knee problem in 1 yr. old
by Cathy
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
My one year old Maltese, Rosie was recently diagnosed as having luxating patellas in both knees. However, she is very active and hikes with me all the time. The only reason I even noticed was that she was holding up her left leg occasionally as she would run along. My conversations have been with my own vet, a doctor from the Canine Ortho Assoc. and a vet who specializes in surgery for these ortho matters. The advice I have been given is that none of them can say whether surgery is the right thing to do. My concern is a lame dog in a few years but none of them can say whether this will happen or not. In fact, the doc who specializes in surgery says that sometimes dogs have the worst structural problems and if they have never presented symptoms, it goes undetected unless an x-ray is taken for some other problem. He has sometimes been shocked that an animal could even walk, much less lead an active life when these problems are revealed. It has been suggested that I watch Rosie for signs that she is giving up things she likes to do. In fact, she's just as active as ever, has absolutely no pain and we just returned from a 4 mile hike in the woods.I would like your input as to surgery vs. not. The confinement period alone for having both knees done is long. My dog is a happy little soul who has been used to great romps through the woods and I'm really concerned.

DISCUSSION:

My first maltese, "Toto", A.K.A. Ch. Jonquil's The Wizard of Oz, has luxating patella's and for that reason, he is neutered and has never been used in my breeding program.

I struggled with the same issue for many years...whether or not to have the surgery. After many years of research and speaking with others who have had the surgery, I decided not to have it done. My decision was based on what follows. First and foremost, "Toto" himself never had any discomfort from the problem and was never lame. Second, the surgery and recovery was painful and since he wasn't in any pain from the condition now, I did not feel it would be right to subject him to it. When I was considering it (8-10 years ago), the surgery was done one knee at a time and the dog had to therefore be subjected to TWO SURGERIES and TWO RECOVERIES...too much for my little guy. Another factor was the fact that the specialist told me that arthritis could set into the repaired knee joints, so I might have just been substituting one problem for another. Finally, I spoke to a number of people who had had the surgery done on their toy dogs and every one had regretted it! The receptionist at the animal hospital had a maltese and she took me aside and told me that if she could do it over, she would never do it again. Her dog really suffered and took a long time to recover.

So...I did not have "Toto's" knees repaired. On Sunday he will be 13 years old. He runs and jumps up on the couch and generally plays like a spring lamb. He has never suffered a minute from his patella's but notwithstanding that fact, I was REALLY PRESSURED by my ex-vet to do the procedure. I don't know whether your little one will have the same results as mine but I thought that I would tell you "Toto's story, in the hopes that it will help you to decide what is right for you.

Just as a little aside, luxating patella's can be the result of an accident but my feeling is that the tendency for the weakness is CONGENITAl. I would strongly urge anyone with a maltese with this problem to NOT BREED the affected animal. This is the only may to eliminate this problem from our breed. I love "Toto" more than life itself and he did complete his championship (before he was diagnosed with the problem) but I have never used him in my breeding program. All the best, Andrea
Andrea Noel Snoel Maltese