My Maltese is limping

Question
Hello,
Tonight I noticed that my 7 year old Male Maltese Started to limp and sometimes will walk with his left hind leg up. I don't believe he hurt it from jumping off of anything. I read about Luxating patella and it seem to fit his symptoms, Can my maltese have Luxating patella or can there be another reason why he is limping?

Answer
There seems to be a good chance that he does have a luxating patella from what you are describing.

What happens is as they walk the patella slips out of the groove on the tibia and then it usually goes toward the inside of the leg- effectively locking the leg into place in a bent position.

Somehow the leg relaxes and the patella pops back in, making the dog able to walk normally again.

The other most common knee injury is when they tear their ACL. This is a common 'football' injury in humans. What happens is that the ligament that holds the two bones, the top and bottom of the hind leg, together rips and then the knee joint moves too much forward and backward.

It is very painful and the dog will not put any weight on the leg at all. That is why it sounds like your dog has a luxating patella instead.

Get him into the vet and have it looked over. Some dogs need surgery for this but many can just live with it.