[killer_carlson]

We have two pugs who are part of the family. In fact our 18 month old's first word was "puppy".

In any event, they are still quite young but both have now been diagnosed with knee problems. We suspected the one has had it since birth, but the second was a surprise. Officially it is called a "luxating patella", which means that the groove where the patella sits is not deep enough and causes the patella to slip out.

They are both currently of good weight so that will not compound the issue, and being pugs, high impact ball chasing exercise is not in their makeup (and I probably wouldn't do it anyways).

In any event, I'm open to any advice regarding their knees and what we can do to lengthen the time they have a high quality of life before we have to go for surgery.

They struggled with the stairs in the backyard over the winter so I am thinking of building a ramp off the side of the stairs this summer for them. They have no problem with the stairs in the house though.