Luxating Patella

Been to the vets today, Cairo has been limping on and off for the past few days, Diagnosis is a Luxating Patella, just waiting on getting the go ahead from teh insurance. 2 Questions

1 - Anyone else had this problem or operation

2 - Anyone else dealt with Argos Pet Insurance.


Feel pretty worried at the moment, vet says its pretty straightforward and nothing to worry about but me & my wife are worried

I'm really sorry I dont have a clue on either, whats the vet said and what does it entail? If the vets says its straightforward then lets hope. Insurance is a something I haven't claimed against, does sound worrying but I don't know what it is. Off to have a look.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1569&aid=457


Found this at least they say its commen and best caught early.

It's a relatively simple operation normally, and one that most vets will have good experience of. A lot of breeds suffer from it, it's hereditary. I didn't think staffs got it much, but I know that Bull Terriers do.

After the op he'll need to rest for a while, but he'll be up around & back to normal before you know it.

Had the op yesterday morning, Argos sorted it all out with a pre op authorisation, Surgeon says everything has gone really well but the wee man is very drowsy today and has a very cornish pastyesque scar on his leg

Bless, pleased to hear it went well, and cornish pasty, that gave me a giggle

Awww he will feel better soon look at his little face bless him

Poor little guy! He looks so sorry for himself. I'm sure he'll be feeling much better very soon.

I liked the pasteyish bit too!

cairo wrote:

Had the op yesterday morning, Argos sorted it all out with a pre op authorisation, Surgeon says everything has gone really well but the wee man is very drowsy today and has a very cornish pastyesque scar on his leg

my stafford also has a luxating patella, hes having surgery in a few weeks. my dog is 2 years old and i dont want him to be lame for the rest of his life. how is your dog going, is the scarr on his leg going to big. how do you keep your dog calm afterwards so he doesnt re injure it while the knee is mending, did the vet say he will recover 100% after the surgery.

He has a follow up vet appointment this evening, op was only done on Friday morning, so far so good, he is in his crate while we are not in the room, and settles really well in there. scar will probably hardly be noticable once the hair grows back.He is 2 as well, so same age as your dog. He is dealing with it realy well, short leash walks to the end of the garden and back is all he is allowed at the moment, but is toe touching already so its not bothering him to much. all being well in about 3 months he will be back to his old self, minus the limp!

Let us know how your check up goes later, pleased to hear your all coping x

Awww bless him and his cornish pasty scar i hope he is all better soon Cairo sends a big staffy kiss to your cairo too!

just back from Vets, she is very happy with his progress, he is putting weight onto his leg already which apparently is a good sign

Glad to hear it - he'll come on really well, I'm sure!

cairo wrote:He has a follow up vet appointment this evening, op was only done on Friday morning, so far so good, he is in his crate while we are not in the room, and settles really well in there. scar will probably hardly be noticable once the hair grows back.He is 2 as well, so same age as your dog. He is dealing with it realy well, short leash walks to the end of the garden and back is all he is allowed at the moment, but is toe touching already so its not bothering him to much. all being well in about 3 months he will be back to his old self, minus the limp!

glad to here hes on the mend.
thanks for the info. my vet said franks was a grade 1 , but after doing research i think its more a 2 or 3 . if he runs or turns sharp he will pick the leg up and wont use it , i can pop it back in agin and hes fine , but he tends to favor it and he is losing muscle mass in the leg . i t hurts me more to see this than it hurts him . im a bit anxious about the op, but i think its the only option . i will keep you posted on his progress . cheers..

franki wrote:thanks for the info. my vet said franks was a grade 1 , but after doing research i think its more a 2 or 3 . if he runs or turns sharp he will pick the leg up and wont use it , i can pop it back in agin and hes fine , but he tends to favor it and he is losing muscle mass in the leg . i t hurts me more to see this than it hurts him . im a bit anxious about the op, but i think its the only option . i will keep you posted on his progress . cheers..

Poor Frank. I know the scar looks awful on Cairo, but it does heal well and the operation is pretty straightforward for vets. After a couple of weeks he'll be back to normal & you'll hardly know that he'd had an op in the first place!

Caryll wrote:

franki wrote:thanks for the info. my vet said franks was a grade 1 , but after doing research i think its more a 2 or 3 . if he runs or turns sharp he will pick the leg up and wont use it , i can pop it back in agin and hes fine , but he tends to favor it and he is losing muscle mass in the leg . i t hurts me more to see this than it hurts him . im a bit anxious about the op, but i think its the only option . i will keep you posted on his progress . cheers..

Poor Frank. I know the scar looks awful on Cairo, but it does heal well and the operation is pretty straightforward for vets. After a couple of weeks he'll be back to normal & you'll hardly know that he'd had an op in the first place!

thanx for the help , i had a couple of breeders say get him put down , hes our third staff and each time i was trying to inprove on the standard . paid heaps for him and hes pretty much what a stafford should be ,and now this.
a lot of breeders dont like him because hes blue and reckon blues inherit more genetic problems. in my opinion colour should be the last thing in the standard. and there is no way im getting him put down....

Bit of an update, he is putting more weight on the leg each day and getting better, although is bored! no running about is doing his head in. had a scare last night when i took him out for a wee, some blood in his urine, spoke to the vet straight away and this seems to be caused by the Metacam he has been taking for pain and to stop the swelling. Stopped the metacam straight away, this morning he is right as rain. Seems Metacam is the problem.

franki wrote: thanx for the help , i had a couple of breeders say get him put down , hes our third staff and each time i was trying to inprove on the standard . paid heaps for him and hes pretty much what a stafford should be ,and now this.
a lot of breeders dont like him because hes blue and reckon blues inherit more genetic problems. in my opinion colour should be the last thing in the standard. and there is no way im getting him put down....

Well, that's really helpful advice from people who should know better! I would agree that he should never be bred from as the problem is hereditary, but pts? Why? With an operation he can live a long and active life free of discomfort. Surely that's the main thing?

I really don't understand some people - they treat dogs like a commodity, not like a flesh and blood companion!

Hi, my Staffy sky has grade 2-3 luxating patella. We got her last July from rescue and she had a slight limp so we got it checked out and the vet confirmed my suspicions! We discussed surgery but my previous dog a Dobermann, had recently been pts after surgery for cruciate ligament caused problems, long story !! so as you can imagine the thought of surgery was terrifying!! Anyway we put her on a supplement called Mobile Bones and its done wonders for her. She has no limp now and is just a little stiff on it after laying down for long periods of time. She manages to pop the patella back in herself and its not affecting her quality of life so at the moment we're plodding along.
Good to read about another dog who's had the op though, hope he continues to make good progress, he does look a little sorry for himself lol bless x

Poor Sky, glad to hear that she has responded well to the supplements. Will she still need surgery at some point?

Hi, the vet thinks all the time she's doing as well as she is on the supplement then she thinks its not necessary. She did say its possible she could get arthritis in the joint when she's older though!! It's such a dilema for me after what we went though with our last dog, however Sky isn't limping and runs around absolutley fine so we'll just see how she goes

Fingers crossed!

bit of an update, he is now wandering about like nothing happened, if it wasnt for the still healing scar you wouldnt know anything was amiss with him.

That's great news! When can you start exercising him again?

he has a follow up at the vets today so we shall see what they have to say. he has been out on veru short walks in the last couple of days, just to the corner of the street and back.

good luck at the vets today

Let us know how you get on x

vet has said that he is going well but this part of the healing process is the most important, as he feels better but is still not fully healed so we really have to not let him run about for next 2-3 weeks, short lead walks still, follow up with vets in 2 weeks

cairo wrote:vet has said that he is going well but this part of the healing process is the most important, as he feels better but is still not fully healed so we really have to not let him run about for next 2-3 weeks, short lead walks still, follow up with vets in 2 weeks

You must be pulling your hair out!! At least its on the mend. x

Good to hear he's doing well

cairo wrote:vet has said that he is going well but this part of the healing process is the most important, as he feels better but is still not fully healed so we really have to not let him run about for next 2-3 weeks, short lead walks still, follow up with vets in 2 weeks

glad to hear hes on the mend..
how do you keep him from running etc.
franki wont sit still for 5 mins thats my main concern about the surgery.

Its difficult, but when we are not about he has to stay in his Crate, we have also put a stair gate up, and when we get on the couch he has to be lifted up, stairs and jumping on the furniture are the worst things for him at the moment

Hi, I know this is quite a while after your original post, but thought you and any others reading this might like to know, that our older staff who we lost at 12 1/2 years of age a couple of years ago had this too.

We got him as a 14 month old rescue (we think this was why he was in rescue but??). When he came to us we walked him at least twice a day with our 4 year old JRT depending our working pattern. Some times he'd limp sometimes he didn't there was no real pattern or squeels of pain but we took him to the vets and after x-ays etc. we were told he needed an op. to put a pin in his knee. We were insured thankfully as even 12 years ago it cost over £1,200! We had it done by a top orthopaedic vet, but he soon found out the pin was too loose so it had to be changed for a different size

Anyway trying to keep the damn dog off his leg was near on impossible, he was so bubbly and lively lol! He too had a terrible looking wound but you'd have never noticed the scar once the hair had grown back!! He, I would say made a full recovery fairly quickly and could tollerate alot of excercise (after time) well and never suffered with limps or arthritis and my husband would excercise him up to the 3 months before he died, (he was over the age of 12 by then) mountain biking with him through the woods! He was diagnosed with a bladder tumour and we opted to keep him home (in nappies!) until it was time for him to go.

Anyway despite all of his excersicing he never regained his muscle back totally on the 'bad' side and had a bit of a swing in his back leg with his gait iykwim? Also I have no idea whether it's relevant and if the longer legged staffs suffer more but he was a taller, longer and bow legged staff. Good luck with your staff I'm sure a full recovery will be made, how is he taking things now?