have never heard of this but am very interested if you know anything. Thanks.

Best answer:

Answer by Rotten Rotts Lets Restore Sanity in the DS
I haven’t heard of that but it is worth looking into for that area of the body. They are doing remarkable stuff with laser surgeries

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Question by Jemma: My dog needs Knee Surgery???
I have a 3 year old golden retriever, at his check-up a few days ago the vet said that he is going to need surgery to screw his kneecap into place as it pops out. The Vet said he would need x-rays while sedated, then a specialist to look at the x-rays, surgery and I would assume some sort of rehab afterward. I was wondering if anyone elses dog has had to have this surgery, how the dog did afterwards and how much it cost??
Without the surgery the vet said he would have really bad arthritis starting at a young age and would have to be on pain medicine for the rest of his life and we do not want to put him through that. So please help!

Thank You all in advance!!

Best answer:

Answer by heather_766
My friends dog had hip sugery, they said that she would get bad arthrites without the sugery. She is doing fine now and she had it back in August.

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Question by Cheryl: can a large dog who has a cruciate lig tear heal without surgery?
He is a 92 lb male german shepherd. 18 months. He already had elbow surgery so his front legs are week. the vet does not guarantee the surgery.Nor does it prevent arthritis.

Best answer:

Answer by Painted Pony
Chances of a large dog healing a torn ACL without surgery is almost nil. His size and weight does not permit the ligament to heal on its own. Even with the surgery, he will have a fairly lengthy recovery period in which he will have to be confined with only short potty breaks on a leash etc.

Small and toy breeds can often heal without the surgery, but larger breeds are not so lucky. And, even in the most successful scenario, any dog can develop arthritis with or without previous surgeries or injuries.

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Question by Tamra S: My dog has an ulcer in her eye that has not gone away. She has had surgery to remove the lesion, no success.?
My dog has an ulcer in both eyes and has been to our local vet who did an operation on the one eye and tried to cut out the ulcer and it didn’t work. My dog is a female dalmation estimated to be around 12 or 13. She has arthritis where a previous owner abused her by kicking her. My vet suspects that something else is going on since she developed the ulcer and it was untreatable with drops, then surgery, and now has one in the other eye. I am looking for something to give her for comfort at this point. Are there any type of drops that I can put in her eyes that won’t sting and might give comfort? She does seem to have a hard time seeing. My vet says she is looking through a haze and it is like sand paper in your eyes.

Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by BUCK_ID
Your vet would be better suited to answer this question. But something else you need to consider is the quality of life for your dog. 12 yrs old is a ripe old age for any dog. If your dog is in pain, and her eye sight is beginning to fade, you want to think about doing the humane thing for her, as hard as that mght be to think about. Best of luck.

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Question by lileve563: My dog tore his cruciate ligament. He is only 14 pounds, should I elect to do the surgery?
It seems most of the information out there is for larger dogs. It also seems that the surgery only delays the arthritis for a few months of years. He’s only a year and a half and I don’t know what to do. He’s a very active dog and the surgery seems to have a really long recovery time. What do I do?!

Best answer:

Answer by papaw
Believe me, hind sight is the better teacher. When I look at one of my older dogs today and the arthritic problems and lack of mobility she has, I wouldn’t think twice about having the surgery if I could turn back the clock!

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Question by ananimalloverinkentucky: how to get my older dog to use her leg after knee surgery?
late year my 11 yo dog tore the acl’s in her knee..it was the end of august she had the surgery. weather turned off cold and bad after her 6 wk restrictions were up so she was unable to rip n run due to muddy outside though we did take her for walk..wouldnt let her lie on ground because of arthritis…over the winter she figured out she could drag her rear with her front legs and still keep moving. when we tell her to use her leg she will walk on it fine but she has gotten so lazy over the winter it drives me crazy at times seeing her drag herself..for 11 yrs old she is still very alert and active but just wont use her leg like she should. she is in no pain now and vet said she is just being lazy which is what i knew all along. i even tried one day wrapping a towel around her to support her to help her use the leg more and after she figured what i was doing she quit using both legs so i stopped that.

just need to know how to make lazy ole granny use that leg more

Best answer:

Answer by foreveryoung
We took our dog swimming, Dogs love water, hope yours does.

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