MaryJane

I've used Gabapentin for my dog successfully. it comes as 300 and 100 mg- we have been using the 300 mg and I have given up to 1 pill every 6 hours for pretty severe pain before Adam's amputation. I also gave deramaxx and tramadol.

Thank you for the detailed description, the blown right pupil does suggest "something happened" and I would think with that, the regular vet is going to be out of his/her comfort level here. The blown right eye could have also been caused by a head trauma so, I would think that the neurologist would be better at identifying what the symptoms are that the dog is having and more likely what is causing them. I'm not sure that the symptoms listed so far would be linked only with Valley Fever (my opinion). so again, I'm going to suggest again that the dog be seen by a neurologist as he can prescribe a med that might fit the situation better and also provide a long term diagnosis. While many neurologists like to have an MRI - it is not necessary to start treatment for the symptoms. As you said and I agree, getting the diagnosis does not necessarily mean that you would treat (brain tumor). Lucy's first neurologist was pretty blase about the MRI suggesting that if it was a tumor, we would know within 1 year, maybe 18 months as the symptoms would progress. Lucy's consult with her neurologist(s) usually run under $200 and have been well worth it. Whereas the MRI might not be necessary, I might think that a neurologist might want to do a CSF(spinal fluid) to see eliminate Valley Fever. That should only be done by a neurologist and I think I was quoted about $300 but, that was with the MRI. In this case, there are other drugs that might be a better choice for the seizures - ones that have less of a "doping effect". If travel to a neurologist is an issue, some of the teaching hospitals around the country might be set up to do a video consult and could work with your vet.

How is it bad ? Can you please describe symptoms - dogs can have both focal and full GM seizures. This sounds more and more like it needs a qualified neurologist to look at this boy.

Is it bleak because of the seizures - in many cases, seizures can be controlled although, it can take time to get the right mixture of seizure medications. Lucy is on 3 meds - NaBr, Zoni, and Keppra along with her cluster buster of rectal valium. Maybe provide more information on the symptoms that make this situation bleak. Also, it has been my experience that a neurologist will be more cost-effective over time than a regular vet.

Have you consulted a neurologist - there are newer drugs that might be better in that there are less symptoms. This would include Keppra and zonisamide as well as others. My Lucy started on Zonisamide, and then a bit over a year later, we added Keppra, and then a year later we added Sodium Bromide (which I like better for greyhounds than the pheno - just my opinion). Lucy had very violent seizures and she would cluster however, she is under control now and barely ever has a seizure.

Use moisturizer daily- foot creams may work the best. After about a week, I can usually start pulling at the edge of a corn and it will start lifting. A few more days and I can lift the entire corn up and then I only have to keep on twisting it so it will break off. It takes about 2 weeks to get the corn out after the moisturizing and then it takes another 4 weeks or so to come back. I used to use the dremel and simply evened off the corn so it was not getting the pressure.

FYI - I just got an email from Tufts and they are starting a few clinical trials in November - one is for the osteo vaccine.

The link provides high fiber foods although I didn't check to see which ones are ok with dogs. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/high-fiber-foods/art-20050948 You can do string beans and pumpkin. You can also try and see if lentils will work - although be careful with any "bean" like this as it can cause gas and then bloat could be an issue. I've also taken the skins of apples and boiled them with water (& cinnamon), pureed it and used it over food. You could try slicing a whole apple (no seeds) and see your dog will eat the slices. Raspberries is also noted as high in fiber, one of my greyhounds would actually pick the raspberries from the bushes herself - funny to watch.

Thanks for asking ... After his x-ray, his legs swelled and that can be a complication of the cancer lung spread and I was worried however, after more than a week, the swelling has gone down and he has normal looking feet again (normal for greyhound). He's still on the home chemo along with Deramaxx and neither seems to be causing any ill effects and since the swelling went down, he's much more energetic and back to running in the yard. The swelling might also be due to some man-handling on his legs during the x-rays as it happened twice before when he also had x-rays. I suspect that they are holding his legs too tight during the procedure. It's possible that the cancer is causing his legs to be more sensitive to tight grips.

This was on my facebook newsfeed -- https://www.cdc.gov/flu/canineflu/keyfacts.htm

From what you noted in your post, it does not sounds like there is any fiber in the diet and adding that (cooked oatmeal) could add more bulk to the poop and make expressing them easier. I'm curious, did your vet inform you that removing the anal glans can cause incontinence.

At Adam's 3rd carboplatin chemo treatment at the end of August they did x-rays and it showed some suspicious spots - we elected to do the treatment that day and redo x-rays at 4th treatment for clarification. The x-rays at the 4th treatment confirmed that the osteo had spread to the lungs and at that time, we moved Adam into a study using doxy (different chemo) and Apoquel and he got that treatment in September with the hope that the mass would shrink or stay the same - it didn't. At today's scheduled chemo, the x-rays showed that the mass got bigger so, the doxy chemo had no effect. We are going to try Chlorambucil with an NSAID (Deramaxx) and see if that makes a difference in the mass. Otherwise, my boy is doing great - he's happy and running around the yard.

Adam is going on the Chlorambusil along with the Deramaxx and the oncologist told me to give one in AM and one in PM because it can cause stomach upset - however, you're also giving the Omeprazole so, maybe not necessary in your case.

I'm just curious if they mentioned to always separate the Chlorambucil and the NSAID by at least 8 to 12 hours ?

One of the members in the FB osteo group is using a brace for their dog that went through radiation and chemo. The dog is a mastiff (huge) and that was one of the considerations in determining the treatment plan. The brace that they are using really looks great and has worked to stabilize the leg as the dog already has a slight fracture. They posted a video of the dog and it was really awesome how the dog was running with the brace. I wanted to provide the web site for the brace as it might be something that could come in handy for greyhounds especially if people decide to do a limb sparing procedure as the treatment for osteo as this might help to stabilize the leg. Or, it could be helpful in a severely broken leg. https://www.animalorthocare.com/

Thank you for sharing this information and the x-rays. I hope that when he is retested in 6-8 weeks the tumor will have shrunk or stabilized.

From my perspective, I would probably want to have this looked at -- I would not rush to the vet however, I would not wait too long before having a vet look at it. They may want to do a biopsy as it could well be cancer and getting it early would mean a less drastic surgical event.

Great news - way to go!

How much Amicar is she on - dosage and how often ?

I would probably not have the children near her at all at this time and not wait for a growl for the children to move. Your greyhound is saying that she is uncomfortable with the situation so do not let it happen for at least a few weeks. And, please make sure that you are always in the room when the greyhound is with the children. Just to confirm, you have not been there and seen when the greyhound has growled at the children so, this secondhand from the 6 and 8 year old ? If I misinterpreted what you said and you were there, what were the children doing right before the growling started? I might suggest that you also take into consideration that the children (unintentionally) may have done something to hurt the dog - pulled an ear, put a finger in an eye. The only reason that I say this is that I used to do many show-n-tells with greyhounds and I had to watch my dogs constantly because children would attempt to do the strangest things to dogs. Moving forward on this depends on whether the dog is on a couch or a bed - if on a couch, the you need to revoke couch privileges for the time being. Give the dog some time to settle down and then observe the interactions between the dog and the children in the same room (they should still give the dog space). Observe if the dog is uncomfortable (side glances) or just gets up and moves away - if this is the case, then you can work on having the dog feel comfortable in the room with the children by seeing at what point the dog gets up and leaves and on the following days, the children should not cross the "invisible line" - you need to do this for a while, it will not happen overnight. Eventually, you MIGHT be able to get your children closer however, there is no guarantee. Some books might recommend that the children throw treats at the dog from a safe distance however, I would NOT recommend throwing anything at the dog. Same thing with feeding the dog as I personally would not want the children close to the dog until you have a better idea of what is causing the growling and how the dog acts after the warning (does it stand it's ground or get up and leave).

Something similar happened right before my dog had his amputation which likely was a result of them pulling on his good front leg to position him during the x-rays. We had to delay the amputation for 1 week because the bruising and the swelling were pretty bad - it went down within 3 to 4 days and I used a sling to make sure that the good leg was not getting stressed. After the amputation, the good leg swelled again but, no bruising and within 3 to 4 days, it went down. During that time, I was using the sling and keeping most of the weight off that front leg. Do you still have her on pain pills? Also, when she is laying down, you are going to need to adjust her front body so that the shoulder is where she is laying on rather than the leg - make sure to adjust by lifting at the shoulder slightly at the shoulder and re-positioning. DO NOT pull at the leg. Also, can you be more specific as to when the amputation was done, what dose of amicar she had and for how many days and which day she went to the vet for the UTI. Pretty much the timeline please since the amputation...

Just a note that you need to be careful with the temperature of the water - as noted in the post above, they can melt .. literally, they will start to fall over if the water is too warm. Some of this has to do with them not having much fat.

He might be in pain (restless and cannot get comfortable), he could be cold (hot), or just not sure of the surroundings since they are new. You might want to talk to vet about giving something like a tramadol for a few days 1 hour before he goes to sleep to see if that fixes the problem although, if he is 4 years old, I would not think the problem would be arthritis but, you can rule it out. It could be that since he has a nice yard now, he may have pulled a muscle. As strange as it sounds, you might want to sleep on the floor near him (so he can see you) for one night and see if that keeps him settled. I had to do this for my dog when he had his leg amputated for osteo - he would wake up and get very anxious if I was not right next to him where he could easily see me.

Wonderful news!

I thought that also however, it seems that when you amputate, it stops the release of something from the main mass and it allows the smaller masses to grow at that time and those smaller masses are not yet visible yet so they would not be picked up in scans. If they intervene, they might be able to stop the kill the smaller masses and then amputate the bigger one. At least that's the reasoning that I am hearing although, it seems that there are many ways to approach the main mass vs the smaller ones. Oops, I was thinking of a different study - so ignore what I said above. I think this is a safety study so they do not know the strength of heat (dose) to use, possible initial problems (procedure), and what the effect would be on the leg. The only way that they can get an idea of how it worked is to have the leg examined and they would need to amputate to do this. I would imagine they would want to see if there were any tumor cells left at all and if there were - where they were in relation to the aiming of the heat. Ok, well on to my 3rd edit -- I just rechecked this and it is a safety and feasibility study which means that quite a bit could go wrong (or right). They do not know what dose to use and whether this works at all in dogs.