Poll: Puppy needs surgery....board certified or not?

[Busie23]

Our nine month old Chihuahua recently injured her back left knee. Pic of Reese when she was about a pound. It's called patellar luxation and she definitely needs surgery as the leg had been luxated for a week now. Basically the knee cap doesn't sit where it is supposed to so it slips back and fourth, so now she gimps around three legged. There was some hope that it would go back to its original place by its self but that isn't the case.

If you don't get surgery she will be a gimp for life and get arthritis very quickly and potentialy hurt her other leg since all her wait will be on it. Risk is minimal in regards to the surgery and it has a very high success rate of fixing the problem. Small dogs sometimes are born with this problem in which case both legs need it done but she injured hers by landing funny on her leg.

Our normal vet can do the surgery. It will be about $800-$1000. He is not "board certified" and only does about one of these surgery's per month.

A board certified vet (only a few in Ohio) can do it for about $1400-$1800, but all they do is major procedures on animals and the one place I talked to does a few of these per week.

I'm going in to talk to both doctors and will probably go with the one that Ilike better, regardless of price, but does anyone have any experience with "board certified" doctors, etc.... Are they worth the extra bucks or not?


Here are two clips of her in action prior to turing into a tripod....
ReeseRun

Reese500

 

[IanthePez]

option to view results?

 

[Zorro]

Let me ask you would you go to a non board certified doctor for yourself?

 

[Fatdog]

My dog (Pork Chop) had this problem with both of her rear wheels. She wrecked one side jumping down off of our deck, and the next year did the other side jumping off of a bed. It was $800 for each side when they fixed it, and as far as I know the Doc was board certified. They did a nice job, and She was fine when the casts came off, though She did develope arthritus on both side when She got a lot older.

 

[Busie23]

Originally posted by: Zorro
Let me ask you would you go to a non board certified doctor for yourself?

It would all depend on the problem, and possible outcomes, but in most cases no. I have tried to make my self familar with exactly what is going on with her leg and I have talked to a lot of people, but I'm still unsure of which way to go.



Fatdog....when did your dog have it done? Everything I read on the net was saying how it takes about a month to two months for them to heal, while the four doctors said that she can go home the same day and start using it again whenever she feels like she can? Seems liek a wide spectrum......

 

[Kenazo]

Nice looking Dog. When I was a kid my parent's had a dog that looked just like the dog on the left, but was all white. Oh.... I miss skippy.

OK, seeing as how you are contemplating spending nearly $1000 on your dog, I'm assuming you aren't scrounging for food money. Thus you might as well go all the way and be sure it's done right.

 

[Busie23]

Originally posted by: Kenazo
Nice looking Dog. When I was a kid my parent's had a dog that looked just like the dog on the left, but was all white. Oh.... I miss skippy.

OK, seeing as how you are contemplating spending nearly $1000 on your dog, I'm assuming you aren't scrounging for food money. Thus you might as well go all the way and be sure it's done right.

I actually just managed to save some money and this goes and happens....

 

[Fatdog]

She did the first knee when she was 5, I believe. We dropped her off one afternoon and picked her up the next evening. She was in a cast for about a month, and was a little stiff for a couple of days after it was removed. She had full mobility until it started stiffening up with arthritis and old age around 12-13 years old.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i'd pay the extra $$$

 

[freakflag]

If you go to your regular vet and he screws it up, will it be worth the $600 you saved if you have to watch your dog gimping around in pain?