Bevd

If I didn't know for sure that for the past 34 months at least, Darcy has been a fast breather, I'd certainly go back now and make them look to make sure there was nothing like that! But (and I do hope I'm not making the wrong call here) because of her family history and because I do know that she's been a fast breather since at least after her chemo, I'm going to leave it at that. Actually, I remember talking on here about how - after the chemo - it was almost as if her internal thermostat was a bit broken (because of her panting etc).

I think it's a good idea Judy. If we know what's normal for our dogs, we can act quicker if the rate suddenly increases for no reason.

9 Wow! The lowest we have recorded Darcys was this morning and it was 13. Most of the time though it's 40+. When they monitored her every hour in the hospital, it was usually 55-60. But there is definately no fluid present in Darcys lungs, so we have to work out what is the 'norm' for her, so that we know if there is a problem. I'm monitoring her every two hours during the day at the mo

Thanks all I just need to check that we are getting breaths per minute.

Ssshhhh - don't tell Darcy but she looks really silly She has a half shaved front leg (looks as if she is wearing a fluffy boot which then stops for a few inches and then continues again ) and after all the effort she put into growing her hair back after chemo....they shaved half of it off again on one side of her And not even that neatly

Some of you will have been following Darcys thread and know that she has just been diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy ( + ) One of the things we have to do now that we've brought her home from the hospital, is to monitor her breathing rate. I know the figure that the vets aim for and Darcy is nowhere near that figure (she is much higher) but as I said to them yesterday, she has been a 'panty' dog with a fast heart rate since at least her amp/chemo. I'd be very interested to know what rate other, large breeds breathe at and this is where you can help meeeeee If your dog is a greyhound or larger breed, please can you have a few goes at counting how many breaths the dog takes during rest(by counting the rise and fall of the chest) in a one minute period. I've no idea why I am conducting this experiment But you know what I'm like so please just humour me Thank you

Darcy is back in residence (Sorry for late update but the phone hasn't stopped since we got in about 3 hours ago) It seems that nothing about Darcy is 'normal' and nothing about her is anything you'd see in any veterinary textbook The cardiologist agrees with me now, that Darcy is a 'panty dog' and whereas normally, she'd be looking for me to check that darcys breathing rate does not go above 25 breaths per minute, Darcys is NEVER anywhere near as low as that and has been pretty constant at about 55-60 So she re-examined her with xrays this morning and even with that silly panty rate, there is definately no fluid in her chest or anywhere else it shouldn't be. She's just....Darcy We have to monitor her breathing rate over the next day or so and then we can work out what is really normal for her once she's on her home environment. She has two medications - Vetmedin and Enacard, both to be given twice a day. We have an emergency supply of Frusemide to be used if we've had to phone either the specialist or our own vet and they tell us to give it to her. It seems that when she was in hospital, the staff used a sling to get Darcy up and take her for toilet breaks. I asked Emily if this was something to do with her heart and she said "no, its because she has three legs". OMG. Can you imagine? Darcy would have LOVED that - all that fuss, and being helped outside by two nurses who remained with her whilst she weed and then aided her back to her bed. Jeez - they will have turned her into a diva. Oh, wait.... Once I'd stopped snorting, Emily did say that they were a bit soft there So. we'll see what happens

The cardiologist just phoned (and I nearly keeled with fright) but she was just phoning to give me an update. From the notes that I took - she's 'quite bright' (well, she's rarely anything other than either asleep or quite bright so thats fine ) and she seems to be walking OK (for her). She's not got any fluid in her lungs and this GOOD ( ) so she is just on heart medication, not diuretics at this time. We can go and collect her at 6pm and we will - at that point - be given a lot of information on how to monitor her etc. She also has a provisional appointment for Monday 13th September to go back to the hospital and stay with them for a 24 heart monitor thingy. Emily still can't say what will happen or when because as she explained, she's had some dogs whos condition has seemed mild and yet they have died very quickly and she's had others whos condition has looked really really awful and they've gone on for a long while. No two dogs will be the same so we'll just have to deal with this situation day by day

I don't know. She phoned me at 8.50pm and said she was going to start her on a number of drugs so I'll find out what they are tomorrow when we bring her home.

I've had a call from the cardiologist. It seems that the called her in tonight, rather than waiting for tomorrow. That's not very good really is it. Actually, nothing is very good about this situation. I don't even want to type some of the stuff that was said during our conversation this evening but nothing is good. Actually, there was a good thing - when Emily (cardiologist) was told that Darcy had survived Osteo for 34 months thus far, she thought someone had got their figures wrong - so she checked the notes and found that nobody had got their figures wrong However, now Darcy has to deal with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and she's going to start on a coctail of drugs tonight with a view to her coming home late on tomorrow. If the drugs don't work, we're in a bad place. If the drugs do work, we're still in a bad place to be perfectly frank. But this is a dog who has battled hard to live and she has to be given the chance to live (a good quality of life) for as long as she can.

Yes, she had Doxorubicin as part of her chemo protocol and we knew by the end of the treatment that she'd suffered some mild heart damage as a result. The man we saw today wasn't convinced though, that this would be related to the current issue but as he reminded me a couple of times, he's not the cardiologist. I remembered a short while ago that Darcys litter sister Ellie had some sort of heart issue a couple of years ago but I can't remember exactly what the problem was so I've just emailed Ellies Mummy to ask if she'll give me the details, in case I should pass them on to Darcys cardiologist. Thanks for the good thoughts everyone

Darcy seemed to behaving trouble walking this morning so we saw our own vet at 8.15am and then got referred to see a neurologist at a nearby veterinary referral hospital. Actually, by the time we saw him, Darcy was less wobbly on her 3 legs but she was still very panty. He did some neuro tests and watched her walking and she did actually look bizarre to him but relatively normal to us (we are used to her intersting tripod walk ) but now and again she'd sort of stumble and then panic. He examined her closely and found that the problem seems to be her heart. They did an ultrasound scan of her heart and once they did that, they were no longer happy for her to go home but preferred her to remain with them until she can be seen by the cardiologist tomorrow. I got the distinct feeling that all is not at all good. Crap.

I'm very sorry indeed

I'm in a bit of a rush and don't have time to look things up but I just wanted to say that when our little lurcher (Buddy) was ill a few years ago with suspected PLE (which seems to be something to do with Glomerulonephritis) if I am remembering correctly without going back to look at all my notes, my vet explained that the reason he did NOT want to do a biopsy was that if it did turn out to be that condition (and the biopsy was the only was of being 100 sure), then we ran the risk of the biopsy site taking a long time to heal and causing serious complications. So we didn't do it. Just wanted to mention that in case it's important for your dog too.

Lots of good thoughts being sent for lovely Vinnie

I suppose the thing to remember is that all vets start off as 'general vets' and they become greyhound savvy as they get more experienced with the breed. I want my vet to be greyhound savvy, deerhound savvy, westie savvy and mutt savvy Therefore as long as my vet is prepared to learn about breed specifics when it comes to vet medicine, that will do for me

Firstly, I am so sorry about Apollo If this new boy does indeed have *it*, I can only assume that someone up above has sent him your way because they know you are one of the best for being able to offer whatever is necessary for a dog in that situtation. Much better he is with you than with someone who wouldn't give a *bleeep* and wouldn't take proper care of him. It's terribly hard for you but the best thing for the houndy. All that said, I hope your feelings are wrong and that Eyore has something much more simple

I agree with Sheila. My vet is a general vet rather than a grey savvy one - as was the previous owner of the practice who dealt with Darcys osteo (not that Darcy is a greyhound - but Mr Thomas researched the relevant info as he had not had to deal with a case like Darcys before and he was prepared to find out all that was necessary to deal with the case in the best way). My current vet is happy for me to pass any info onto her that I feel may be relevant so she has a copy of the greyhound blood values thing for example and will refer to it if needed.

Is your Petplan the same company as the UK Petplan? Edited because I can answer my own question. I found this link http://www.gopetplan.com/About-Petplan-Pet-Insurance/AllAbout-Petplan-Pet-Insurance.html On that basis I would say that insurance (with Petplan) is worth every single penny (or cent). They have paid out thousands for me since 2001 when I first signed up with them.

I got a fright when I saw the other thread had been locked I'm glad to hear that he is home. Sending lots of good thoughts

Sending lots of good wishes for Annie I'm not Jane (obviously ) Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear about your Gracys diagnosis Who was going to be looking after Gracy during your vacation? I ask because being 100% honest, if you are going to amputate it really can't wait for two more weeks. I think your choices might be either to postpone you vacation or, well, I can't really think of another choice unless you are going to take the euthanasia route.

*drumming finngers*

Buddy (lurcher) had a similar sounding episode earlier this year. She was seen by my vet on the first day and had a steriod shot and then she was actually worse the following day and ended up being hospitalised for a couple of days (she had a bad head tilt, was vomiting etc). I remember thinking that she couldn't possibly make a reasonable recovery (she's 14 years old) but she did! It took a couple of weeks before she was almost back to normal but it did happen. Sending lots of good wishes for a speedy recovery for Isis

I'm 'happy' to hear about the ACL too Get better soon!