Bevd

Hi Heather - I'll be thinking of you all on Wednesday too Darcy was a bit 'difficult' after her surgery in that she was very reluctant to move in any way and even more reluctant to stand or walk - even to go out to the toilet. I don't think Darcy is the norm at alllllllll - in fact, from every account I've read both here on GT and in blogs all over the net, Darcy is probably the worst I've come across in terms of reluctance to get back to normal. Given that fact, I think (without reading back through her 'diary' thread), that it was probably about 8-10 days before we were vaguely comfortable with leaving her on her own. She had, by this time, learned to get on the settee but she was very unsteady so we were very worried about her trying to get on or off whilst we weren't there. But as I said, she's certainly not been the norm! Oh - I need to add that other than this mobility issue, Darcy (with hindsight) had a very easy recovery. She didn't have any real muscle spasms nor any phantom pains or anything like that at all. Her wound healed very well and her bruising was much less than some others and it was at its worst on days 4 and 5 after surgery. By day 6 it had almost gone and by day 7 there was no bruising to be seen. She was irritated by the big shaved area though and she did wind herself up into a temperature with all the licking she did (day 5 if I recall correctly) so she needed some cream to apply and she had an antibiotic shot from the vet that day. Other than that, it was a faultless recovery.

She's eaten about three quarters of her breakfast this morning but she's also done a couple of dry heaving type things so we've given her a dose of the anti sickness tablet we've had in store since the start of her chemo (Serenia).

Well this was treatment number 4 and with some protocols, she would now be finished but my vet said that because Darcy has tolerated all her treatments so well, he'd be keen to do another couple of blasts with the Carboplatin. I'll talk to him more about this when we go for Darcy's blood test on 20th Jan. She does tend to play with her a lot, yes! But they don't sleep together or anything like that. And it's Duffy who I would class as Ella's main buddy, rather than Darcy. But yes, they do play nicely together when the mood strikes Talking of which, I'm pleased to report that Darcy perked up this evening and had a good play session with both her dog shaped pillow and with Ella. I took video. Will add it tomorrow!

Gooooood boyyyyyyy Winslowwwwwwww

Hi It went fine (phew). Her bloods were good beforehand and the administration of the chemo went smoothly. She was a bit 'off' last night and refused her dinner (which is rare these days) so I made her a disgusting concoction of 2 eggs (done in the microwave), mixed with a tin of sardines and some bits of sliced turkey breast meat. She ate that She made a bit of a face about her breakfast this morning but she did eventually eat it. Hopefully, she'll feel a bit perkier later...

I'm sorry to say that Maddisons manifested with an intermittant limp too. But there ARE lots of other things it can be, like a nail bed infection or an infection in the bone (as was the case with Wallace). X-rays are the way forward I think. Thinking all good thoughts here

I very nearly rushed Wallace to the vet a few years ago with a large 'suspected tumour' near his boy regions (till I asked on a forum and learned about those funny gland things). Phew However, I did rush angel Flo to the vet after her head had an encounter with our patio door because (as far as I knew) she only had two top teeth and suddenly, one of them was in the middle of her mouth and not at the side!! The meeting with the door must have PUSHED that tooth across!!!! So we went to the out of hours surgery.....whereupon I discovered that she actually had three teeth - one on either side and one in the middle

Link to the original thread http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showto...28&hl=darcy ................................................... As we're now into a new year, I've decided to start a third Darcy thread, for those of you who are following her story. I hope 2008 will bring only good times for our brave girl Darcy has decided that the best time to do any sort of playing, is late at night when the light is terrible and it's hard to get decent video clips However, I shall not be foiled by bad light so please feel free to squint as you try to watch her two latest late night 'moments' 2nd January - deciding that her new pillow is actually a toy 8th January - a longer clip, a bit of a trip but plenty of fun Tomorrow morning, Darcy is going to the vets for bloods and then her 4th chemo

He looks fabulous

Sending lots of good thoughts (and a large, belated breakfast) for Cody Angelo

I'm so very sorry Hilda

Oh I do hope so

I know things work very differently over there, to here in the UK but one major consideration for me when choosing a vet is to know what sort of 'out of hours' service they operate. It's no good to me if I need to treck off to some strange place to see some strange vet who doesn't have my dogs history on his computer/notes. Also, regarding overnight stays - I want to know who is there overnight with the animals. (No idea what happens where you are but over here, you'd be shocked to know how many vet surgeries have animals in overnight and no vet or nurse there on the premises overnight).

Darcy went to have her bloods checked again today and once again, they were good (It's 10 days since her last chemo so today was the optimum time to check the effect of the chemo on various blood levels which can be affected). The vet was pleased with her, so I am pleased with her I asked the vet if Darcy can go to the groomers, because she's got lots of litte knots in her coat and she hates us grooming her and he said she can go I've now got to have a word with the groomer so that I can arrange for him to do Darcy on a day when he'll have time to do her slowly, allowing Darcy time to lay down and rest a few times during the process. The next chemo is booked for the morning of Thursday 10th Jan. A couple of pics from this afternoon

I'm really sorry

Another one to share (hope nobody minds) for those with three legged dogs is this one http://www.tripawds.com/progress/

I had to take communal pics of all the SS gifts because it's not possible to do it any other way with this large pack :laugh: But from Greytalk, we want to thank Pepperjack & greytspud very much for their fabulous pressies. The dogs LOVED the toys and the cookies and the sweater really fits Sally perfectly! It's funny because it's only recently that she's started to feel the cold and one day last week I had her literally wrapped in a brown fleecy blanket - but now she'll be able to look smart as well as feeling warm I also love my chocs - thank you very much!! I hope all my SS's will be able to pick out their gifts being handed out/played with in this selection of not terribly good piccies.... Buddy was guarding the SS hoard (Sally didn't want to stand up to have her clothing put on properly at this point but she did later and she looked great!)

Awww, thank you very much! I've got the parcel still intact and its in the dogs SS sack which we will be opening later this afternoon. We've got 6 SS parcels from 3 forums so I've put all the SS parcels in one sack and the dogs will open those separately from their family gifts etc so I will have lots of SS related piccies some time later today

Thats great news Merry Christmas to you all!

Look out for a Christmas Miracle video clip in C&F in the next hour or so

That's good news DeVon - when Radar had his hip surgery and he kept removing the staples/stitches, we ended up having to let the wound heal by itself. It was quite a big wound. In the end, my vet gave me something called Colloidal Silver and it really really speeded up the healing. Did a google thingy for you http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&s...ver&spell=1

How ya doing Flashy?

Just a quickie to say that it's now 48 hours or so since Darcy's 3rd chemo and she's feeling bright and breezy. Friends popped in earlier this evening and she was up (literally) at them and sitting with Aunty Janet for big cuddles and fuss. She's eaten well today (so well in fact that my breakfast was ruined as she kicked me repeatedly to hand over my sausages....which I did). I'm planning on taking a LOT of pics over this festive season so prepare selves for the onslaught

Glad to hear he's feeling a little better