KF_in_Georgia

Not much to do, I think, except make sure the vet's staff knows why you're bringing her in. Then, maybe call them from the car when you get there and see if they're ready for her. They're probably going to want to get her straight into an exam room. In fact, it might be that someone will come out to the car to check her out, depending on how things are at the clinic. When a canine influenza outbreak happened two summers ago, one local vet's staff treated dogs in the owners' cars rather than risk them inside, where there were other sick dogs and boarding clients.

We've gone a week with no vomiting and no new socks. We did sucralfate for a couple of days, but I don't think she really needed it. She's eating just fine--runs to her crate and waits for food and eats it all. If she vomits, I'll call to set up an endoscopy. But as things stand now, I can't see calling a vet and saying I want my dog anesthetized and scoped when she's not showing signs of being sick. Jane at last week's meet and greet, resting her head on a nervous friend. We've got another meet and greet tomorrow.

Are you seeing your regular vet? Or have you been to a veterinary dermatologist? The latter is more expensive, but might be worth it.

Okay. I'm not sure why they needed to rotate her hips to check for hookworms. She might have had a hip issue (although hip dysplasia is rare in greyhounds), but she might have squealed just because she was startled or because she didn't like what they were doing. (Greyhound owners know about the GSOD--greyhound scream of death--where a dog screams the roof in over incidents of minor injury or major outrage.) How old is your girl? Do you know her racing name?

Give local folks a little time to get back to you with recommendations. Meanwhile, you might call the office of the Gainesville-area vet that originally saw her and see if they have recommendations for you. Did your dog originally have an issue that made you go to the vet in the first place? Or did you just go for a well-dog visit?

If you can tell us where you are, someone might be able to make good recommendations for you. But I'd run to another vet asap. I know you don't need the extra expense of a new vet, but if there's really nothing wrong, you can get her onto a sensible food.

We did an extensive ultrasound after the first sock. The expert (not the in-house vet) said he saw something not very large that might be another something swallowed or might be some food. The inclination at that point was to let Jane's own reactions diagnose (which happened Saturday). They also mentioned the possibility of doing a barium study. I'm thinking the barium might not be very helpful since the laundry isn't actually blocking the flow of food through her system--peeing and pooping is pretty normal, give-or-take a digestive reaction to the meds. I'll talk to the vet about it tomorrow. I need to see if he wants another round of Sucralfate to calm down her system. If he does recommend endoscopy, I think I'll call SEGA's vet and ask that office to do it. They have more experience, if something strange happens. At this point, I think she might have something extra inside because she's lying here, swallowing a lot, and that's been the warning when something wants to come back up. Thank heavens for Care Credit. This is happening when work is slow, and I'm earning less than half what I usually earn. I had 15 hours last week, 12 hours the week before, 24 the week before that--low hours every week this year. And I'll be working late tonight to bring my hours up to 15 for this week's check. Next week will be light, too, but the week after might be more normal. (I'm a proofreader/editor. The company's project year ended December 31. They've started on some new projects, but I can't proofread until stuff gets written and typeset. I'm at the end of every project--not the beginning.) I have Healthy Paws insurance for Jane, but because she's an 8-year-old and we had no medical history for her, they didn't offer me a very good policy. My 4-year-old has a $250 deductible, then they pay 80%. For Jane, they only offered $750 deductible (which I think we've hit) and a 60% reimbursement.

For the love of dog, she just threw up another sock! I have no idea when she ate this one. It might have been a January 1 meal, too. (It's not a mate to the first one. This one's purple.) Since I work from home, there's really little opportunity for her to get into something without my knowing it. She just sleeps next to me all day, all night. The only time she's not being watched is when she's crated (typically, when I'm not home). (At night, she's next to me, but she wakes me up if she gets up.) And I cleaned out the crate to make sure she didn't have more socks stashed there. Anyway, the vet's office closed at 1 today. I'll call them Monday morning and let the vet know. He might want another round of sucralfate. (That will be fun. But I'll remember to use GoodRx.)

She finished the sucralfate last night, threw up today (at a meet and greet--way to impress, Jane!). She'd only had one cup of kibble at breakfast (about 3 hours earlier). She did throw up at least once on the sucralfate, too. We'll see how it goes this weekend, with a regular food schedule, and call her vet on Monday.

I believe in miracles. I got two dog biscuits prepped with cheese whiz. I picked up a sucralfate and called Jane over. She came over, sniffed the pill, then took it in her mouth. She bit into it and dropped all the pieces on the floor. She picked up the pieces one at a time and ate all but one fairly large piece. I watched in amazement until she decided she was through. I picked up the last piece, pushed it into the cheese whiz on one biscuit and gave it to her. She ate the whole thing.

You might try asking the trick question pet owners often ask their vet: What would you do if this were your dog? When it's osteo, I don't know of any vet who suggests delaying.

I lost my Tigger to osteo last March. He fell in the house and couldn't get to his feet without help. When I got him up, he was still in pain and limping. We went to the ER, x-rays showed osteo, and we put him to sleep that night. He was in pain. I could have tried drugging him more (he was on meds for what the vet had diagnosed as a soft-tissue injury). But Tigger had already had one fall when he wasn't woozy on pain meds, and I wasn't willing to risk another one. I didn't want to worry that he'd fall sometime when I wasn't home, break his leg and be in agony, potentially for hours, until I returned. I'd had one earlier experience driving a screaming, broken-legged dog to the ER, and I never wanted to put another dog through that if I could help it. If Nattie is limping, he's in pain and his current meds are insufficient to counter the pain. This isn't like limping through a broken leg that's going to heal. This is limping that will never get better and may get catastrophically worse at any moment. Dogs with osteo have been known to break a bone just putting weight on the leg to stand up after a nap. Look at him and decide if he's going to have better days than he's having now. If his days won't be better than they are, I'd spare him the days that will be worse.

Tried stroking her throat. Got a big gulp from her. Let her go and she laid down on the bed, chin flat on the bed in a massive sulk. About 30 seconds later, she spat out half the pill. Really, it's easier to shove the thing down her throat and give her a cookie so she'll swallow the pill quickly to get to the cookie. I gave both dogs a spoonful of cottage cheese this morning. Q gulped his down in one bite. Jane licked the curds to death.

She'll bite into everything: a glob of peanut butter, a ball of meat. Anything and everything. And apparently, every time. She bit into a tiny dog biscuit ("small dog size") with cheese whiz on top. (The boy gulped his down whole.) She's one of those dogs that chews her kibble instead of inhaling it. She hasn't noticed Pepcid in turkey lunch meat because it's small enough to go unnoticed. The Famotidine is 20mg; the sucralfate is 1 gram--considerably larger and impossible to hide. Shoving pills down her throat is working. I only have to hold her mouth closed afterward long enough to stick the cheesy biscuit under her nose, and she'll take it from there. In the long term, I think I want her to realize pills will happen, but there can be a nice treat after. If she wants the treat, she needs to accept the pill. She's getting the idea, I think. I call her to the kitchen and she comes. She's not making me chase her. Just today, Thursday, and part of Friday to go.

Syringing it down in liquid form is not going to be easier. It's kind of a lot of liquid, and she coughs and gags, and I wind up wearing more than she swallows. I'm prepping a small dog cookie with cheese whiz. I leave that ready, on the counter, and call Jane to the kitchen. I push the pill down her throat, and hold her mouth closed while I pick up the cheesy cookie. I hold the cookie in front of her mouth and let her decide whether to (1) cough up the pill, then grab the cookie, hoping the boy dog won't have grabbed the cookie before she gets it, or (2) just swallow the pill and snatch the cookie. So far, in the last two pill sessions, she's gone for the second approach. I actually prep two dog biscuits. The boy dog gets the second biscuit as a reward for sticking close and threatening to claim the first biscuit. But if I mix a powder in meat or in peanut butter (that's been suggested), I have no way to get it in her if she refuses it.

2ml of water wasn't enough. Wound up with a thick paste in the syringe. Added more water and shook it to mix, but the pill didn't want to dissolve. She coughed it all back at me, so I'm wearing a lot of it. We'll just do the pill-down-the-throat next time, and a cheesy cracker by way of apology afterward.

I have the syringe. I got it from the pharmacy at Publix today. I just don't have any confidence that Jane will cooperate. Next round at 12:30 tonight--about an hour and a half from now.

Vet called back today. He talked to IDEXX. They don't have a set of greyhound numbers yet for the test, but they hope to establish one soon. Meanwhile, they think Jane's kidney values need to be rechecked in a few months. She'll be up for her shots and heartworm test in June, so we'll probably do it then. We've struck out with Cheese Whiz. She insists of biting into anything I give her, and spitting out the solid stuff for investigation. She's always done this with her dog cookies, too. We may try dissolving the sucralfate in warm water, but I think that'll be so messy. I may keep shoving them down her throat, then maybe reward her with the Cheese Whiz. It'd be easier if I could just tuck the pill into a sock...

I wrestled a sucralfate down her throat this morning at 7. She ate one cup of kibble at 9am. She just threw up (a little before 3pm). We may need a barium study after all. And it's time for the next sucralfate. She's fought me on every one.

Poor receptionist. I identified myself, then snapped, "I need an appointment to see Dr. X and get an ultrasound tomorrow. Jane just threw up a sock, and now we need to find out whether she really has cancer or not." Receptionist just said, "Yes, ma'am. He has an opening tomorrow at 5pm." By the time I got there on Thursday, everyone knew I was not a happy camper. But I got there early and was civil with the reception staff, and by the time I saw the vet we were pretty much to the "nobody's perfect" stage. I had calmed down a lot. When thinking of finding another vet, I looked on Yelp. There are lots of horror stories on other vet practices--can't get appointments, too expensive, bad diagnoses, dogs handled too roughly for x-rays, etc.--and the practice I go to gets uniformly favorable comments, especially for the two senior vets (one of whom is my guy). And my guy has always been open to things I read here on Greytalk--suggestions for meds and stuff--and has been known to call SEGA's vet to consult.

Talked to Jane's vet (finally!) about the lab work and the new ultrasound. Kidney values on lab work are off a tiny bit, but apparently there's a newish test, so he wants to call the lab on Monday and see if there are different numbers for greyhounds on this test. Liver numbers are pretty good. Pancreas inflamation is possibly just something backed-up from the sock she had in her gut. He's not recommending any special meds or food for that. He thinks it'll clear up on its own. But the ultrasound expert definitely saw nothing he'd define as "a mass". I got the sucralfate script filled at Walmart. They've been so cheap and reasonable on the other scripts, and I didn't even think to check GoodRx.com. But I should have. Walmart charged more than $60 for 21 pills. GoodRx probably would have been less than $20 for the meds. Another lesson learned.

Took the dogs out for a potty walk. Came in and Jane ran straight to her crate to wait for food. Jane, poor girl, has not read the instructions (in blue here) for sucralfate. 1 pill every 8 hours, say, 11pm, 7am, 3pm. Take on an empty stomach. Do not take antacids 30 minutes before or after taking this drug. Try to space other drugs from this one by 2 hours. This drug stops many drugs from getting into the body. The vet wants her to continue taking Pepcid, ideally, 30 minutes before a meal. That leaves mealtimes as 1:30am, 9:30am, and 5:30pm--or later for any meal. Or conceivably earlier, as long as the Pepcid is at least 30 minutes after the sucralfate. I'm sick with allergies right now, so I'm trying to match my med-times with Jane's meds (or food). Sleep is what fits in around the food/drug schedule. I'm a freelance proofreader/editor who has worked only 3.5 hours in the first 4 days of this week. I need money for vet bills (hooray for Care Credit--and I think we're about to hit the annual deductible on Jane's insurance, and we're only 35 days into the year), and work has finally come in (4 jobs arrived today), so in between food/drugs and sleep this weekend, there'll be work. There's a greyhound meet and greet Saturday that I planned to take Q to. (He's one confused boy, trying to figure out what happened to his food and snack schedule.) And there's an important football game on Sunday evening. ~grin~ The only way I'll keep track of any of this stuff is if I set alarms on my laptop and cellphone. And there goes the 11pm pill alarm...

Just home from the vet. Jane's vet wasn't there today (we saw him yesterday), but the ultrasound expert they call in when they need him was there. But I ran into a situation where the consultant wants to deal with the original vet rather than the pet owner--it's not unusual, but it's a nuisance. 1. Dr Fernandez (ultrasound man) said nothing about cancer. 2. Dr Fernandez told another vet at the practice that Jane's pancreas is inflamed. Apparently, toting around a sock for a month can do that to you. 3. Jane has something inside that shouldn't be there, so she could have done more illicit snacking. We're going to continue the Pepcid, add in sucralfate, 4. I'm going to feed her normally this weekend. If she vomits, we may do a barium study next week. I'm not going to declare "no cancer" until I talk to her vet, but I'm thinking we're in the clear for that. I've climbed down from my desire to kill Jane's vet. As other people have posted, it's hard to find things internally. He was wrong to say it was cancer when he wasn't sure (and that has rattled him), but I also was a fool not to go for a second opinion. And he's been good with my dogs, they adore him, and if I go to another vet I have no assurance that that vet would be better. Vets are human. So, new house rules for us: Never, ever get an ultrasound from the in-house person. From now on, save time and start with Dr Fernandez. If you take in a sick dog--get a second opinion. If the vet tells you something bad, if the vet tells you something good--get a second opinion. Before you operate, euthanize, give chemo, medicate, or assume everything is great--get a second opinion. If I'd gotten that kind of diagnosis for myself, I'd have gone for a second opinion. I owe as much to the dogs. We sent out lab work, so we should have baseline numbers for Jane's liver values that we can consult going forward. And I should get an official call from Jane's vet tomorrow or Monday to discuss the ultrasound and the lab work. Meanwhile, Jane feels well enough to bark at everyone who went through the waiting room while we were there. She's an ex-kennel diva who never got the "greyhounds don't bark" memo; she's certain she's supposed to supervise everyone coming and going.

She vomited a tiny bit of mostly digested kibble about 6:30 this morning. Less vomit than before, and much better digested. But how many socks did she eat? We're just now getting up for the day, and there's 8 hours until her appointment. I've got some smooshy canned food, and I'll let her have that for breakfast and hope it's out of the way for the ultrasound this evening. (She was fasted 12 hours before the other ultrasound, and that doesn't seem to have helped them get good results.)

The boy is curled up on the Slumberball she's slept on for the last month. And she's on the 2nd-favorite bed. I didn't have anything to do with that. Q just eats faster, so after they had their last meal of the day, he got to the bed first. On other nights, I've distracted him, but tonight I wasn't paying attention. I'm happy to leave her on the 2nd-favorite bed, though. If I hear her start to vomit, I don't have to dodge as fast because she won't be as close to me.