winnie

Yes, our vet was surprised by the results, but relieved too.

GREAT NEWS!!! The vet called with Celeste's pathology report. The tumor on her toe is called a histiocytoma, which is a benign skin tumor. No surgery needed. Celeste may be a bit lumpy, but she gets to keep her toe.

Our 12 y/o greyhound Celeste has a tumor on one of her front toes. We're waiting for the pathology report now for more information. Our vet said that amputation of the toe is likely the next step. If you've gone through this surgery with one of your hounds before, I would love to hear from you! We'd like to know what to expect in terms of recovery, cost, etc.

I'm so sorry, Rita. Toby was a lucky boy to be part of your family for so many years. I'm sure he is running with Robin over the Rainbow Bridge.

Xavi, leave Iker's scar alone! <just kidding> I'd imagine that Bag Balm would help.

Is there a reason you need to baby gate when left un-crated? It seems like being confined is causing her stress.

I'm so sorry that you and Doug had to say goodbye to your beautiful Lydia. Too much loss in too short of a time. We will raise a glass in honor of all our precious bridge babies at Grapehounds this year.

Wendy, I'm so very sorry for your loss. What a wonderful tribute to your Disco.

I should add that our 14.5 y/o Darcy started on Gabapentin a few weeks ago. She takes 200mg 2x per day. Today was our first morning walk in about 1.5 weeks. I definitely noticed less foot dragging.

Following. Our greyhound Darcy is much older than Bella (14.5 y/o), but started dragging her hind feet this past year. Our vet made note of her loss of mobility at her visit last month, but didn't have any recommendations. Darcy is on Dasuquin with MSM. She still does stairs fine too (pretty amazing, really).

Oh, I'm so sorry. I hope your remaining days together are peaceful.

Thinking of you and Doug this weekend. Señorita Beatrix and Celeste are expert roo-ers. I promise you they'll be singing in Tess' honor on Saturday.

Only you know when Tess is ready. I'm not even going to try to tell you when that is. I know how much you love your pack and trust you'll do the right thing. Remember back in January when both of us where stressed out about how to get around Seneca Lodge's new 2 dog limit? I know that neither one of truly expected back then to be losing our hounds before July rolled around. Gentle to you and Doug.

Wonderful news! Although not having a cause is frustrating, at least Declan doesn't have to have surgery.

No experience with this, but thinking of you and Declan.

We lost our big, beautiful Bonny on Friday. Details are in another thread. In this thread I just want to share some photos and remember her gentle soul. Bonny came to us as a 6 y/o bounce in December 2007. We already had two greyhounds (Celeste and Darcy) and had no intentions of adding to our pack. Within less than 48 hours, Regan said we were keeping Bonny. Her official gotcha day was Christmas 2007. Bonny was tall, leggy and blonde. She had such a sweet soul too. Regan was smitten. We had to put her in pink collars because so many thought she was a boy because of how tall she was. Regan didn't mind the pink one bit. She was his special girlfriend. It took her at least a year to accept me. In the end, she belonged to both of us. RIP Bonny

I'm so glad all went well. I bet he'll feel a lot better with all of those rotten teeth gone.

Agree. When one of our dogs has a potty accident, I *always* blame myself and try to do better rather than scold the dog.

We had a dental done on our girl Bonny when she was 12 y/o. Our vet generally only recommends dentals for the dogs that need it... and she did. She had a few teeth extracted, but I can't remember how many (single digits). Of course I was concerned due to her age, but our vet said it would be worse to leave those teeth in. Bonny is now 13.5 y/o and still going.

What's up with the mutant ticks in CT? Isn't that where Lyme disease originated too?

I love my seniors! Darcy turned 14 y/o on February 5. That old lady is still full of spunk and opinions. I wouldn't trade her for the world and hope she has many more years with us. Our Bonny is 13.5 y/o, Celeste is almost 12 y/o and galga Beatrix is almost 9 y/o. We've been luck (knock-on-wood) with our four pack. None of them refuse a meal and all are relatively healthy for their ages.

Same here. We had VPI for our first two years of owning greyhounds. They hardly covered anything and were a PITA to deal with. Yep, with four senior hounds (ages 8-14), insurance really isn't an option at this point. We've been pretty lucky with our pack thus far (knock-on-wood). The biggest expense has been dentals. Each dental runs in the $800-$1,000 range. We're in the DC 'burbs, so things here tend to cost more than other parts of the country. Three of our four pack were blessed with the good dental gene. Only one of our hounds has required regular dentals.

I board my horse at a small, family owned barn. My barn owners have two boxers who have the run of the property. There are also two aussies that live there and assorted boarder dogs that visit the property. My horse has always been around loose dogs and ridden with dogs on trails. Our greyhounds and galgo have only been to the barn a few times - mostly because they'd rather be at home in their comfy house. However, when I first brought them out, I honestly didn't think about introductions. Our hounds looked at my horse and were pretty much just meh. They all get along just fine. Our hounds are not turned out loose with the horses (fencing isn't dog-proof).

So glad to hear Zander is doing well following his procedure. You really do have a beautiful pack.

We had VPI early on - a company that truly does suck - and dropped them. With four senior hounds now, with a host of what would be considered "pre-existing conditions," it's not really an option for us. Reading about Henry, Heyokha and Charlie's vet bills, I would absolutely get pet insurance for our next hound. Just do your research. I've heard good things about both Healthy Paws and Trupanion. I've always had equine insurance for my horse. I'll admit that it has spoiled me. Compared to pet insurance, equine insurance ROCKS. I pay $600 year and they do cover 100% of my bills (not routine care, but for illness/injury) after a $300 deductible with no questions asked. I'll just have to accept that pet insurance won't be nearly as good, but better to have some coverage than be hit with a $10K+ bill and no way to pay it.