Charlies_Dad

I am sorry to read of Stars passing. She was a special pup.

I am very sorry Tin. Tosca was and always will be a beauty.

I am so sorry Jan. Dottie was well loved while she was with you and she knew that. Run free sweetie.

Teri, I am sorry you lost your Ronee. She sounds like she was a real healer for you. It is terrible when they leave us as they help us in so many ways.

Maggie, I am so very sorry to read of the passing of your two sweeties. This is so heartbreaking, both were beauties and so special. Losing two so close together is so very hard, hang in there and know everyone here is there for you.

A GTI would work with the seats down for two pups. What is important though is the two pups getting along so close together. Some have a tendency to get snappy if they are stood on or shoved by another. We had two in the back of our Nissan Frontier crew cab. I removed the seats, laid down two bags of cedar chips to fill the foot wells and then laid a custom cut plywood panel over that, foam and a duvet. They loved it and were able to both lay down or stand no problem.

I missed this last year, I am so sorry this tragedy happened to your beautiful boy and you. I hope Stewie has met up with Gilly so he can be shown the ropes.

A very sad day. Rocket was and always will be one of those pups you will remember. I am very sorry you had to say goodbye.

That is excellent! These pups rebound incredibly from such a major surgery, it will surprise you. I hope to read further good updates on your girl.

I am so very sorry to read of the sudden passing of Moonshine. She was beautiful and with you for too short a time. We lost our Angel Jack very similarly and its beyond heartbreaking to have them pass in your arms. Again, so very sorry.

Thank you everyone. Stewie was our heart healer after losing Charlie and Jack so close to one another. He was a very special boy and allowed all our small pups, angel Peanut, angel Angie and our current little one Tia to play with him, take his bed from him and even steal his peanut butter jars without a growl. He would just look at us with those big sad brown eyes with the look of whoa is me. I loved him for this and so much more. I have videos of him being chased by Tia, all 14lbs of her, how many Greys would allow and enjoy that with a goofy smile on his face. He always knew he was faster but boy did he give some chances to just get close enough and then he was off again. I miss my walks with him as there is something so very special to have such a strong and beautiful creature walking right beside you close enough that I just had to extend my fingers and they would be stroking his bunny fur. Wherever we went for a walk, all eyes were on him as he was such a beautiful boy and I guess the sight of an 82 pound muscular pup with a tiny 14lb one walking side by side was a funny picture but to me, it was perfect. Went for a long walk on the beach yesterday, the first without him although I think I could feel him beside me. About to go on another with little Tia and it will be difficult but I also know he loved his little sis and would not want to deprive her. Again thank you for the kind words. I have been missing from GT for a while due to Lynns illnesses and honestly concerns over Stewie as this year he had a few issues since our return from Florida. None seemed serious and all tests showed nothing but obviously there was something there that X-rays, CT scans, numerous blood tests, multiple vets could not find.

My sweet boy left yesterday and his leaving has broken my heart. It was unexpected and we thought we had a fighting chance but the prognosis was very poor and he was in pain. I could not do that to my sweet boy. Stewie was the best Grey, sweet, docile, loved attention and would always paw for more. He picked me when I visited the kennel in St Albanys, VT and even when I walked away from him twice to see what he would do, he would follow and come up and lean on me. This was after seeing whether two other pups would pick me and thinking I did not want another fawn as it would remind me of Charlie. Alas Stewie has other ideas and I am so thankful he did. I loved my boy, he was my special boy who always had so sweet eyes for me. I am very angry and sad he left after just turning nine, we have not been lucky with our pups with Charlie making to 9.5yrs and due to Lynns health issues, we dont know if more Greys are in our future. Do me the one favour and keep loving your pups and never ever stop adopting these incredible creatures. They are just truly so very special.

Not to influence anyone on which path to take, we chose amp and chemo for our angel Charlie and he survived 21mths post diagnosis. They were all very good months and only the last few days I saw that his fight was over so zero regrets with out decision. I know we were lucky but we were also very aggressive so that may have helped a bit who knows.

All clear by the radiologist group today and pathology appeared fine. So very good news albeit expensive but we are thankful it is nothing major.

Limp and swelling way down today. His hock is almost normal....now wondering whether it is an infection and the Doxy is helping to clear it up? Nothing showed on multiple bold tests but these things do happen. Just glad he seems a lot better so we are moving in the right direction.

Thanks everyone. Stewie is home and resting, all looks good! Nothing appears a problem in the leg, hip or chest so that is a big relief. They have sent the CT scan to a radiologist group they use for a second opinion and am hoping they just confirm the same. The surgeon who did the scan and reviewed it was a student of Dr Coutu at OSU so she should be able to see a lesion if there was one. They are also sending out to pathology the aspirate that they did. Again hoping those come back clear. So good news so far! We just have no idea was is causing the limp and swelling.

I loved Taylor from afar and he so reminded me of Charlie when he was a tripawd. Your boy will never be forgotten by the GT community.

It is very sad Kerry that your sweet boy has been gone a year already. I always wanted to meet him when we moved to Kennebunk full time but alas that never came to be. He was and always will be your heart hound and there is nothing as painful as having to say goodbye. He will always be with though, always.

Latest update. Stewie is at the vet specialist and is undergoing a CT scan. We opted the more aggressive and expensive approach as my concern is repeating X-rays may show nothing wrong with the leg and it's something else in another location (we are doing his chest too and his abdomen was done with the ultrasound on Saturday). The surgeon agreed and so we are all in at this point. It's possible that some more heavy-duty antibiotics would solve things but nothing was yet indicating an infection albeit it could very well be. I am dearly hoping it just that and we do not have something more serious going on but with all my business travel of late and more coming, I just don't have the time to dilly-dally and go back to the vets 8-10 times. Today's visit is number 5 and I am fearing the worst at this point. Luckily we have insurance as after today, it will be $3700 all for this damn limp. Good thoughts appreciated in advance. PS - yes, Dr C. Is next depending on what is found today.

Just spoke with the vet and they are not seeing any bacteria on the slides. This is a bummer as I was hoping this would be the cause. Tracy, a CT scan? I will ask, would this be for the leg or elsewhere? The ultrasound today did his leg and abdomen area and the spleen looked fine.

Back from the ultrasound and found nothing. They are doing some cultures to see whether bacteria is present and hopefully that is the case as it is treatable. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is when we were in FLA he got a blister on his pad on the very foot, the skin eventually came off and am wondering whether he picked up something that way. Where we were staying had a ton of pigeons and green parrot like birds on the wires directly above the path to the house and it was mess of bird excrement daily. The birds of course sat on the wires because the neighbour fed them so maybe something got into his foot this way? Also they were doing major construction on the sewer system putting in new pipes and the roads were very dirty. We tried avoiding all of this when we walked them but could not avoid it right in front of the rented house we stayed in. So this has me wondering.... We are still planning to go to the Monday appt. as there could be something else cashing this.

Sorry for not posting sooner Teri and thanks for asking. Well he seemed to be getting a bit better and we had a specialist appt for this coming Monday morning. We went away to NYC last weekend as I had a conference there this week, when Lynn returned home he was limping worse again and our dog sitter states she had kept him calm. I got back on Thursday and noticed he was limping worse again and the swelling also was getting worse. Hoping that maybe he just re-injured it while we were away and that Matecam would get him to the Monday appt but alas no. His hock swelled up worse than ever yesterday and at 10pm I was headed to the E-vet. After more x-rays, blood tests and a $500+ bill, we are no further ahead. The E-vet does not know what it and offered an ultra-sound this morning so we are doing that. He is now on Metacam, Gabapentin and Doxycycline (in the event it's a tick borne disease). We are also applying compresses but we have no idea what we are dealing with. New X-rays showed nothing but health bone however the E-vet only took one view which confuses me because one would think they would do multiple. This is the thing that irks me about vets who charge a lot but seem to be less inclined to do more aggressive diagnostics immediately and prefer you come back multiple times. Yes now I am venting but just want to know what is going on. Today I am going to be much more forward with the vet because last night I told them to do whatever it takes but they did not. Here are my theories on what it is: - bone fracture they cannot make out on the limited films they have taken (keeping the Monday appt with the surgeon for them to do every possible angle) - infection of some kind but blood work came back fine twice now - tick borne illness (that is why he is now on Doxy) - ligament tear??? (Don't know if swelling would be evident for this type of injury) - cancer as one can never rule this out (elsewhere than the leg causing this?) The thought on it's an injury if some kind is that it occurred after we got back from FL, there was 8-10 inches of snow and it had a hard 1-2" crust. I watched him go out that time as I always do and he would be able to walk on top of the snow one moment and then break through the next so perhaps he fell through at one point and injured it by leaping/hopping like he does???

Yup, Epsom salt bath will work wonders.

Thanks Mary Pat I will confirm with them. I very well be mistaken. Tracy, I don't see a way to send your the films via PM. They are a lot clearer in my email but Flickr seems to have changed the resolution after the upload.

Okay we are a week on and there had been some improvement but not as much as I would have thought. His hock is still swollen albeit it has reduced somewhat but a week on Metacam I would have thought it would have gone back to normal? I called my vet again and now he wants me to see a specialist, great they tell me that on Friday and of course the specialist is not available until April 12 but there is another specialist there that has an opening on the 4th. Problem is I am out of town starting Tuesday through Thursday in Minneapolis and then after getting home, I fly out to NYC Friday afternoon and won't be back until April 12th. I don't understand why they did not tell me this when I spoke to them Wednesday morning. One thing I did ask for were the films and thought I would post them here for smarter people than me to look at. Also I am thinking of sending them to Dr. C but the quality of them makes me believe he will ask for new ones. These already cost $200 and of course Healthy Paws does not cover diagnostic stuff. In the end I just have a bad feeling about all this. Without more improvement the evil C is staring right at me and no matter what I wish otherwise, it just seems like something is not right here. Time after time I have read others who go down a similar path only to find out weeks later it's some form of cancer.