Has anyone's Dog had patella surgery?

[allfurcoatnoknickers]

Looks like my JRT's luxating patella has suddenly taken a turn for the worse and the vet is advising that the time has probably come for surgery.

Has anyone's dog had it done? How was the recovery? Did things actually improve significantly afterwards? DDog is 7, so plenty of life left in him yet but I'm hesitating to put him through a serious surgery with a long recovery if the benefit will be negligible.

Had a foster dog that had luxating patella surgery. It was very successful and the dog went on to lead an active life. Also had experience of agility dogs that have had the surgery and again had very good lifes after it.

It is usually a very successful surgery but do of course speak to the vets for your individual dog.

Our family dog who is a terrier cross had it when he was about 2. He's 13 now and hasn't been lame since (and I am a horsie person so very critical of gait!)
We did take him to hydrotherapy weekly/fortnightly for around 2 years after the op which helped him massively. (Our insurance used to cover 14 sessions a year I think?)
I would do the operation again in an heartbeat.

@allfurcoatnoknickers
Did you have the op and how did it go? Our 6 yr old Maltese is showing more signs of luxating patella bothering him vets say to manage for now, he is highly strung and very anxious so I don't want to put him thorough surgery for nothing

@frankiesaysroodlw It dramatically improved after some rest and adjustments, so we're holding off for now, but still keeping surgery in mind for the future.

@allfurcoatnoknickers
Thanks for replying. We are trying no jumping at all (it flares when he has jumped off/on sofas), a supplement recommended on Maltese website and pain relief by vets if necessary, and a soft leg brace.
We also found a vet that does the surgery at a must reduced cost to our local one - with the animal trust. £1500 compared to the £3-3.5k our vet would cost

www.animaltrust.org.uk/our-services/pet-orthopedics/
Just in case this help you in future 😊

Do it. Not my own but I know several. Yes it’s a big op but they almost always recover fully and most return to normal exercise, even agility if the right rehabilitation is given. It’s not like a hip replacement. 7 is more than likely half way through your dog’s life.

Our lab(10) had it when he was around 3ish when his knee cap suddenly popped out, then back in, during a walk (he had no problems prior to this), because he is a bigger breed our local vet couldn't do the surgery and he went to a specialist orthopaedic vet hospital instead and there was an 8 week wait which was tough as his knee cap started popping out several times a day and we had to pop it back in ((shudder)) each time so we really couldn't leave him alone.

Recovery wasn't too bad considering. The operation fell in the summer holidays and between dh (self employed) and I (could WFH some days) we managed to cover the wait for the op and his recovery time but it cost us a fortune in lost work for dh or I rarely saw dh as he worked weekends and evenings when he could (insurance thankfully covered the operation - all in vet bills totalled £4k by the end of it).

Someone being at home with him 24/7 meant he only had to wear his collar at night. iirc it was 6 weeks recovery but it wasn't bad after a couple of weeks - to keep him comfy we kept him in the living room and put things on the couches to stop him jumping up and put in a stair gate. dh slept downstairs for the first couple of weeks to keep an eye on him. We preferred that to crating him.

We did lots of mental simulation games during the time he had to be restricted then worked back up to short on lead walks again. He did have problems squatting to pee/poo for the first few days, but after that was fine. 7 years on he is still fully fit and hasn't had any other problems. The vets said they saw a slight bow in his legs in the xrays and it is possible after one knee goes the other will too - if we have some warning next time it was starting to go I would take vets advice, as he is much older now, but seriously consider getting on the waiting list for the surgery before it got to the knee popping stage again.

My old dog had both his knees fixed at different times, he had an implant screwed on to his knee rather than cutting the groove deeper, the recovery was really really quick.