kudzu

Most people do not choose renal biopsy & I was among those with a prior dog. We went with the 4 week course of anti-b's, Baytril + Clavamox combo, to knock out any possible infection even though my guy at the time had nothing on culture. After that he was given the presumptive diagnosis of "nephritis" with the vet thinking glomerulo-. GP vet, IMS, neurologist with IM specialty also, all concurred that biopsy would be needed to confirm diagnosis but none recommended it. IMS said it would be quite rare for her to recommend it because it does little to change treatment plan & so she usually feels it is not worth the risk. GP is holistic vet so not surprising that she did not recommend biopsy. Neurologist felt that confirming a GN diagnosis would not matter to overall treatment or disease progression. Going from memory of a few years ago I can say that I only know two people who did renal biopsy. Here is a small, very unscientific study in relation to renal biopsies of 4 cases where GN was suspected: Case 1- No biopsy, presumptive diagnosis of GN with corresponding treatment but diagnosis later changed to tubulonephritis. Tubulonephritis presumed to be result of renal damage as opposed to the type of ongoing renal disease process often associated with GN. [This was my dog. He was born with just one kidney & one adrenal gland. ACTH stim tests, two given two years apart, were normal. Kidney had suffered a great many insults. He had proteinuria for at least 6 years & 'renal failure' or if you prefer 'renal insufficiency' for 4 years. He died *with* renal failure but not *from* it. Case 2- No biopsy, treated as GN but later SNAP test showed positive for Lyme disease. Treated with Clavamox & diagnosis changed to Lyme nephritis. (I have no idea how that differs from GN.) Dog lived for two more years before succumbing to renal failure. [This was a friends Lab. He had a good life until the last couple months. He had done quite well until a relapse of Lyme & then Leptospirosis from which he could never fully recovered.] Case 3- Renal biopsy done with easy recovery. GN diagnosis confirmed with no appreciable change from initial treatment when GN was merely presumed. Case 4- Renal biopsy done with some complications & delayed recovery. (Going from memory & do not recall any permanent probs from biopsy.) Found not to have GN & other had causes searched for. ACTH stim test confirmed Addison's. [i consider this a vet med screw up. ACTH stim test should have been run *before* biopsy was even considered. If memory serves, after Addison's treatment started, renal values returned to normal. ] Note: All of the above dogs were already in the "renal failure" category before GN or biopsy were ever mentioned or considered. I do not know the outcome of the last two cases. Am not saying you shouldn't have biopsy done. Just know that for my dog it was not something I considered. Did not seem it would effect treatment and so it seemed an unnecessary risk. He did have many other problems that were far more of an immediate concern than something as minor as early renal failure. (And can you even believe I just referred to renal failure as "minor"?!)

You know what is best for your dog & if amp isn't right then it isn't right, period. Hoping today is better & his pain will subside some with meds. The ups & downs are so very hard. Good thoughts to all.

Ditto. Greytcritters, which are you saying? Is it that they *won't eat* or they *don't need to eat* more than 1/2 of what they used to? My 8 yo girl needed 4-4.5 cups/day the first year I had her. Have had her four years & she's 8 yo now. She now only need 2.5 cups/day TOTW Prairie or 3 cups/day Pacific Stream. Then again she's hypothyroid & just finished getting started on meds plus had a series of toe injuries requiring off & on leash walking restrictions. Though she would gladly still eat 4 cups/day if I let her. The 10 yo I adopted ate the same amount for 3 years, that being TOTW 3 cups/day Prairie or 3.5 cups/day Pacific Stream. It was always a balancing act to keep the right weight on him. He dropped weight quickly if fed less but we had to still kept him intentionally lean because his arthritis. He was more active when kept lean & thus able to go & do more. That in turn kept he brighter & happier. Even at 13 yo he'd have eaten as much as I gave him though & was always begging for more food. In his last few months did he got progressively pickier about what kind of food he wanted, forcing me to mix in canned, then go to canned only some days. Still, he begged for more canned or treats or our food. Only in his last week did he loose his appetite.

Reactions to cedar are not at all uncommon in many pets. Have heard of some probs with dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs & even horses. I had a dog who had a problem with both cedar & pine. She had watery, itchy eyes & a slight cough every year during pine pollen season. I have trouble with items containing pine & cedar oils, ex. pine shavings used for stall bedding & cedar shavings in some dog beds. As long as I wear gloves I am OK. I think most of us with allergies are allergic to more than one thing. Wouldn't surprise me if cedar was making things worse.

Had a 15 lb dog on two baby aspirins/day plus joint supplements for a while without problems until we decided this would be a long term need & switched to Deramaxx. This sounds like what my vets have always said. Hope Sunscreen Man is back to his usual self & feeling less of his age very quickly. ETA: I understand the comment about pain serving a purpose but studies have also shown that pain causes stress & it actually can slow healing. I have a couple times reduced the amount of meds for a super peppy dog but that is rare. My preference would be leash walks, xpens, or other management tools before leaving a pup in pain. There could be exceptions but not too many.

Gotta be done, definitely. I was so nervous when my guy had his dental at that age. He came through it like a champ & was visibly happier the next day. Mouth felt so much better. Good thoughts, Gee, comin' atcha. Now, Gee. Don't do that to your momma. She loves you & is only doing what's best. Gotta trust us. Your tummy isn't happy now but it would be much less happy later if you had your brekkie. Momma know best.

Wow! Great big here as well. Even Having lost a dog to a ruptured spleen from hemangio, I have been checking back on this thread with fear of the results but hoping for the best. This is the best!!! Bandit will be got to and in no time. YEAH!!!

What a terrible heartache! Wishing for Valley Fever doesn't seem right but I definitely am hoping it is that. I agree with others that he may benefit greatly from more pain control. He is not even getting as much as my pups were given after surgery or injuries. Also, gabapentin & NSAIDs can be added if he tolerates those and they are not contraindicated. You must choose what you feel is best and very, very few beat OS whether short term or long term. If it is OS then letting him go may be the best choice for him. However, in some cases amp is also a good option. Until recently I was one who thought I would never do it. Watching friends' Great Dane with a front leg amp has made me think that in certain circumstances, an amp to gain an extra 6 mos - 2 years is a viable option. I do not know your or your dog but your description of the situation makes me wonder if choosing amp may help buy all of you some more quality time to be together, heal a bit from your recent loss and allow your shy girl some time to adjust & come out of her shell. It is immediate pain relief for Patton. Of course, only you all know what is best for Patton & your family. I suppose I am just thinking out loud about how I might handle it in if ever in your situation. Wishing the best possible outcome for Patton and for all of you.

OMG, you are in soooooo much trouble Missy!! ... Wait, sorry ... We're thinking and sending good thoughts to my wonderful, delightfully quirky, much loved, sometimes visiting & often borrowed, surrogate hound, Get Em the Greyt. It's going to be fine. Is Dr Kevin doing the surgery or is Get Em somewhere else? ... OK, back to rant. You scared the bejeepers out of me with that short, omninous subject line. Couldn't you have added a little more like "Removing two lumps today" or better yet "Gentle Thought For Get Em Please (But it isn't an emergency or anything, Laura, so don't panic when you see this)" or some such? Geeze, give a girl a heart attack, will ya?!! All will be well ... just won't be able to accuse him of being lumpy & spotty anymore ... all will be well ... though Toni will have Get Em pacing all evening ... all will be well ... and he may have to wear a shirt for a while ... all will be well ... and he gets to have two more scars ... all will be well ... and we'll wonder for days until the biopsy results return ... but all will be well ... and his mom will post the results as soon as she gets them. Right, Mom? ... even though all will be well.

Don't feel sorry for him because of the wrapping. Just keep it up until it heals so hopefully this won't go on forever or end up worse. It is healing when given an opportunity, correct? If you are not really sure & have not done so yet you may want a vet to look at it just to make sure. If the tissue is getting necrotic & not healing well there is a cause to be made for amputation. Not saying your average-joe, run of the mill happy tail is reason to amputate but once it gets to a certain point I really think the dogs are better off. As long as it isn't wrapped too tightly you won't cause harm. Someone, somewhere posted a wrapping technique that worked very well for keeping a happy tail bandage on my girl's tail & did not require removing all the tape each time. Dr. Gillette showed me how to wrap her foot in a related manner. It involved a long piece of Elastikon tape, perhaps only half width depending on how wide the tape is, that went down one side of the tail, around the bandaged part & then up the other side again. When doing the bandage change you cut off just the bottom section & rewrap with the new tape sticking to the old tape, not the skin/hair. This way you are not pulling the tape off every time. It worked quite well for her tail & fairly well for her foot except when it got quite wet if we forgot to put her booty on outside. I am terrible at describing things unless fresh in my memory. Hopefully someone else can explain the method better. There is a type of adhesive remover marketed for human skin. Forget the name. It works very well at removing the sticky, sticky Elastikon adhesive. I used that to remove the Elastikon completely once or twice to make sure the skin underneath was not being harmed or getting irritated. Good luck. Time usually does heal nearly all happy tail so be patient & diligent. Just remember that amputation, though not preferable, isn't as awful as it sounds *if* it ever gets to that. And *if* it came to that, take off enough to prevent likelihood of recurrence.

Same here, almost exactly. But I do not give it long term. That seems to be the cause of much trouble, GI, liver & sometimes other. Seem to take for granted that we will have one of the NSAIDs approved for dogs.

Only thing is that some pets find it uncomfortable. Per my vet "It shouldn't sting." apparently some dogs & cats didn't get the memo. Your pup may not be one of them. Just a heads up. Also, the difference between the two could matter if there were a tendency to metabolic acidosis, at least I think so. My vets first choice is saline but my dog said no thanks to it so I asked to switch to LRS & all was well. BTW, I just ordered fluids by the case at Walmat & saved a lot over vet prices.

Nothing new sure sounds like a good thing to me. I know he will be so glad to get home again. Hope pick up, trip home & his settling back in are totally uneventful.

Give that sweet, beautiful boy a for me.

Thank you, Alex. That is appreciated. The prices are competitive with the places I currently shop.

Though definitely major surgery, you would be surprised how fast dogs can bounce back from this. Wow, though! What a shocker of a vet visit that must have been. All the best to Bandit. X'ing digits for negative biopsy results.

I went to pick up an owner turn in one time, one of my former fosters. This Grey had raided the trash & cabinets once too often. Among the rather extensive list of items was a box of granola bars, plus their wrappers. The next morning I heard retching noises & then a cough. Out popped a metallic wrapper. It happened again a few days later. She also left some interesting deposits in the yard for a while. This too shall pass! ETA: Odd how she never tried getting into trash or cabinets in our house. hmmm...

Three years ago I adopted a ten yo Grey who had just lost his home of five years. He was my second Grey. The year before I had adopted my first Grey one month after losing the last of our three senior dogs. We lost them all in a nine month span. It was days prior to finalizing his adoption, and Luke had a limp on a front leg that had just showed up at his foster home. I was the one who drove him to the vet for that & blood work. Though it could have been a strain from playing with his younger foster sister, his bloodwork was strange & osteo came up. The request was made for xrays & further bloodwork. Though he was not yet mine I was already committed to him, heart & soul. The wait to find out what was wrong was very difficult. It turned out he did not have osteo but just arthritis & likely a strain as well. They could not determine knew why his CBC was off but I adopted him anyway. The cause of his strange CBC was later diagnosed as chronic leukemia. Luke never developed osteo. We had him for over three years & each day of that was a blessing. As Dr. Couto predicted, he lived out a normal lifespan despite his leukemia. Wishing the same for you, a fright that turns out to be something far less worrying & many happy years together.

So very sorry. You have been through a lot with him. May the goodbyes be peaceful.

All will be well... all will be well... all will be well...

Idea one: She is a unicorn trying to go through life incognito. Idea two: She always wanted to join the circus but refuses to jump through hoops like a circus poodle. After watching the TV specials on Treeman she had a stroke of genius. She could just roach on a chair in a sideshow tent, nap & display her toe while a carny calls out, "Behold, Twigdog!!" Idea three: Someone on GT had no idea what it was but just wanted to hear herself talk.

Oh my, yes!

Yeah, but I prefer to shop anonymously. Have never before had to divulge personal info just to do cost comparison. This is why I didn't even check the prices the last time this site was mentioned. I'm with Fluffy. The company may be legit but having to register just to see prices still comes across as shady.

I am so sorry that happened. It is awful and when it happens it is so often in middle-age. This could happen for many, many reasons. My experience was the opposite of yours. Initially fed using a raised feeder 10 years ago as all suggested my dog's conformation made him susceptible to bloat. The several years later learned of the Purdue study findings & immediately put his bowl back on the floor. He still suffered GDV & was only barely saved. He later went on to bloat many times more though never torsioned again. He had a motor neuron disease. Eventually for his own safety I fed him from a raised feeder. He had no more or less bloating that way. Had my boy died when he torsioned I would have forever felt that I had killed him by putting his food bowl back down on the floor. Please, please do not think your choice of a raised feeder contributed to it.

Good news. Sending JoeJoe wishes for blue skies.