My dog's luxating patella recurred. How severe is a second surgery?

If Stella is having difficulty walking/running, surgery may be indicated. Your vet will be able to grade the luxation by checking to see how far it moves out of the groove. She will then be able to determine whether or not surgery is necessary on this leg. Good luck! I hope Stella is feeling better soon.

I'm not sure what you're asking. This is a common surgery and could help prevent ligament tears within the knee joint. It does have up to a 12 week time frame for complete recovery and most dogs do very well. If this didn't address your specific concerns please repost or consider submitting a consult request so more question/answer format can be done.

Whether or not surgery is recommended for this condition depends on how much it is bothering the dog. Many dogs with luxating patellas have very little lameness and are not overly bothered by this problem - so in that case, surgery would not be recommended. If Penny is significantly lame and painful in her knee and your vet believes that it is due to her luxating patella, then surgery would certainly be a reasonable option as long as she is otherwise healthy. Many older dogs have surgery for various conditions with no problems, provided that there are no underlying health issues (heart disease, kidney disease, etc.) that would increase the risk of anesthesia. If your dog does have some chronic health issues, I would recommend discussing the pros and cons of surgery with your vet.

A second opinion won’t hurt or maybe a recheck with the first to clarify something things No surgery can undue arthritis but it can stabilize the patella and minimize further arthritis in the future. I would clarify if this is what he believes or if there is something else going on that is causing pain such as concurrent hip disease. It is unfortunate to spend that much money in a surgery and put your pet thru a surgery when they will still be in pain

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Goodness! I think that if he is using the leg like he was BEFORE running off then he is probably fine. He may be more sore tomorrow so we may need to wait. I would be sure you are giving the anti-inflammatories as prescribed by the surgeon. I would also touch base with them tomorrow before the weekend. Be sure on future walks that his collar is tight and he can't slip out again. Good luck!

Patellar luxation is an unusual sort of problem. Bracing won't help in this situation, as the problem is that the kneecap (the patella) slides back-and-forth across the surface of the knee joint and doesn't sit securely in the groove, as it should. Dogs can be mildly to severely affected by this problem. Those with a low grade (1 or 2) patellar luxation may exhibit intermittent lameness that usually resolves quickly, and may sustain some mild arthritis over time. Higher grade luxations (3 or 4) cause more long-term lameness, and with grade 4 luxations the dog may not be able to use the leg at all. Also, luxations of grade 3 and 4 tend to produce more substantial arthritis, and if your veterinarian has told you that your dog has a luxation of either 3 or 4, you should consider surgery to stabilize the joint and prevent further arthritis from occurring. The surgery is usually highly successfully in resolving the problem.

The problems with a patellar luxation is that they tend to get worse over time, and while a grade 1 doesn't require surgery to fix, if the luxation becomes grade 3 or 4 over time, surgery is required to fix it. As long as you aware that this is a possibility and you may need to pay for a surgery in the future, you can still get the puppy. If you don't want to face the potential of paying for surgery in the future, then I would pass. There's no guarantee the puppy will need surgery, but there's no guarantee it will not. I hope this helps!