TwiggysMom
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Posts posted by TwiggysMom
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I am so sorry. It is just terribly unfair that you will have to lose him so soon after adopting him.
Of course, all Murphy cares about is that he is with you now, where he belongs. He will be happy for the rest of his life, and that is all any of us can ask for.
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Well, page 3 would be good news if it weren't for Adam and Katie this week - not in this thread, but osteo nonetheless
:weepChecking in with Twiggy, still doing great (but we got caught in a flash thunderstorm this evening - still drying off!)
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I imagine it is different with each dog, but Twiggy had absolutely no discernible reaction to her first 3 treatments (so much so that I actually doubted she was getting the chemo!)
Treatments 4 & 5 had some side effects, but not too terrible. Treatment 6 was too terrible, but I suspect that was due to administration error.
Throughout, her bloodwork did show her immune system taking a hit from the chemo, but never enough for her to need antibiotics. She did have several infections (UTI, and skin infections). We used a supplement recommended by our regular vet called "Uro-Maxx" to prevent and additional UTIs, and just treated the skin infections with topicals.
Sounds like Tempo is doing great!
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I am so sorry that osteo has taken you lovely boy from you.
Run free, Adam...
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What a beautiful, happy girl who clearly found great joy in her life with you.
I am so sorry she was taken from you far too soon.
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Sending good wishes for Wren tomorrow, and big congratulations to Symbra on passing the 16-month mark!
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I'm so glad she is continuing to do so well. What a character she is - I think dogs with her type of personality tend to do really well with major life changes like this!
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That is so scary! I hope Gracie is doing much better and that she has no more issues related to it.
Kisses to Gracie
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Jenny, I am so sorry to hear about Blitz's osteo. It is such an overwhelming diagnosis, I think in large part because there are so many options for treatment, but they are drastically different, and none of them come with any guarantees.
Re: free chemo - I think (but am not sure) that the chemo is still free without membership, it is just consults that are no longer free for non-members.
When I started down this road with Twiggy, I didn't realize that the initial expenses were not going to be the major part of her bills. Of course, we had some unexpected issues along the way that most don't, but I was not considering just how expensive the chemo administration and bloodwork would be. This can vary greatly among locations and even between clinics in the same area (I found this out when I switched oncologists!)
There are so many of us here, I think people have experience with just about all types of treatments (except for limb-sparing surgery).
Twiggy and I are among the lucky ones - she will be 22-months post-amp this Sunday, and is doing great (her lungs were still clear at her last check-up a month ago). It does seem to be true that they seem to become "more" after the amp. Twiggy isn't the same dog she was pre-amp. She is so much more purposeful, fun, demanding, social, full of live and adventure... We've been on several greyhound vacations (2 Mountain Hounds trips and GIG), and she has been one of the most on-the-go hounds at each of them! I wish all hounds could be as lucky as Twiggy; it would make treatment decisions much easier!
Your girl Blitz is so beautiful! Please know that as others have said, you are the only one who is qualified to make decisions for her. You are doing everything you can - gathering information, asking questions, and then you will apply that to your understanding of Blitz and your own situation to make your decision. The decision you make will absolutely be the right one.
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Nancy, I know that when Twiggy was going through her initial treatments, OSU did not recommend starting artemisinin until she was finished with IV chemo. Then, they recommended it along with the oral chemo in their metronomic protocol.
Two things are different here: Twiggy's situation was post-amp, so I don't know whether their recommendations would have been different for chemo without amp; and OSU no longer recommends oral chemo (Palladia, cytoxan) or even an nsaid as part of a metronomic protocol. They now only recommend using artemisinin post-iv chemo. Again, I don't know whether their recommendation would be different without amp.
I think your plan to join Circle of Grey and the Artemisinin group is a good one. There are probably more people there who have made a similar treatment course.
As to whether chemo is ever done, that depends on what type you are talking about. IV chemo is usually planned for 4-6 treatments ideally 3 weeks apart. I know one oncologist who then likes to wait a year and if the dog is still alive, repeat the process. (This is for post-amp patients, and personally, I don't think her recommendation is a good one - she is the oncologist I "fired"). For oncologists who recommend oral chemo (usually Palladia and/or cytoxan), the plan is to give it for life, unless serious side effects occur. For Twiggy, she was on Palladia for about 3-4 months before she developed life-threatening side effects, and cytoxan for about 6 months. Many others have had limited side effects and were able to stay on the drugs for the rest of their lives, although usually with some Palladia "holidays"
I'd be interested to hear what treatment course you decide on!
Kisses to Rita!.
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Wow, Melody is doing fantastic! Keep up all the good work, everyone!
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I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner! Wonderful news that Melody is back home, she is a beautiful girl and she looks amazing post-op!
These first couple weeks will be tough, but things get better week 3-4, and by week 5-6, she'll be totally back to her old self.
If you want to see a happy tripod or two, check out Twiggy's Mountain Hounds thread in C&F
I'm not sure if you've gone through the Osteo Threads yet, but there is info on about anything osteo-related you could want to ask in there, and if your question isn't in there, there are lots of us who will try to help.
Twiggy and I send our best healing thoughts for Melody!
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FWIW, my regular vet (not one of her oncologists), told me that the longer it takes to get a potential osteo diagnosis back, the better - that means there is more bone to dissolve.
It already sounded hopeful that this isn't osteo, so I would take this as good news!
I'm glad to hear that Brilly's non-toe is still looking good!
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Nancy, I am SO sorry to hear that you & Rita have had to embark on this battle.
It sounds like you have found an oncologist who is willing to pursue a thorough palliative care regimen, which is great.
The most important thing (as has been discussed here in great detail) is to stay ahead of the pain. It sounds like it isn't necessary yet, but keep in mind that tramadol and especially gabapentin will be very useful tools in pain management.
FWIW, "normal" amputation for osteo in a foreleg includes the entire scapula - I'm just throwing that out there,I don't know whether that will have any weight in UP's assessment for Rita.
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It looks like she's doing really well on the steps in the video! Keep up the good work!
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It sounds like Dash's difficulty is that she never learned a nice even gait for taking stairs.
If Dash doesn't like being helped with the harness, is there a way you can work with her outside of the house on other stairs? Could you find sets of stairs in increasing sizes to work with? Like first 3 or 4 stairs, when she is good with that, move to 5-6 step flights, etc. I think the key is to teach her to take careful, controlled steps, rather than her all-out "dash" up/down the steps (haha, her name fits her in more ways than one!)
My girl Twiggy is a front-leg amp. I think that makes going up easier than down, and I think the opposite is likely true for hind-leg amps (up probably harder than down). As far as which is easier overall, most people whose hounds are hind-leg amps think front leg is harder, and those like me with a front-leg amp hound think hind-legs must be harder! I think that means that they tend to do really, really well regardless of which leg is missing!
Twiggy didn't need any re-training to do stairs, in fact, I had to block the stairs from her so that she wouldn't do them before she was supposed to (I failed - she still managed to nose the gates out of the way and follow me). I was more concerned about her going down stairs, because all of her weight was headed downward and she only had the one leg to catch herself - if she missed with that leg she would be head over heels all the way down which easily could be a fatal accident (b/c of course, even a broken leg would be fatal for an amputee). One day, I asked her to follow me up the 2nd flight of stairs, but she wanted to do something else, and she RAN down the first flight of stairs - I nearly had a heart attack, because I hadn't let her go downstairs by herself yet, but she was waiting for me all happy at the bottom - she wanted to go for a walk!
I've posted these videos of Twiggy going up/down stairs before, so they may be the ones Chris was referring to. These were about 3-4 weeks post-amp (sorry about the dark lighting and the slipcover piled up waiting for the washing machine!). I should take new ones in daylight so they show up better. (click the images to go to the videos - I can't figure out how to get them embedded properly)
Twiggy going up stairs:
Twiggy going down stairs:
Do come join us in the Osteo Thread if you'd like - there is a ton of great info and support there!
Your story of Dash trying to stand on her front legs to lift her remaining hind leg makes me smile - you definitely should try to get a video of that and post it for us!
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It sounds like Brilly is doing great!
I've had at least 2 fosters with toe-amps (but long-healed before they came to me, so I didn't go through the bandaging phase). They did just fine without the toe - never seemed to miss it at all.
And I agree that you'll all probably sleep much better if you are all together.
Keep up the good healing, Brilly!
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Great news!
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Kristin and Jean - I am so sorry for each of your losses.
It seems like every time I'm off GT for a few days I come back to such sadness.
Thinking of Fritz and Gunner now running pain-free at the bridge....
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Wonderful! I had a scare like that last winter that also was soft tissue. After about 4 weeks of very limited activity, all was better. I'm hoping for Moonbeam to be feeling much better soon!
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How long did it take you until Twiggy was able to go on the super long walks you're always talking about?
I didn't even try to go on really long walks for quite a while. At 2 months, she was doing just like Tempo - playing like crazy, running full out, and going to the dog park, but by this time it was late October and winter was coming.
It wasn't until the weather got nice again that I started letting her decide where and how long to go for walks, and she sort of built herself up to the 2-3 hours over the course of a couple months. So, she was about 7-8 months post-amp that we were going these distances, partially because winter got in the way. Keep in mind, too that Tempo is still going through iv chemo - that will tire him out more. Our timing worked out great because her iv chemo was done over winter when all we wanted to do was hole up inside anyway.
I always take a mini emergency kit with me - a blanket, a light sedative, her muzzle, water, some vet wrap, the phone number of a pet-friendly taxi company, $20, a copy of my drivers license, and a copy of my credit card. Wherever we are, if anything awful happens, I can get her to the evet.
You might want to at least bring a blanket and water with you so that if Tempo gets tired he (and you) can rest up for a bit.
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Jet
in Remembrance
What a wonderfully unique girl your Jet was. I am so glad you all found each other. I am equally sorry that you had to say goodbye to her like this.
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You are all so great... this is why I tell everyone going through an osteo diagnosis to come here and at least read, if not sign up and post. The support is just amazing!
Jean, how is Gunner doing?
Twiggy got a grilled filet mignon/grilled veggies/cheesecake dinner (and a sip of beer) on Thurs to celebrate, and I've got another filet lined up for her tonight. Here's a photo from our 2-hour walk this afternoon (more photos in a thread I'm about to post in EEG).
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Oh no - I know how sick you must feel about this. I hope to hear good news for Moonbeam on Monday!
:weep
Costco Kirkland Flea And Tick
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
Sentinel is now at pretty much a generic price. Since putting it back on the market (and not bringing Interceptor back in the US), Sentinel is priced at the Interceptor price.
I bought a 12-month supply for Twiggy from Drs Foster & Smith for about $85 a couple months ago.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=1460
A lot of vendors are trying to make big bucks by charging the old price hoping no one will know better.
Drs F&S is a Vet-VIPPS pharmacy, so safe to order from in the US.