Maisie is a lovely 2 year old Bichon Frise. She initially came in to us as she was intermittently limping. She was diagnosed with a luxating patella – this is when the knee cap dislocates out from it’s normal position.
The patella usually glides up & down over the knee joint within a groove. When this dislocates from it’s usual groove then the animal is unable to properly extend their knee joint.
Penny Barnard-Brown recommended surgery to reposition the patella and a date was scheduled.
The aim of surgery is to realign the position of the tendon between the patella (knee cap) and the tibia (shin bone) to a more appropriate position.
Bone’s heal much more efficiently than tendons, therefore the bone that the tendon attaches to is cut and moved across to a better position. A pin is then inserted to keep this in place while the bone heals. This is called a tibial crest transposition.
Maisie was given anti-inflammatories and strict rest for 6 weeks, to allow the bone to heal. After this time we performed radiographs, which showed that the bone had healed well and the decision was made in Maisie’s case to remove the pin.
We are pleased to report Maisie is doing very well, her owner’s will slowly start to introduce & increase her exercise over the coming weeks.
