luxating patella - can it be a severe enough problem to warrant euthanasia?

archer i couldnt reply to the other thread as someone has locked it. you stated you put your dog to sleep because of a luxating patella. i have NEVER heard of this being a problem, the dogs just get on with it, pain only starts to happen in old arthritc dogs; in young ones, they simply skip to put it back into place.... so whats the story why did you put it to sleep?

what is a luxating patella? is it like a slipping knee cap?

Yes...slipping knee cap.
Archers knee would dislocate when he ran....he had 3 surgeries to try and solve the problem and was left with a hind leg that that looked like something from a horror movie.He had surgeries to tighten the ligament,deepen the groove the knee cap sits in and in the end to remove the knee cap completely.
He was still in a lot of pain after the 3rd surgery long after he should have made a full recovery and we decided that having spent more than half of his short life recovering from ops we would let him go.
The last option would have been to have the leg removed...however the other knee was showing signs of the same problem and hence it was not possible

aw poor archer

oh i see, thats awful. i heard that the surgery as expensive but normally sorted the problem. the reason i asked was as i said i had never heard of a dog being in pain with it. i have a friend who has a jack russell with the problem, and it just gives a little kick now and then and it slides back in place. i guess all dogs are different, and your had the extreme of the problem. sorry to hear about that. 4 is far to young to have to deal with that, i couldnt begin to imagine it.

When Archers knee 'went' it left his leg hanging.....literally.He would be running then stop suddenly and just wait for me to go and manipulate the knee back into place.He could not carry on without surgery.
In total costs were in excess of £3,500.

Problem is every time a dogs knee goes out it damages the joint and in the end the dog will suffer pain. If the tendons are or become slack the leg becomes useless and the dog cant use it till the knee cap it returned to the correct position

, so sad Archer.

It is sad Joanne, one of those things that seem to be ignored by the people in the smaller breeds, it seems to be prevalent in the breeds with moderate to little angulation and the problems seem to take 3 forms; the slack tendon, lack of or very shallow Trochlea (groove) in the femur and a misplacing of the tibial crest or a combination of all 3. Operations can be successful but the degree of the intervention needed must effect the full recovery and it is very expensive and requires long term recovery and cage rest if the surgery is not to be undone, this is particularly important if the tibial crest has to be re-sited as exercise can break it away and the fixing used by the surgeon will cause even further damage. In the end there is little for the surgeon to work with. Would be so much better if breeders set about trying to breed the fault out by concentrating on better angulation, even in breeds with a moderate angle there is moderate and there is unhealthy.

Jackie, is there a test/scoring for this like there is for hips? It sounds so awful , and definately something breeders shouldn't be ignoring or burying their head in the sand about.