Winni's knee

[Eleni3]

Woke up to my Winni crying and went to get him to put him in bed with me only to find he could hardly walk. His left hind leg was collapsing under him He didn't seem to be in pain and was crying as he always does at 3am to snuggle with me. I am beside myself. I took him to the vet immediately at 7 and they took him in to sedate and take X-rays. Dr thinks it is his knee, which has dislocated. Oh my gosh! I am so worried.
Has anyone gone through this luxating patella issue? My other Yorkie has these issues, but is doing fine. But, my poor Winni can barely walk…falling down constantly. Sick with worry!

[Cat2861]

I am sorry to hear about Winni. I can't help you in that area but I'm sure others that can help will come along shortly. Glad you took him to the vet so they can determine exactly what is wrong. Sending prayers that he will feel better soon!

[intilis]

Oh poor Winni. I'm sending prayers for a speedy recovery.

[GracieJane]

Just listen to your vet and see a surgeon if they recommend. Luxating patellas are graded 1-4, and the degree of luxation determines if surgery is needed. The experts can tell you so much, and the good news is that if the surgery is done well, results can be excellent. Just a good bit of cost and several weeks of recovery.

In the meanwhile, the vet may prescribe medication to ease the discomfort for Winni.

Hoping all goes well and it is just a quickly healing "something else."

[chickensmith]

Poor guy! I hope he's feeling better soon!

[gemy]

Just wondering if they also did hip Xrays. If LP is severe and requires surgery I highly going to an orthopaedic surgeon to assess and then if surgery is required to do the surgery.

[Eleni3]

Today is about 36 hours past and Winni is standing, but that little leg is very limp. Seeing another vet for a second opinion this week. I was hoping my little boy would be up and running. This is not the case. Thank you for your concerns. My heart is very sad.

[Batgirl38]

There are exercises you can do to determine where the pain is coming from. Workout each joint; the foot the knee and the hip. That way you will kinda know what part should be X-rayed. My puppy has just been diagnosed with Legg Calve Perthes. Which is in the hip.

[pickled_onions]

I may have some experience with this issue, first off my older dog Pickle is a corgi mix

He is suppose to be in the 18-21 lb range and we let him get too far past that as he is a chow hound, he got up to 25 lbs at one point and now he's around 21 lbs.

Well he was playing with his brother Onion and some how he dislocated his knee as well, and he gave out a yelp than could not walk. He limped his way into his crate and started trembling badly.

So we took him into the vet the same day, and they gave him x ray and also this powerful pain killer medicine to take home and he was on it for 3 days to relieve the pain and allow him to rest better. He was confined to crates whenever we could not watch him to make sure he didn't over exert himself.

Docs recommendations, first off they said he was a grade 2-3 on the laxating patella thing which was causing his lameness. All vet speak for saying he's at the point where its savable, he said grade 4 is when you'll need drastic issues like surgery.

1. If your dog is overweight keep him within his weight range, it'll be less stress on his knee joints.
2. Keep your dog to low energy play only, after he/she is fully healed. Right now it may just mean letting your dog rest a lot, give TLC.
3. No more jumping, ever! Pickle would always have free roam in the house when we're home or not home, because he doesn't wreck anything. He loved sitting on our sofa, but whenever the neighbor, postman, servicemen, even jehova witness would knock on our door or the neighbor's door (we live in a open condo community so we share a common entrance) he would leap off the sofa and land on his legs causing damage.
- We resorted to fencing up the sofa entirely, no more high surfaces for Pickle to get on. Even a 2 foot jump for a dog is damaging in the long term.
4) I don't know how much this helps but I am giving my dogs, both of them, those joint supplement things, bought a bunch from Costco and I feed it to him with food.

None the less, I carry Pickle up and down the stairs now, even though he shows no signs of knee issues right now. I noticed through research you want to trim/clip the nails to make sure they aren't too long, if it's long they mess the balance of their walk causing undue stress. Sadly he no longer gets to sleep on the bed, since he has been known to hop off the bed at night.

Ultimately this is an issue with many breeds of dog, I think the only thing we can do is prevention, as they get older it'll get worse, but anything we can do to prevent the need for surgery is a win, the vet would not recommend us to go through surgery because that's too major, unless it was at a point where it hindered Pickle's ability to even walk.

Sorry this is a long response, I hope Winni feels better, I'm sure he/she will recover from this. About a month after we took Pickle to the vet he was playing with Onion and he must of snagged a loose carpet or something but it happened again, this time he recovered within a few hours, but his last episode has been over 4 months now (knock on wood) that it doesn't come back.

Good luck and sorry this must be stressful seeing them in pain.

[Eleni3]

Thank you for your words and prayers everyone. This is so heartbreaking to see in my baby. As of tonight he could go potty without falling over and he stood to eat his dinner for about 4 minutes. He is standing, but that little leg looks so weak. I am praying he will be OK. He is being crated and is adjusting. I never used crating. I have put a pen in the kitchen and will see how he does tomorrow before making the decision about putting him there when I go to work. I am concerned that he will be too long in a crate and unable to relieve himself.
Looking back, there were signs of patella problems…unable to jump on the couch, so we used stairs, little skip in his run every once and awhile, and then, a couple months ago…the same lameness for about 5 minutes, which we thought was his leg being asleep (he had immediately snapped back that time).

[Lovetodream88]

It sounds like he is in pain and I would suggest a consult with an orthopedic surgeon.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by GracieJane

Just listen to your vet and see a surgeon if they recommend. Luxating patellas are graded 1-4, and the degree of luxation determines if surgery is needed. The experts can tell you so much, and the good news is that if the surgery is done well, results can be excellent. Just a good bit of cost and several weeks of recovery.

In the meanwhile, the vet may prescribe medication to ease the discomfort for Winni.

Hoping all goes well and it is just a quickly healing "something else."

The grade does not determine whether surgery is needed per say.

[Eleni3]

Winni can stand, not completely stable, but he is standing!! He looks better, but the little leg still is slightly limp and isn't bending fully. Praying and praying.

[danniko]

Did your vet check that he didn't tear his ACL/CCL? I think they do something called a drawer test to see if the knee moves in and out. His leg sounds like Sophie's did when she tore hers. It was really limp and weak looking but as the days went on she would slowly try to do more with it. Unfortunately though, she needed surgery for it and it is still in recovery/physio stages but is definitely doing much better! We also went through patella surgery about a year ago.

I wish you and your little one lots of luck and sending many positive thoughts!