blackjack needs surgery

I had a small fella that also had this problem however he was too small to be placed under long enough for the surgery.
 
From others that I have seen, the surgery has done wonders for the pet and healed quickly.
 
The proceedure is common and I would not worry about it too much.

My 6 1/2 year old golden retriever had luxating patellas, and had the surgery.  She had her right knee done at about 16 months, her left knee (which was worse) done a little over a year later.
 
She started to limp right around Christmas.  She would be running, etc, stop and limp some, then sudden, she would be off running and playing again.  Then it woudl be a repeat of the stop and limp.  Scared the daylights out of me.  I got her in to the vet and he exlained what was wrong, showed me using his fist and curved hand what was happening--her knee cap was jumping out of place, but certain movements would put it back.  So set up to have her surgery on Jan. 4.
 
He deepened the groove the knee cap rides in and tightened a ligament and the joint.  I had to keep her inactive for 4 weeks, so kept her tied to sofa leg, except for time on the leash to go outside to do buiness, and later on during the 4 weeks for very, very short, slow walks.
 
A year later her left knee really went.  this time it was so much worse and required all the above procedures, but also required the cutting of the tibia crest, torqueing  of the tibia and inserting permanent pins.  This time he also put a splint on her leg and it had to stay for a week.  Adn this time, she had to be inactive for 6 weeks.
 
Couple of hints.  KayCee has very sensitive skin and she got razor burns both times.  I put aloe vera gel on her skin several times a day and it really helped.  The 2ec time, when they took the splint off (which was held on with Ace, which was held on with tape) she had HORRIBLE tape burn.  A week later when she got stitches out, my vet couldn't believe how beautiful (his words) her skin was after it was so bad just a week before.  I told him about putting the aloe vera gel on her several times a day.  Also, bedause she could not get any exercise, couldn't do her "rolling on the floor scratching her back" thing, i massaged her back and leg muscles several times a day and boy did she enoy that..
 
Many times with small dogs, if both legs are bad at the same time, they are both done at the same time.  Cant do that with a heavy dog.  My vet says it is the large dogs that "undo" their surgery, getting to active to soon and their weight undoes the surgery.  Also, many people do not want to mess with keeping a dog inactive 4-5 weeks and as soon as the dog can get around and looks like it is healed, they turn it loose--and there goes the knee.    So I do say, whatever your vet tells you to do, follow instruction 100%
 
Also, many times only one knee appears bad, but  the dog actually messes up the other knee by favoring the bad one before and after surgery.   I can't remember if you said it was both knees or just one (I had to leave after I started typing, but left it here so i didn't have to start over.)  but thought I would add that about the other knee going bad just in case.
 
KayCee runs and plays and hops and jumps, which she couldn't do when her knees were bad.  This last time she couldn't even get onto the bed, i had to help her up at night.  The surgeries took care of that.   We use to have a different format here and there were several whose dogs had had the same surgery, but I don't know if they are still around or not.  I do know all i rememer were small dogs.

I meant to add a picture of KayCee following her 2ed surgery.  This was taken the day after the surgery.  She couldn't get up with that splint on so I would drag her outside on the blanket and I used the red and green thing as a sling to help her get around to do her business.  Would get her back to the blanket, laid down and drab her back into the house.  AT least you won't hav this problem with your little guy.

One word - DERMAPATCH (sp) pain killer patch.
 
My dog had both her knees done about 2 years apart for ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).  The surgeries were nite and day regarding her pain.  Maybe they didn't have the dermapatch pain killer for the first, but she was in a lot of pain,  panting all day and nite, I would put frozen bag of peas every 20 mins off/on was on it was all I could do with oral pain meds.  The second surgery, I paid $80 for the pain patch they stapled on her back.  SHe was nicely drugged for a week and did not look like she was in pain,,,ie. panting.  The best $80 I ever spent.
 
I carried her 40 pounder body out to the front yard with 2 steps to go down.  I slept with her in the livingroom on the floor (many freinds do this for knee surgery).
 
She is as good as new, its been about 6 years since the first surgery.  

Yes, I slept on the floor with my KayCee the first few nights, then on the sofa and she was on the floor next to sofa.  She had slept in bed with me/us since she was big enough to come out of the playpen and she Hunter slept in when we first got them. She wanted to sleep touching me, still does.  What we do for our "kids."

Hi Flex,

I'm so sorry to hear that you have found luxating patella to be a problem in your dear little chi.  Unfortunately, this is very common in toy-sized dogs. 

I have WAY too much experience with luxating patella and surgery for it. My 1.5 year old Misty (pictured at left) was born with bilateral luxating patellas.  She underwent her first surgery at 11 months, where both knees were done at once.  I wouldn't recommend that route for every one,  it was pretty awful.  She then required a bit of finishing work on her right knee, done on February 14 of this year. 

We spent around $2,000 total on this work. 

The first step I will tell you to take is to find a Board Certified Veterinary Surgeon, do not have just any veterinarian do this surgery.  You need to have a highly experienced and qualified surgeon tackle this job. 

When there is luxating patella, the veterinarian will grade the problem, Grade I, II, III or IV.  Have you gotten that information?  How old is your dog? 

Please feel free to PM me (click on my name to the left of here and it will route you to my personal stuff and you can send me a message).  We can communicate that way, because as you go through this you may have alot of questions.  I am very willing to share my knowledge and experience on this.