Luxating Patellas.
I apparently what is wrong with Dink. Sigh.
We had been noticing a slight limp for a while, but it was mainly after she had been resting. We noticed that she always layed on the leg that she was limping on, so we assumed it was a version of dead leg, as she always walked it off after a couple of minutes, and never actually seemed to be distressed by it. We started her on cod liver oil to see if we could keep her joints loose, and didn't really think much more of it.
Then the other half took her out on the field the other day and noticed that now, she was actually running on 3 legs, holding the other up. So off to the vets she went.
Apparently it's quite common in Staff's, with the slight bow in the back legs, so the patella just pops out of its groove, and starts causing some trouble. Vet was unsure if it is actually causing pain, or just causing the limp because she is noticing it not bearing weight. She is still leaping around and jumping like a loon, so it might well be hurting, but the complete lack of connection to brain and body may be not letting us know that it actually hurts...
Sooooo, big op on Tuesday morning. Going to drill out the channel in her knee so that it's deep enough to hold the patella in, then tightening of the ligament on one side, loosening on the other to hold it all in place, big pin through the whole lot to hold it in and should be all fixed...
Apparently, and the vet did make sure to say this was common and that we weren't really bad owners, Dink has been hiding this for so long that apparently her right thigh has so much bulked up muscle, he has never seen so much before. She must have been favouring this leg for quite a while, but doing it really well. He says she has probably only just started running on three because the left has finally withered away so much that the patella combined with the wasted muscle has made it completly unable to cope with running. But it hasn't stopped her jumping up and trying to climb the fence!
Never mind.
We should have a semi fixed dog back on Wed, and after a couple more months of limping, she should be back to normal. Which will be good. Between now and Tue, she is on limited excercise, which is sending her stir crazy and the rest of us just plain nuts!
We had been noticing a slight limp for a while, but it was mainly after she had been resting. We noticed that she always layed on the leg that she was limping on, so we assumed it was a version of dead leg, as she always walked it off after a couple of minutes, and never actually seemed to be distressed by it. We started her on cod liver oil to see if we could keep her joints loose, and didn't really think much more of it.
Then the other half took her out on the field the other day and noticed that now, she was actually running on 3 legs, holding the other up. So off to the vets she went.
Apparently it's quite common in Staff's, with the slight bow in the back legs, so the patella just pops out of its groove, and starts causing some trouble. Vet was unsure if it is actually causing pain, or just causing the limp because she is noticing it not bearing weight. She is still leaping around and jumping like a loon, so it might well be hurting, but the complete lack of connection to brain and body may be not letting us know that it actually hurts...
Sooooo, big op on Tuesday morning. Going to drill out the channel in her knee so that it's deep enough to hold the patella in, then tightening of the ligament on one side, loosening on the other to hold it all in place, big pin through the whole lot to hold it in and should be all fixed...
Apparently, and the vet did make sure to say this was common and that we weren't really bad owners, Dink has been hiding this for so long that apparently her right thigh has so much bulked up muscle, he has never seen so much before. She must have been favouring this leg for quite a while, but doing it really well. He says she has probably only just started running on three because the left has finally withered away so much that the patella combined with the wasted muscle has made it completly unable to cope with running. But it hasn't stopped her jumping up and trying to climb the fence!
Never mind.
We should have a semi fixed dog back on Wed, and after a couple more months of limping, she should be back to normal. Which will be good. Between now and Tue, she is on limited excercise, which is sending her stir crazy and the rest of us just plain nuts!