Help Needed! Surviving luxating patella surgery recovery

[czimm]

Hello fellow bully parents. My sweet 10 month old English bulldog puppy Lola had luxating patella surgery almost 5 weeks ago. Her tibia was s-shaped and had to be broken and pinned in 2 spots. Her knee is doing well, but the bone isn't healing, and both the pins have dislodged (one has already pierced the skin and was removed.

About a week and a half ago, our vet (who is wonderful and has 4 rescue bulldogs of her own), splinted Lola's leg to try to keep the pins in place. Unfortunately, the splint slid and ended up slicing the flesh off on the side of her paw, leaving a gaping wound. The paw pad also has a shallow slice.

Lola is on metacam, tramadol, and clavamox now. I'd love to hear from anyone who has been through the surgery and recovery. When can we expect the bone to start healing? What should we watch for with her paw wound?

Thank you for your help and any suggestions for Lola's recovery!

Cheryl

 

[izstigspunks]

Hi and welcome to the site. I'm sorry it couldn't be in better terms.

And so sorry your Lola's going through this. I wonder if a brace will help keep the pins in place? It'll cause her muscle to get stronger slower, and I'm purely guessing, but keeping the pins in place would encourage healing, right?

Definitely someone else will chime in with great ideas soon. In the meantime we're going to pray for Lola to have a speedy recovery.

 

[cowsmom]

oh i dont know bout luxating patella but you could do a site search there have been threads on it before. i hope your baby gets better soon. i just checked and im going to tag someone who posted in another thread alot of info about this. [MENTION=5605]Momma2Bullies[/MENTION]

 

[babybully]

Wow! so sorry you're having to go through this. No experience with patella's but Mac's had his own battle with entropian early on. It got so bad in just a short amount of time that he almost lost his eye and I had to leave him with his vet (not the one who did surgery, he had to have a specialist 2 hours away) while I worked because he needed 3 dif eye drops every 2 hours all 5 min apart from each other plus all his pain meds and antibiotics to go along. Total was about 10 dif meds at one time. Anyways, back to your post, so didn't mean to high-jack it. No help but lots of prayers will be sent your way from us over here. The only thing I can think of is lots of kennel rest. Is she very active? I hope it starts healing soon.

 

[Vikinggirl]

Hi, I have no idea , about surgeies for knees, joints, etc., as my two have only had spay and neuter, and cherry eye surgeries. I'm sure someone here will be able to help you. I just wanted to say I'm sorry you and Lola are going through this, I hope she recovers soon, and that her paw heals soon as well, it must be sore. I've seen people on here say you can use apple cider vinegar to soak paws in , I wonder if it would help Lola's paw, it is an anti bacterial , I'm not sure, maybe it would sting? You could soak it in warm salt water, and then put some polysporin on it. I hope she's not in too much pain. Poor baby , and poor Mommy, we hate when our pups are hurting. Good luck , sending prayers, and love your way for a speedy recovery, keep us posted.

 

[Momma2Bullies]

Hi [MENTION=7157]czimm[/MENTION], and welcome to the site! I am so sorry about your Lola, and I hope she does well with her recovery. Wilbur had luxating patella repair at 10 months also, and the recovery was long. We also have his sister, they are litter mates, so keeping them separate was a major issue for us. We kept Wilbur in a pen....bigger than a crate but restricted. I carried him in and outside and when he was outside I supported him with a sling to help him go to the bathroom. He was never off harness, and he was never allowed to run free or really walk at all. For the first 10 weeks this wasn't too hard...metacam made him sleepy. But as he healed, he wanted to play with his sister and she was out of her mind to play with him. That was hard, for fear of re-injuring.

Lola is at an age where she is still growing, and that was also a benefit for Wilbur. The key was to really restrict movement so the bone could heal. No stairs, no running, supervised and supported walking. At 12 weeks you can start 10 minute slow walks.....
recovery takes 4 months. I can say that Wilbur is stronger than he ever was... His surgery was in April of this year.

He didn't have the splint, just staples. I am sorry Lola has a secondary injury here. My best advice is to keep her restricted in movement, keep the wound clean ( I had to use a cone for a while) and hopefully she heals quickly. Please keep us posted on her recovery.

If you need more info I am more than happy to help....sorry this post was so long!

 

[2BullyMama]

HOLY COW!! Poor Lola and you... what an ordeal for all of you. I have no direct experience to the level you are at... our Nitshcke had the patella issue with a torn ACL and the surgery when he was about 3 or 4, but was always such a good boy we had no issues with his recovery. We removed all the furniture from one of our bedrooms and made it his room to live in while under restrictions. We placed a futon mattress on the floor with blankets and some of his toys, carried him up and down stairs and in/out of the house.... no running or jumping during the whole time, which was about 16 weeks and we also took turns sleeping on the floor with him in the room so he was only alone during the day when we were at work. Even then, we had my sister go check on him at lunch time (she was a stay at home Mom at the time).

Best of luck for a successful and speedy recovery.

Prayers are with you and Lola

 

[czimm]

Thank you so much for the warm welcome and support! It is greatly appreciated. I didn't realize we would need to keep her sedentary for 16 weeks? This will not be fun! Wish us luck (;

 

[Momma2Bullies]

Thank you so much for the warm welcome and support! It is greatly appreciated. I didn't realize we would need to keep her sedentary for 16 weeks? This will not be fun! Wish us luck (;

hi [MENTION=7157]czimm[/MENTION], if you would like a copy of the recovery/rehabilitation protocol I followed for Wilbur ( with week-by-week steps), just let me know. You can personal message me and I would be happy to send you a PDF. It was provided to me by our surgeon and it was a great help.