luxating patellas

[Desiree]

Hi everybody. Its been awhile since I have been on here, the baby keeps me busy. However, Zippy, my "problem" dog, now has to have surgery to fix his knee. I have known for while that he has this problem, it was found while examining him for his collapsing trach. It never really bothered him until recently. He would hop every now and then when running but other than that he seemed just fine. I came home the other day and he was carrying his back right leg and wouldnt walk on it. I called and the vet told me how to get it back in, and I took him in the next day. They looked at him, said it was back in but he would probably need surgery. Well, ever since then he has been either favoring that leg or not walking on it at all. So I talked to the vet today and he is having surgery Nov 2. Now I have to figure out how to keep this extremely hyper pomeranian to stop jumping on the furniture, stop chasing the cats, stop going up and down the stairs, ect. I can't put up a baby gate, b.c he will either jump over it or if I stack them, he will climb them or try to dig under. I never did get him to stop that. I concentrated on training him not to do the things that made me want to gate him in to begin with so the gate jumping wasn't a problem. Keeping him crated isn't really an option either. I did get him over his crate anxiety enough that he is ok during the day while we are working, but if I try to put him in there any longer than that he seems to regress back to freaking out, which defeats the purpose.
So my first question is, has anyone's dog had this surgery? Secondly, how do I keep him from hurting himself afterwards, besides keeping him drugged up for a month? Can I train him or rather untrain him not to jump on furniture or the bed in such a short amount of time, keeping in mind I have 2 other dogs and a 3 month old?

[Fundog]

For people with "loose" kneecaps (I am one of those people, and will most likely need surgery at some point), a patella stabilizing knee brace is a necessity during physical activities, to prevent a dislocation, and further damage. Talk to your vet and brainstorm together to "invent" some sort of brace that would not only prevent his patella from sliding around during his activities, but would also cause him to mellow out a bit by "favoring" his leg.

[Desiree]

I had wondered if we could come up with some sort of brace or contraption that would let him walk and do his business but not let him be all crazy and jumpy. Any ideas?

[Fundog]

The only thing I can come up with at the moment is an empty toilet paper roll tube. Most people braces are made of neoprene, though--- you might find a sheet of neoprene at a craft shop, and you could make a brace out of it. The ones for people do have a little hole cut out for the patella. That might be something you could adapt.

[bendog]

My old dog had this. He got a pin put in his leg which sounds like what you are talking about.
Poor dog also managed to slip a disc in his back a few years later and so was crate bound again.

We found we did have to crate him when we were out, and just give him a little on lead potter around the garden a few times a day to go to the loo. We left him with lots of chew toys, and though he wasn't the happiest dog during that time, he tolerated it.

One option is to sit on the floor with your dog...the only reason my dogs want to sit on the sofa is because I'm there! If I sit on the floor so do they.

Another option is to work on teaching your dog to "ask" to come onto the bed or sofa...then you can lift him up. My dog won't jump onto the bed unless I tell him its ok to, and so you could easily adapt that to lifting him on.

Go warily on the pain killers after surgery. Obviously you don't want your dog to be in pain, but you also don't want him feeling as good as new and trying to run and jump around like normal when he's not fit enough. If his leg hurts a little when he tries to jump then he will realise he needs to take it easy.

You could also keep a lead on him in the house so he stays with you and you can stop him from running around too much/carry him upstairs etc.