My puppy has Grade 4 patella luxation.

[Bearmumma]

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I'm devastated, my nearly 9 month old American Akita puppy has Grade 4 patella luxation in both legs, joint effusion, displastic right hip, tilted hips and is close to tearing his cartilage
He is too young for surgery and struggling to get comfortable... I lack knowledge of where to go from here!
My selfish side wants to nurse him but is it cruel to let him suffer so much pain?
What life will he have after surgery?
Has anyone ever had this problem? He's just so young

 

[Tinytom]

Poor boy ....have you been in contact with the breeder to see why he has so many problems. ..what has your vet advised .....

 

[Bearmumma]

Poor boy ....have you been in contact with the breeder to see why he has so many problems. ..what has your vet advised .....

I've never heard of a pup so young like this have you?
Breeder said that there is no problems at all with any of his dogs or the other pups I have no way of finding out but believe it to be genetics!
Vets haven't been very informative at all I've had to push for the minimal answers I do have. We are now waiting to see specialist that once again I had to push for. I've been told so far he's too young for surgery and pain just needs managing so does his weight so low pressure when growing and to walk him 10 mins aday!
I'm so worried about what his life is going to be like.

 

[Tinytom]

Would it be worth getting another vets opinion ...my Jack russell had very bad knees when we adopted him at 9 mths old but with an exercise plan which included hydrotherapy he is now 7 with no visible pain we also made sure he was on a raw diet ....
I have known labradors to have these problems from a young age ...its usually bad breeding from unscored parents ....

 

[Bearmumma]

Grade 4 patella luxation is the worst you can get and most uncommon. Because of his age and size there are so many contributing factors vets have openly admitted they don't know what's best for him. I was going to get a second opinion but it turned out the vets I was going to go to actually is the specialists he's been referred to for surgical review. I'm going to call them today see if I can rush it along.
I feel so awful like I do when my children are hurt all I can do is care and comfort them but he can't tell me what's wrong. Some days he looks so sad. Since they x-rayed him he has been 10 times worse.

 

[Tinytom]

I hope you can an answer asap from the specialist its horrible to see our dogs in pain ...such a young dog ...let us know how you get on ...xx

 

[lurcherman]

If it’s that bad then just ask your vet is his life worth living, simple really , if there’s no quality of life then the answer is simple, vets like money so he needs to give you a honest answer that dosnt start at a price .

 

[Cla_ire]

So sorry. My boy broke his elbow/elbow dysplasia when he was 4 months old. I was also devastated. He had to have his elbow pinned, and his tibial bone sawn in half and metal rods put inside the bone. It was horrific and the vet said there was no guarantee that it would work..... but he's 2.5 years now and 100% fine. We had his surgery done at a university veterinary hospital by the top Prof.... might be worth googling these and top orthopaedic centres. Good luck.