The infamous Rare Luxating Patella

catpooch

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Hello! I’m so sorry to hear about Pooch! My cat was diagnosed with bilaterally luxating patellas when he was 12 weeks old. He never was able to jump/run without them dislocating, so he lived a very pitiful first year. But he did learn how to pop them back in, and I’m sure Pooch will too. Since it was caused by an injury, and it does not seem to be too severe, I think the surgery would be a little over kill in your case. The surgery was very extensive and expensive, and Mikko had to be kept crated for about 3 months. His surgery was in May so he has healed very well, and his knees haven’t popped out at all! He doesn’t really jump, but he never has. He uses stairs to get on my bed and uses mainly his front legs to claw up the cat tree. And he walks like a little T Rex now, but it’s actually really cute. I’m just glad he is pain free now. If you haven’t heard of them already, I would try a Cosequin (I could be spelling that wrong) supplement for cats. The cheapest place I have found it is on Chewy.com. When Mikko was still suffering from this, I found that the supplements really decreased the amount of times it happened during the day. It works by thickening the fluid in the joints, making it a little bit harder for that joint to slip and giving it more cushion. I hope all goes well with Pooch!!
Aw thank you so much for the advice on the supplement!! So glad to hear Mikko is healing and it hasn’t happened since the surgery. I’m just afraid that because she is used to jumping up on high things she may be doing more damage than good. We have bought some pet stairs for things and she’s slowly using them! With Mikko, before the surgery did it used to happen everyday? At what point did you know that it was time for surgery?
 

Kristiar

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HI all,
Hoping you can help me...... my sweet 1 year old torti Birdie had left luxating patella surgery almost 3 weeks ago. Post surgery she is limping all the time and sometimes holds her leg up still. I am concerned by now she should be walking better and it seems to me she is favoring it more the last few days vs. a week ago. My concern also stems from the fact that she is on prednisone (and will be long term) for lower airway disease and prednisone can impair healing. The orthopedic vet who did the surgery had concerns about the prednisone and also he said this surgery isn’t always as successful in cats as in dogs. Can anyone give me feedback please on the status of your kitty 3 weeks post surgery? This has been so emotionally draining on the both of us and I am a wreck. Thanks in advance!!!!
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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HI all,
Hoping you can help me...... my sweet 1 year old torti Birdie had left luxating patella surgery almost 3 weeks ago. Post surgery she is limping all the time and sometimes holds her leg up still. I am concerned by now she should be walking better and it seems to me she is favoring it more the last few days vs. a week ago. My concern also stems from the fact that she is on prednisone (and will be long term) for lower airway disease and prednisone can impair healing. The orthopedic vet who did the surgery had concerns about the prednisone and also he said this surgery isn’t always as successful in cats as in dogs. Can anyone give me feedback please on the status of your kitty 3 weeks post surgery? This has been so emotionally draining on the both of us and I am a wreck. Thanks in advance!!!!
Hello, K Kristiar ! I'm totally with you on how emotionally (and physically!) draining the knee surgery with Birdie can be. My cat Milly had this surgery in both of her knees. The surgeries were spaced one year apart because her right knee deteriorated sooner than her left knee did -- her luxating patellas were congenital and grew worse as she "aged" through her growth spurts of kittenhood.

We were told to put her under strict "crate rest" for the first 6-8 weeks, to help ensure that the surgeries would be more successful in the long run. The joint and soft tissues need a lot of time to mesh, mend, and strengthen after the surgeries -- hence the crate rest and limited movement (no running, NO jumping, et cetera).

We also used an ortho surgeon; did your surgeon not discuss limiting movement and using crate rest post-surgery?

The crate rest really was tough, but worth it in the long run. Milly's knees are doing pretty great, and she's five years old now.

It could be that Birdie is moving around too much, doing so too early or too "harshly" (jumping, running), and the soft tissues and the bone regrowth is not progressing, or healing very well, and it is painful, too. She could easily reinjure the knee area. My cat was on prednisolone during her surgeries, too (she has asthma), and our surgeon wasn't phased by that. In fact, it was probably having a bit less inflammation crop up post-surgery (re: using pred) that helped her out (helped with the pain, too).

If you search on this site using my username, and keywords like, luxating, patella, kneecap, things like that -- you can find some of my threads that mention Milly's recovery.
Search Results for Query: luxating

Most threads just include some of my comments here and there; others are of me dwelling on the whole experience, like this one-
thecatsite.com/threads/what-made-your-confined-to-crate-rest-cat-relax-offer-some-handy-tips.348743/

We also did a lot of recuperative walking once she was out of her crate rest. That really helped to strengthen her back up.

It can take up to a solid 6-mos to a year for full recovery from that surgery (full normal use, where you don't notice a limp anymore, et cetera).

You can send me a private note if you want more info.
:hugs:
 
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