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On Labor Day, 2002, I was
outside with Glory. She was playing with a Kong and I was scooping poop in the yard.
She was tossing the Kong and chasing it. I stopped for a moment to watch her.
She was by the wooden shade platform in the yard when the Kong took a funny bounce.
She pivoted on her left leg, yelped, stopped and stood three-legged with her left
rear leg off the ground. I went over to her, patted and calmed her, and she put the
foot down and went off without a hitch. To make a long story shorter, I asked
Paddy to take her in to the vet, where it was discovered that she had a luxating patella. I
contacted the owners of all of Glory's littermates, and all of them have normal knees
with no luxations. She is the only one with a problem.
The patella is the
dog's kneecap. It is located right in front of the stifle joint (knee) in
the rear leg, and is held in place by ligaments. As the knee joint is flexed and
extended, the patella slides in a groove in the femur.
Patellar luxation is the
dislocation of the patella. This can be caused by injury or it can be present at birth.
Shallow femoral groove, weak or loose ligaments and misalignment of the tendons and
muscles that work the joint are all conditions that predispose a dog toward luxating
patellas. Sometimes, due to malformation or trauma, the ridges that make up the
femoral groove are not prominent, causing the patella to luxate out of the groove
sideways. This causes the leg to "lock up" with the foot off the ground.
Uncorrected, even an occasional luxation will wear the patellar ridges and the
femoral groove will become even shallower. Affected dogs will become progressively more
lame and arthritis will permanently affect the joint. This is a degenerative and
progressive condition if left untreated.
Luxations are graded according to severity; with a Grade I being the mildest form
and a Grade V being the most severe (dog is unable to use its rear legs).
Glory's was a Grade I, with her left knee being the one that is
affected. Although it has not been proven, this is suspected to be
hereditary. For that reason, affected dogs should not be bred, but their parents and
siblings that are unaffected may be carefully used.
Once this was diagnosed,
I did a TON of research about this condition. Many long-time FCR folks felt that
Glory could "grow out" of this. However, I have come to understand that dogs
don't "grow out" of true luxations. Puppy patellas always feel
slightly "loose," but as the dog matures, everything fits into place and
the patellas should not luxate when the dog is playing in the yard, even with
puppies. Patellar luxation is, unfortunately, fairly common in the Flatcoat
breed.
So, what to do with Glory? I could easily have done nothing. Her
grade of luxation was very low, and she was, for the most part, asymptomatic. I had
only seen the patella luxate 6 times, and Paddy had never seen it. I could have
continued to show her and finish her championship before making any decisions.
However, she would continue to have luxations which would slowly cause more and more
damage to her joint. Also, arthritis generally sets in fairly early, and that is
irreversible. A Championship just isn't as important as Glory's--or any dog's--quality of life.
Even though I would have loved to finish her, I decided to have her luxation
surgically corrected. I shed buckets of tears over this decision. Glory loved the
show ring, she was good at it, and it was a blast to show her. She had placements in
both the US and the Canadian Flatcoat National Specialties. However, my biggest
concern was for her quality of life--I want her to have the absolute best shot at a
complete recovery and a normal, active Flatcoat life--even if it is one without the
show ring and without a Championship. She will be spayed and will not contribute to
the gene pool. She'll just be my extremely pretty pet, and we can do other
things.
Glory had her surgery on Wednesday, the 9th of October. The surgeon was a
board-certified orthopedist by the name of Dr. Murphy. He travels from clinic to
clinic doing orthopedic surgeries. His assessment of Glory, after surgery, was
encouraging all-around. Her luxation was caused by a loose tendon and a slightly
shallow groove.
He deepened the femoral groove, moved the tendon over
4 millimeters, tightened the tendon and pinned the patella to the tendon to prevent it
from luxating. Her case was very mild and treated very early. There was no sign of
arthritis, and the patella and femur were both smooth and showed no signs of the
degeneration caused by repeated luxation. There were no malformations and no signs
of trauma, but the surgeon did say that Glory's wild approach to life could have
contributed to the initial luxation.
I did take Glory to a physical therapist
during her recovery period, and that included the use of an underwater treadmill.
We were given a very strict regimen to follow at home, and we followed it to the letter.
She did progress very nicely, and was released from PT shortly before Christmas.
To see photos of Glory's incision and Glory in the treadmill, click here. Glory
has returned to normal activity, although I do notice that she will favor the surgery
leg if she is tired. Now that summer is getting closer, I am going to get her swimming
more to help strengthen her quads.
Many vets will not recommend surgery for
lower grades, and many people with small dogs choose not to do surgery even with higher
grades because the dog gets on fairly well without it. The surgery isn't a little
thing, and it is expensive. My vet and I discussed the surgery right away, even though
Glory was only a Grade I. We did the surgery 3 weeks after the initial diagnosis, and
the luxation had already worsened to the point where it was probably a Grade II. By
doing this, we prevented further degeneration, which I feel was the right
choice. Glory now has an excellent chance at living a normal life.
Return To Glory's Main Page.
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