The infamous Rare Luxating Patella

[dcat]

get him checked to make sure there is no fever or infection.  Post op infections can be very dangerous.  Loss of appetite can be a sign of a myriad of things, but first eliminate infection from the list.

 

[dcat]

Can anyone tell me how their cat behaved over the week or so after the op please?


He's mainly in the cage but we do let him out in the evenings. He hops about a bit but generally feels sorry for himself. He's eaten a lot - up until last night anyway - and is drinking and going to the toilet.


Since last night he doesn't seem interested in eating though. We have a follow up appointment at the vets on Saturday morning... Wondering whether to get an earlier one now?

get him checked before Saturday to make sure there is no fever or infection. Post op infections can be very dangerous. Loss of appetite can be a sign of a myriad of things, but first eliminate infection from the list.

 

[dextelph]

Thanks everyone

I took him in this morning and they are happy with his progress. Think the loss of appetite may be to do with the painkillers. They gave him an injection and a tablet and he's eaten a bit - though not as much as I'd have liked.

He's been quite restless this evening but now he's sat on my lap having a fuss and purring like mad

 

[Margret]

This whole thing has been very stressful for him, poor baby.  I've never found an easy way to explain to a cat that surgery, shots, thermometers (horror!), or pills are for their own good.

Fortunately, he has a lap to purr on.  Very reassuring.

Margret

 

[dextelph]

So we ended up taking him to the emergency out of hours vets this evening as the treatment this morning hasn't made much difference.

The vet we saw couldn't find anything wrong but thought he may be in pain so gave him some different pain killers. He's now also eaten about half a can of highly nutritious food and drank about 20ml of water from a syringe.

Just hoping he's going to rediscover his appetite and start using his leg more.

 

[Margret]

I'm sure he will.

It's natural for him to lose appetite if he's in pain, but if the surgery was successful (and it sounds like it was), the pain will go away. For the moment, the new pain meds should help a lot.

As for using his leg more, it's too soon for that. First he needs to heal completely, then he needs to discover for himself that it no longer hurts to use his leg.

Look at sweet little Reeves, who has come through so much, but he's walking again, even jumping, even though his legs give way beneath him, because he has toys to stalk and places to go! I'm sure your guy will do at least as well as Reeves, just give him time.

Margret

 

[kiwibagels]

Hi all, rather than start a new thread I thought posting here would be a better idea as lots of you seem to have a good amount of experience with this issue!

My now 1 year old kitten was diagnosed with luxating patellas in both legs at stage 4 last Autumn. The advice from the vet was to wait until she was about 15 months old to see if it had improved or if she'd grown out of it. That age is approaching and she definitely hasn't grown out of it but her symptoms seem slightly different to others here so I'm wondering if anyone had any extra advice on what to do next.

Both her knees pop out and back in every step she takes, when we pick her etc but she doesn't seem in any pain at all. She walks strangely because of it but she's never limped and it's never stopped her from jumping/running around like a normal kitten.

Reading all the stories about healing times etc, I'm just not sure how she'd deal with that. We've already been advised not to let her out alone, so she has a few walks on her lead round the garden everyday but she's desperate to go out, she's a super active kitten and keeping her rested after her spaying was hard enough!

I'm just curious as to what others think of her situation given that she doesn't appear to be hindered by it (apart from not being allowed her full freedom)/in any pain? Of course I'll be taking her back to the vet for the check up but like I said, just curious to know what others think.

Thank you in advance!

 

[blklagoon]

Hi all, rather than start a new thread I thought posting here would be a better idea as lots of you seem to have a good amount of experience with this issue!

My now 1 year old kitten was diagnosed with luxating patellas in both legs at stage 4 last Autumn. The advice from the vet was to wait until she was about 15 months old to see if it had improved or if she'd grown out of it. That age is approaching and she definitely hasn't grown out of it but her symptoms seem slightly different to others here so I'm wondering if anyone had any extra advice on what to do next.

Both her knees pop out and back in every step she takes, when we pick her etc but she doesn't seem in any pain at all. She walks strangely because of it but she's never limped and it's never stopped her from jumping/running around like a normal kitten.

Reading all the stories about healing times etc, I'm just not sure how she'd deal with that. We've already been advised not to let her out alone, so she has a few walks on her lead round the garden everyday but she's desperate to go out, she's a super active kitten and keeping her rested after her spaying was hard enough!

I'm just curious as to what others think of her situation given that she doesn't appear to be hindered by it (apart from not being allowed her full freedom)/in any pain? Of course I'll be taking her back to the vet for the check up but like I said, just curious to know what others think.

Thank you in advance!

Ok, my opinion based on obsessively reading and researching the condition, talking to multiple vets, and going through the surgeries with my cat is that it does NOT get better and only gets worse. I waited to see if my cat might get better with rest and diet and she did not. She needed the surgery and now she's great. It's traumatic, expensive, and hard but 100% worth it. You can rarely tell if a cat is in pain, but not being able to walk properly is a good indication.

 

[kiwibagels]

Ok, my opinion based on obsessively reading and researching the condition, talking to multiple vets, and going through the surgeries with my cat is that it does NOT get better and only gets worse. I waited to see if my cat might get better with rest and diet and she did not. She needed the surgery and now she's great. It's traumatic, expensive, and hard but 100% worth it. You can rarely tell if a cat is in pain, but not being able to walk properly is a good indication.

Yeah I really don't think she's going to get any better on her own. If anything the popping seems to be even more obvious now. Luckily she has good insurance cover and I'm going to be done with university in the next few weeks so I'll have more time to look after her if we decide to go ahead. It's so hard making these big decisions for your babies but it breaks my heart to see her little legs popping in and out constantly

 

[Margret]

Reading all the stories about healing times etc, I'm just not sure how she'd deal with that. We've already been advised not to let her out alone, so she has a few walks on her lead round the garden everyday but she's desperate to go out, she's a super active kitten and keeping her rested after her spaying was hard enough!

I'm just curious as to what others think of her situation given that she doesn't appear to be hindered by it (apart from not being allowed her full freedom)/in any pain? Of course I'll be taking her back to the vet for the check up but like I said, just curious to know what others think.

Thank you in advance!

With or without the surgery, I strongly recommend that you never "allow her full freedom."  Indoor only cats have significantly longer lifespans than indoor/outdoor cats.  An adopted feral may have the skills to take care of herself outside, certainly my Sweet Thing did, but the typical house cat doesn't.  They believe that they're invisible in the dark and therefore safe from cars, they think of coyotes as just another dog (and any self-respecting cat knows that it can take a dog in a fair fight, and is generally correct in that assessment), they think of rabbits as prey, with no understanding of the amount of power in those hind legs, and they have no real concept of human evil, not to mention the hazards of pesticide on people's lawns and poisonous plants they can encounter.  I've lost a cat to coyotes, and I've run over a dark colored cat at night.  Both events were extremely traumatic.  Please keep your kitten safe.

Margret

 

[blklagoon]

Tell me about it!  Well, at least the financial strain isn't so bad. My cat is a very active breed, but she had to be in a kennel for months with little time outside of it.  She actually got used to it so that when she had short periods of supervised freedom, she would just go back into her kennel knowing it was time for me to go to work!  I know it's not easy and you'll likely be stressed, lose sleep, and have a tough time emotionally-- but the difference in your cat will make it all worthwhile.  I was just watching my girl running and jumping and playing yesterday, where a few months ago she was pathetically limping around.  They do heal well and they heal fairly quickly.  Just keep looking ahead to the positive outcome and hang in there!  

 

[carocats]

One of many kittens I rescued from a local prison, little Ozzie, was found to have luxating patellas on both back legs at about 5 months.  Most of the time up to that point he was caged with his siblings - I was trying to TNR the large number of cats at this prison, but they kept trapping/finding many kittens.  I run a rescue for special needs cats and already had too many, and quickly filled up every nook and cranny with these babies in an effort to save them (they would otherwise have killed them as they caught them).  So because Ozzie only was able to be let out of the cage for short periods we at first didn't see anything wrong.  Unfortunately being in the cage and since he loved his food, he grew quite rotund and that's when we suddenly noticed him walking with his knees splayed out like a cowboy, and half-crouching - it looked like he was constipated and trying to poop, but of course that wasn't the case.  He would also lay down after walking a few steps, and would play and eat lying down.  We saw a specialist who said since his patellas went back in by themselves he was grade 2 and he didn't recommend surgery at that point as he felt Ozzie might grow out of it.  From that point on he was out all the time in an effort to get some weight off him, which happened naturally as he began to be able to be more active.  At first he wasn't able to get up on anything, but after a while he suddenly was in our kitchen bar stools and then on the counters!  I had joked that while the luxating patellas and possible need for surgery eventually was probably going to make him difficult to find a home for, perhaps someone would be glad to have a kitty who never got on the countertops or tables.  So much for that!  I realized as I observed him that he no longer had any problem with his kneecaps - no more walking oddly - in fact, he could now run and jump and play with his sister and the rest of the kitties, and you would never know there was anything wrong.  Ozzie turned two last fall and was doing great and I hoped to get him a home with a friend.  Sadly, he suddenly began to lose weight and acted unwell.  I feared perhaps FIP (I try to be very careful to do everything to avoid it, weaning kittens early and not mixing them with unrelated cats for as long as I can, and have only ever had two cases of FIP in 25 years of rescue, but it's still always a fear when a young cat becomes unwell).  It turned out that Ozzie was in acute renal failure, and despite $2,500 of emergency and internist/specialist care he was so ill that I had to let him go to the rainbow bridge.  He was an extra special, extra-sweet little fellow and a large piece of my heart went with him.  Since he lived in one room with little in the way of furnishings except cat stuff, we were at a loss to understand why his kidneys failed.  The ultrasound he had ruled out congenital kidney problems.  The day after we lost him we found the probable culprit.  We'd had some collectibles on the sideboard that had been removed when we began using the room as the kitten room, but my friend had failed to remove one thing - a candle warmer snow globe.  The cord had lodged behind the heavy sideboard and it wasn't a very expensive object, and she'd therefore left it there, thinking it wasn't going to be knocked off as the cord was anchoring it.  Somehow a kitty broke that snow globe, and the contents of snow globes unbeknownst to us contain anti-freeze, which of course is highly toxic to kitties and unfortunately tastes sweet to them - it only takes half a teaspoon to kill them.  So please, if you have snow globes in your homes, be sure to put them in locked cabinets away from your kitties.  Because we lost him at age 2, we don't know whether Ozzie would ever have had further problems with his knees, but I do know that for about 18 months he was fine.  If you scroll back through previous posts you can see my pix of Ozzie.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Please send prayers and well wishes to our kitty, Milly! Nearly a week ago, she had surgery on her right knee (for luxating patella). "Excisional trochleoplasty, partial lateral joint capsulectomy, narrowing of patella, and medial joint capsule imbrication." Whew!

She's still weak in the leg, understandably, but she seems to be doing well. However, she is getting bored in her crate! We have a long road ahead of us, to keep her calm and entertained.
She's starting to go bananas, she's so used to having the run of the house. :blobgreen

For anyone going through this, I recommend these soft "crates", they work very well, esp. if your cat stresses out when confined in metal, barred cages-
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+28595+22277&pcatid=22277

I figured out a way to attach two "octagon pods" together using velcro at the junctures for the vertical doorways, so she has two pods stuck together as her "prison" for 8 weeks. (We got the medium-sized soft octagon crates -- even if you just get one, these are big enough for the appropriate low-sided litter box, a small bed, and some area for food dish, etc). We are getting an additional small-sized one to have it be the "travel pod", so we can put her in it throughout the day and situate it at her various favorite windows and sleeping areas around the apartment to keep her feeling happier.

She's only 16 mos old & such an energetic girl... if anyone has advice on how to progress her activity level as the weeks wear on, let me know of your thoughts. She'll get her stitches out in two weeks, if all goes well. We have an informational meeting with a vet physical therapist that same day, so we'll also have a better idea how to proceed.

 

[Margret]

Please send prayers and well wishes to our kitty, Milly! Nearly a week ago, she had surgery on her right knee (for luxating patella). "Excisional trochleoplasty, partial lateral joint capsulectomy, narrowing of patella, and medial joint capsule imbrication." Whew!

She's still weak in the leg, understandably, but she seems to be doing well. However, she is getting bored in her crate! We have a long road ahead of us, to keep her calm and entertained.
She's starting to go bananas, she's so used to having the run of the house.

For anyone going through this, I recommend these soft "crates", they work very well, esp. if your cat stresses out when confined in metal, barred cages-
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+28595+22277&pcatid=22277

I figured out a way to attach two "octagon pods" together using velcro at the junctures for the vertical doorways, so she has two pods stuck together as her "prison" for 8 weeks. (We got the medium-sized soft octagon crates -- even if you just get one, these are big enough for the appropriate low-sided litter box, a small bed, and some area for food dish, etc). We are getting an additional small-sized one to have it be the "travel pod", so we can put her in it throughout the day and situate it at her various favorite windows and sleeping areas around the apartment to keep her feeling happier.

She's only 16 mos old & such an energetic girl... if anyone has advice on how to progress her activity level as the weeks wear on, let me know of your thoughts. She'll get her stitches out in two weeks, if all goes well. We have an informational meeting with a vet physical therapist that same day, so we'll also have a better idea how to proceed.

Go to YouTube and search on "videos for cats" and "music for cats."  The former will get you a lot of entertaining stuff with squirrels and birds and such; the latter will get you soothing music to help a cat sleep (I don't know how effectively).  And most browsers should have some sort of add-on available to let you download YouTube videos.  Once you've downloaded you can run it in your media player, set to repeat.  Also, if you download more than one you can probably make a playlist and tell your media player to repeat all, and to choose the next video randomly.  If it begins with an ad, don't worry; the ads don't download with the video.

Margret

 

[pgalore]

I had a foster kitten that had bilateral luxating patellas at 3 months. They would not go back into place. He started having curved spine and dragging himself across the floor. The specialist did both at the same time at about 4 months of age. The specialist said he had never seen them so bad in such a young cat and did not want to do the procedure until he had stopped growing. He also said that he would typically never do both at the same time but he was young and should recover quickly. He did! He is 16 yrs old now and does have some arthritis and has always been knock kneed since surgery. He had no problems after his or since, aside from the arthritis and his spine is still sort of curved. He walks like a raccoon. Obviously, he was a foster fail. My sweet little bottle baby. His full name is Ratimous the Catimous! Rat for short.

 

[mrsty]

My cat was around 11 years old when an attempt at jumping a baby gate failed and she pulled it over on herself. She must have twisted her back leg and was in a lot of pain by the next day. Took her to the vet and that was the diagnosis, luxating patella. Well after a couple of anti-inflammatory shots she was fine. At first of course they said "SURGERY"....but it healed and never bothered her again so then they said, "she must be able to pop it back in place." She never walked funny her entire life and I used to say she missed her calling as a circus cat because she would jump and leap all over the place more than any other I had ever had. So I think in reality she had a strain or a sprain and they were just trying to make the big bucks if they could have convinced me of it. I've changed vets since.

 

[meowchelle]

Thanks for the reply. $500 I can live with, considering I've heard upwards of $1200. Unfortunately I live in Canada and it'll probably cost more than the $500. I hate seeing him like this and gotta trust the vet. I just came home again and he came out from under the couch just fine and played with his girlfriend, went to get up and there was the problem again. Now, technically, he does have the problem in both knees, but his right one is significantly better than the right. I'm probably going to have to get him diet food as he can't be as active as he wants to be, which is going to be tough considering they're both free fed from the same bowl. She's a very lean cat and does not need diet food at all.

steel panther i'm praying you're still active on this site. my lily now has injured both legs and has luxated patellas. i am wondering where in canada you are that your vet prices were that low

 

[catpack]

Hi M meowchelle and welcome to TCS! Very sorry it is under these circumstances. S steel panther hasn't been around since 2011 and I fully expect prices have increased since their kitty'S surgery. However, there are other members here from Canada, so hopefully someone will chime in.

One thing I have found here in the states is that you almost always get what you pay for. I work for a rescue and understand needing to keep costs low; but, we have always chosen to go the route of a board-certified surgeon when dealing with certain types of surgeries, particularly orthopedic. I have witnessed people who have gone to the most cost effective place for an injury, only to have to repeat the process because it was a botched job.

My suggestion is to call around your area and find someone that has done this type of surgery on a cat and see if you can find reviews for that particular doctor. If you find more than one vet that has experience and similarly positive reviews, then you can decide based on price and what all is included with that price.

If the vet doesn't give instructions for strict cage confinement post-op, don't use that vet. You also want adequate pain medication (Buprenorphine/Buprenex) for at least the first 4 weeks. Also see if follow-up x-rays are included or not.

 

[mother2four]

My kitty had/ has luxating patella on both knees as well. I noticed that she would lay down to eat and rarely sat on her hind legs. I finally figured out that this was something to have a vet look at. When I took her in, he confirmed that she had luxating patella on both her knees; her right one was worse than her left though and he advised to not wait more than a year to do surgery. Our primary vet advised doing surgery on the worst knee which is what we did. The surgery came to almost $1000 (this is in TX), which I thought was a reasonable amount compared to what I was originally quoted by the diagnosing vet.

Post-surgery was hard. Lots of accommodations were made for her and it sucked because she was confined to my closet for a couple of weeks. I put her in a onesie so she could not remove her staples but she managed to remove the onesie and then her staples. lol 

She is with my ex boyfriend now and he continues to give her joint medication and makes sure she does not jump from too high. 

Hexe prior to surgery and normally how she ate or sat.

11008386_10152805985730939_8315068713414319744_n.j

• mother2four
• Dec 9, 2016

Hexe post surgery. She removed all those staples except for one.

10420332_10152899606820939_6306731878860390111_n.j

• mother2four
• Dec 9, 2016

 

[suza271]

Hi! This is my first post here....

I actually read this forum a year ago when my (at the time) 1 year old tabby was injured after somehow jumping over a 9ft privacy fence!!! We didn't see it happen and have no clue how he could've even done it. We let him outside for a couple hours a day and he's always been such a good kitty. Actually, since (after he
healed, of course) he's gone out and never once tried to leave the yard (we have a chain link fence on 3 other sides). In any case, he landed on a wheelbarrow in the neighbor's yard and I was shocked to find him over there. We took him to a vet (we had just moved to FL from MD). So, it was our first time going to that office. Previously, we were very lucky because my husband's father is a vet and he treated Gizmo. She sedated him and during the exam she found he has a 4 LP on one side and 2-3 on the other. Surgery was recommended. My husband suggested we keep him crated for the next week. Then we only let him roam free in the bedroom. This went on for about 6 weeks. The tallest thing he could jump upon was a stool to the bed. We introduced him to the house slowly and carefully. It's been a year and he seems completely fine. No limping. I havent ever seen his knee slip and neither has my mom (we take him to her during the week so they both have companionship...its a long story) I actually suspect he may have a bit of Bengal or other specialized breed in him because his legs are so long. And a laundry list of other things. I don't really care much about it and love him just the same. My Mom and husband aren't worried about his past injuries and think since he's so active he may have developed new muscle to stabilize. But every time I think about it I worry about it in the long term. I am hesitant to take him back to the same vet. My husband's father said surgery should be the ABSOLUTE LAST resort. And since he's jumping, playing and sprinting across the yard it would be irresponsible to put him through unnecessary surgery. My question is.... Has anyone ever heard of a 1 year old cat healing from a luxating patella? Especially a 4? And in BOTH legs? I've read kittens sometimes develop deeper grooves but he's now 2 and more active than ever. But yet I still worry.