Bevd

If she's still limping, I would certainly ask for an x-ray to be done Welcome to GT!

I'm not sure about the radiation treatment. When I mentioned it to Adam (the referral vet) on the phone on Thursday, he said that it may be a problem due to the location of the tumour but it's something that he will be discussing with the 'top man' who reads the MRI scans. I'm hoping that I get a call today from Adam with the full results of the MRI but he did say that it might not be today. So if it's not today, maybe tomorrow. Once I've had that call, I'll know more about what can be done/what we can expect etc. Meanwhile, Wallace seems to be doing fine. Nothing scary has happened and he's still eating and drinking as he should. He's loving his new diet but he would actually like to eat a bowl of plain cooked pasta three times a day rather than a reasonably balanced diet More as soon as I hear anything...

I'm very sorry to hear your news Sleep tight now Rosie

I'm so sorry Sleep tight Train

I had to go to the vets to collect some more Tramadol so I took Wallace with to weigh him on their scales. When we first weighed him on there (well, when he was originally acutely poorly) he was 26.4kg and then the following week (15th July) he'd gone down to 26kg and today he's gone up to 26.6kg

Sending best wishes from across the pond

Did they only x-ray the feet or the whole of the legs?

Fabulous news!

Wallace is home and has eaten his dinner. He was a bit miffed that he was on half portions tonight (even though he had some chicken in it) and was rather hoping that I was joking and would give him the 'other half' of his meal He's been out for a widdle etc and is now snoozing on a dog bed. As I already knew, Adam (the nice man) wasn't there to discharge Wallace this evening (who gave him the right to have an afternoon off when my dog needs discussing ) so I've arranged to speak to him on the phone tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to write a list of questions so that I don't forget anything I want to ask but I understand that he may not know the answers until the films have been looked at by the specialist. Apparently, the full results are due back on Monday. I'm also going to make a shopping list of fattening, yummy foods which Wallace will have added to his meals

Thanks all. Do any of you know if this has come up on GT before? I am going to search for threads but if you know of any, can you post the links please?

No, he's not on anything other than Tramadol (which he's been taking for 10 days). But of course, until now, there was no reason to have him on steriods. I suspect that he will come home with some (or maybe they will wait for the films to be seen by the MRI specialist person). I am also going to ask about whether radiotherapy is an option (I've been googling...) That made me smile Mary

Today was MRI scan day. It's a brain tumour. Adam just phoned and told me. He was rather upset himself I think because they's scanned from the bottom of Wallace, upwards and all was clear until they did his little stripey head. All I know is that the tumour is located at the base of the brain and is near the pituitary gland. It's not operable (and can't be biopsied) and chemo isn't offered as an option either. We don't know if its a malignant tumour but I think the outcome is pretty much the same, regardless. However, when Wallace was weighed this morning, he has gained a little bit of his weight back due to his painkillers and his three meals a day so, home he comes for more meals and continued pain killers and we'll now wait for the specialist to read the films. The specialist may be able to tell what sort of tumour it is and from that, give more information on what we can expect. I have to phone about 4pm to see when we can go over and collect him.

Waiting is so awful. Sending good thoughts from here

Dogs who feel nauseous often lick their lips a lot. Sending good wishes

Just wanted to mention that my Buddy (lurcher) was diagnosed with 'most probable' Protein Losing Enteropathy a few years ago and her poops were totally firm and normal. In her case, her first symptom was water retention and it caused big swelling around her face, neck, legs and stomach. After many tests which ruled out one thing then the next thing, the only thing left was PLE and my vet said he classed it as 'probable' because (a) they didn't want to do a gut biopsy (because if it is PLE the gut can be difficult to heal) and (B ) normally, stools are loose, whereas Buddy's were not. She had a special diet and some medication for a number of months (plus an egg a day to increase her albumin levels) and was eventually weaned off the meds/special diet and has been fine since. (With the occassional water retention/swelling which may nor may not be related). I'll see if I can find the link to Buddy's thread but it may have gone during pruning. Edit - good, the thread is still here http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showto...72&hl=Buddy

Quite And quite to that too I'm really sorry

This is the concering thing. His appetite has never left. He's always been a good eater and has remained a good eater.....it's just that his weight is dropping, regardless.

This may not be helpful, what with me being in the UK and all that but from the moment we arrived at the vets when Darcy had 'hurt her leg' on 16th October to the moment we collected after surgery, on 18th October the cost was approx £1600 (UK pounds). The cost includes the x-rays taken on the 16th (leg and chest), the amputation surgery and all it's drugs and aftercare etc and the overnight stay. The chemo costs were on top of that.

Darcy had (in this order) Carboplatin, Doxorubacin, Carboplatin, Doxorubacin. Each drug was given three weeks apart. Darcy had no side effects at all from the first three treatments but had a bad side effect right after the end of her final treatment.

Wallace is now back at home and is still sleepy from his sedation. He's eaten a small dinner and gone to sleep. The nice man showed us all sorts of things like x-rays (the only bits I could make out were Wallace's spine and tail if I'm truthful ) and then he showed us the print outs of the ultrasound scans (the only bits I could make out were absolutely nothing at all and every shot looked virtually the same to me, even if one bit was his pancreas and one bit was his something else ) I did point out that it just looked like a blob surrounded by blackness and the vet agreed that it would be better if these things were printed off with big arrows and a word like so ----------> PANCREAS Wallace is going back on Wednesday of next week to have his MRI scan. If anything glaringly obvious shows up, it should be able to be picked up straight away but the films (or whatever they're called) need to be sent off for specialist reading and that will take another week. At the same time as he has his scan, he'll have a couple of other things done whilst he's asleep. If his white blood count has gone down again (from a sample taken today) then a sample of bone marrow will also be taken (but we'll find out about that WBC count this coming Friday). In the meantime, Wallace has some Tramadol to take and I'm going to start giving him 3 meals a day and I'm going to include some pretty high calorie stuff to see if we can get a bit of weight back on him. Oh and Wallace wants me to tell you that he looks a right plank because he's had loads of hair shaved off for the ultrasound, on both sides of his body....but the saving wasn't symetrical (the nice man blamed an over-zealous nurse)

The nice man (Adam) has just phoned and given me a brief rundown of what they've done and what they've discovered. Firstly, they have not found anything really vile, so thats very good indeed They have found that Wallace's blood pressure is a little high (180). Hs adrenal glands are slightly enlarged but there is no sign of any mass. Ultrasound shows that internal organs all look OK. There are mild changes in his pancreas but most likely to be age related normal changes. Wallace was examined by the orthopedic specialist too but Adam got this person to examine Wallace without giving him any background info so that he could just give a clear view of what he found. It seems that Wallace has some 'repeatable' pain in his lower lumbar region and a slight tremor in his hind right leg. He also has 'repeatable' pain in his neck (query some sort of disc disease). Adam said that none of these things account for weight loss so it could well be that the weight loss is as a result of stress from being in discomfort with his neck/back areas. Wallace is not like most of my greyhounds (past and present) who scream at the slightest thing. He's an extremely stoic and brave dog who doesn't make a fuss even when you think he should be doing so, so this reason for the weight loss really rings true for me. Anyway, we'll be having a more indepth chat with Adam when we go to collect Wallace at 5.30pm

We've had our consulation and I was a bit like this The man is very nice and he certainly seems to know a lot about the more complex issues which can affect dogs. Wallace has stayed there to have some tests and depending on what shows (or what doesn't), he may also have an MRI scan next week but we'll find out more about that later today. I think, in real terms, the vet is looking for indications of either a progressive neurological type disease, or some form of cancer somewhere. He will phone me once todays tests are completed so that we can go and pick Wallace up and, I assume, get the results from today.

Hello and welcome from sunny (snort) Oldham, UK

I'm sad to read of Genie's passing but honoured to have been able to 'share' a tiny bit of her via GT. She'll never be forgotten, that's for sure

Wallace has got his referral appointment tomorrow morning at 10am and he's going here instead http://www.any-uk-vet.co.uk/cgi-bin/counter/link.pl?3662 because my vet has personal experience of this referral centre. They also do direct claims from the insurance company which means that we don't need to start finding £1500+ if an MRI scan is required. We need to go to our vets this afternoon to pick up x-rays etc to take with us tomorrow. I'll let you know how Wallace gets on, once we get back from his appointment.