jaym1

tell her to go screw herself, or better yet, she can come to your home and try to take the dog from you if she wants. what, is she going to go before a magistrate and argue that the "contract" is legally binding because of a lb. here and a lb. there? good luck with that. all contracts are open to interpretation, and all contracts can be litigated. is your adoption group willing to spend the time and money to take you to court? there are dogs being put to sleep at the track when theyre no longer useful. there are dogs being abused and killed all over the country and world. with that being said, your group wants to take back your dog because its two .lbs heavier than it was a while back? rubbish. how do you think the magistrate is going to react to his or her time being wasted when you produce a note from your vet saying your greyhound is at a perfectly healthy weight? this is a joke. some of the people at these groups are just crazies. the woman who founded the group here in mass. that one of my two greyhounds came from said some things to me that were so moronic, so insulting, and so obnoxious that i basically told her to f--- off, and that they'd never be hearing from me again. its a shame, because everyone else at the group was helpful and polite, but she was just a total psycho. anyhow, she replied with one of the famous non-apology apologies (im sorry IF i offended you, rather than i'm sorry THAT i said offensive things). she told me they had put time and money and effort into rescuing my dog, and they deserved to continue to get updates about him. in other words, me cutting them off would be unfair. i told her she should put some time and effort into not treating other human beings like sh-t, and that if she was looking to find good homes willing to adopt her dogs, she might also consider not being totally obnoxious to people who want to adopt from them. i havent spoken with them since, and i will never adopt from them again.

tempo has completely recovered. i think he was simply suffering from digestive upset as a result of the doxorubicin. a day of cerenia fixed that, and he was immediately back to completely normal, high energy, etc. he is still very well, and hopefully will remain so for a while, at least. when we go for our late night trip to the dog park he is like a wild animal and when the air is cool he runs crazily around in circles, which is surprising, because he usually seems to only want to run in straight lines the rest of the time due to the lack of balance from a missing leg. he will loop around several times while i chase him, then dart over to his favorite digging spot, pin his ears back and dig furiously until i come over to him, at which point he will dart off in more circles. its joyous to watch. here he is yesterday and this is how he waits to go out the instant i get out of bed

i guess i would just say the following: imagine how innocent and beautiful your your greyhound is, and how s/he looks up to you for safety and care and protection. now imagine sitting in a vets office with that same dog while you decided that you're going to put him or her to sleep because you cant afford to pay for an extremely expensive medical procedure that would completely fix whatever the problem is. pet insurance buys you the ability to never have to make that decision. and even if you never REALLY need it, that security is worth the cost. and i would just reiterate, again, that if you are looking to save money, getting a dog was a huge mistake.

One of my two greyhounds has had vet bills nearing $12,000 since I adopted him in October of 2011. NO amount of savings would cover that. Basically pet insurance doesn't make financial sense until it does. The mistake that people make when mulling this decision, I think, is to weigh insurance against savings accounts as though they are both potential investment vehicles, when in fact they are two totally different things. Even if you don't need to use your insurance, you are purchasing piece of mind and security in the event that the worst should happen. With savings you are hedging in the opposite direction, and betting on nothing happening. For me personally, no amount of savings could have ever covered the costs I've incurred so far, and if one of my two greyhounds weren't suffering from a terminal illness that will soon end his life, it would only be that much worse. For me, just getting dogs represents a poor financial decision to begin with that comes with automatically sunk-in costs. If I had enough money, I might consider taking the risk of not insuring. But I don't. Which brings up another sort of paradox about it: the people who can least afford insurance are probably the people who need it the most, and the people who can afford the risk of just going with savings (i.e. people who could cover the hefty cost of acute emergencies) are the people who could likely afford insurance the most easily. This is a generality, of course, but I think it's a good way to think about it.

nope, not at all. sometimes when he comes in after a long run and drinks too fast he does, but thats normal. also i thought i noticed a bit more sputtering after post-nap stretching, but im probably just being hyper aware. he was much more active this afternoon, running at the dog park and chasing other dogs. while vigorously digging a big hole he did let out a lout yelp, but i couldnt detect any source of pain -- he very well could have scraped a stone or piece of glass with his paw. the difference now is that there definitely is something gravely wrong with him, and im waiting for symptoms to show up. this is the exact reverse of how things normally work, when symptoms show up, and one fears that something might be gravely wrong. its pretty exhausting, to tell you the truth. but today was a reprieve -- he was his old self when i came home from work.

i hope so. he's just been very slow all day. normally he pulls rocko and i when walking to the park. but tonight he was barely keeping up, and he was just taking tiny little hops. he was still interested in smelling everything and peeing on his normal pee spots. but he just seems to be moving very slowly.

oncologist thinks it may have been severe stomach upset from doxorubicin, so i gave him some cerenia. he did have pretty bad gas, though if he was in digestive turmoil, he wasnt showing it, as his appetite remains at 100%. he has been mostly resting since, and even chewing his rawhide, so perhaps it was a GI issue. i havent heard a yelp since.

something is not right with tempo today. he has been very slow, and at the park he didnt want to do anything except stay next to me and rest his snout on my lap when i was sitting. he was excited when i got home -- both of them were. but i heard three quiet little yips while they were jumping around. i dont know who it came from, but i think it was tempo. i felt all of this limbs and tried to elicit a response, but i couldnt. i also checked all his paws for cuts or other injuries and found none. this does not bode well at all. i'm going to observe him for the evening. i'm not really sure what to do.

thanks everyone. this is still devastating. everywhere he goes, and for as long as I have known him, Tempo follows every rule, real or imagined. He waits at the water bowl for other dogs to drink. He sits down at the front door without even asking when it's time to go out. He steps over puddles because he doesn't like to get his feet wet. His sole reason for existing is to play fetch with his beloved giant rubber ball, which he carries himself to the dog park three times per day. But if another dog so much as looks in the direction of his ball when I throw it, he won't chase after it. He won't look anyone in the eye, and seems to generally be aware of a whole series of laws that he tries his best to follow, even when it makes him seem nuts, or ruins the fun for him. In short he has tried so hard to fit in in the world of retirement, and now this is what happens to him. It sucks. Even though I had prepared for this possibility by talking with my oncologist during our previous visit, the reality of it rendered me unprepared to really ask good questions or agree on a strategy going forward. Having read more literature today, it seems that there is basically no evidence that IV chemo has any effectiveness with metastases present, and that it may actually be less effective than metronomic chemo, the efficacy of which is in itself in doubt. What are people's thoughts on going the IV route? Carboplatin was no problem for him, and yesterdays doxorubicin doesn't seem to have been a big deal (he's a little tired today). Also, does anyone have any experience with artemisinin and pet insurance? Healthy Paws has been very good to us, but I wonder if they will reimburse for a non-prescription supplement, even when it's recommended by a vet. Also on that note, I have found the yahoo artemisinin group to be too poorly organized and impenetrable. Does anyone have recommendations for artemisinin brands? Dr. Couto told me that 100mg per day is recommended, but I have heard rumblings that that dosage may be low. Any advice would be much appreciated. The saddest part is that Rocko, who I adopted solely to keep Tempo company, has now grown accustomed to never being alone. I will have to get ANOTHER greyhound to keep him company when Tempo is gone (when Tempo is gone . . . this is the first time I've typed that). Finding a suitable greyhound is the type of thing that takes weeks, if not months to arrange, but the idea of even thinking about this while Tempo is here is tremendously upsetting, for many obvious reasons.

today was to be his final carboplatin treatment. instead, his oncologist switched him to doxorubicin, in the hopes that it might provide more effective deterrence to oncogenesis. he will now be administered that every three weeks. in addition, i am going to begin artemisinin as soon as i can get some. i dont intend to prolong his life with painkillers until the end. he's too much of a beautiful animal to suffer that indignity. moreover, i dont want to risk forcing him into a hazy stupor that may not even be masking any pain whatsoever -- his humerus was nearly eaten to the breaking point by cancer before he even showed any sign of discomfort back in march, so i would have no way of knowing if pain medication in the dosages that end-of-life osteosarcoma dogs receive was really working. i'd prefer him to have a shorter life during which he is completely alert and happy than a longer one during which he is in a haze. this is almost too painful to even type.

within 24 hours of his first limp, tempo was on the operating table, having his leg amputated. i immediately put him on a low-carb diet, started chemo as soon as possible, followed every protocol, and spared no expense. he has been healthy and vigorous and happy and seemingly filled with life. which is why it was all the more devastating to find out this afternoon that in fewer than five months post-amputation his cancer has already metastasized into his lungs, and that he has weeks, or possibly months to live. tempo just turned six, and has been retired for under two years. i had hoped he'd have a long life and we'd be together for years. even after his diagnosis i hoped he'd be one of the few miracle dogs, or that he'd at least fall within the median survival rate of a year. this is so unfair for him.

this friday is tempo's final chemo. we are now at 5 months post amputation. he will also have his second chest x-ray. there is no worse part of this process then waiting for x-ray results. that's how i first found out he had cancer. the second time, two months after surgery, they were clear, but sitting there in the waiting room awaiting results is completely excruciating. he has been completely healthy, so i'm not anticipating anything showing up, but then again, i wasnt anticipating anything the day before his leg was amputated either. i still can't decide whether to go with the metronomic chemo or artemisinin. the oncologist recommends only doing one or the other.

well, it really just popped up seemingly out of nowhere. i did give him a crazy brushing last night at the dog park. it was dark, and he was shedding gobs of fur, especially in that area, so its entirely possible that this is a result. this would also explain why it seemed to come out of nowhere. like i said, though, im a little more worried than i would normally be. his oncologist doesnt always answer emails over the weekend, so i may have to wait until monday, unless it changes markedly, in which case i might just bring him in.

tempo has developed a red patch on his hind leg, and the fur has fallen off around it. its not raised or bleeding, and it doesnt appear to be bothering him. i palpated it and he didnt seem bothered in the least. it just appeared today. he has been shedding a TON all summer it seems. its possibly that i either brushed him too vigorously last night, or that he scraped himself up against a tree stump or log while running or playing fetch. he is extraordinarily active for an amputee -- even for a normal greyhound -- and there are plenty of obstacles like this at the park we go to. still, since my entire concern for him is and has been metastases, any visual or tactile abnormalities i come across on his body make me really nervous. should i be?

he is extremely agile still, and could easily handle stairs -- its not a physical issue. part of the problem is that i live in an apartment with literally zero stairs, so, to be honest, he never got to be that good with them in the first place. ever after a year of retirement, there were certain staircases he just would not budge for. so now, as you can imagine, its even worse. good advice about the taller staircases -- ive only been trying it with tiny ones. still, with four legs he sometimes tried to jump those, so im a little fearful.

here is a question only tangentially related to osteosarcoma: does anyone whose greyhound had to have a front leg amputation have any advice for reteaching stairs? tempo was never great with stairs, but he was passible in most situations. now, however, stairs are basically impossible, and he tries to jump on even the shortest staircases. this isnt a problem at home, as i live on ground level. but sooner or later im going to have to leave them somewhere for a weekend, or i may need to leave town for a few days, and i am terrified of the idea of him injuring himself, potentially seriously, on a stairway. initially teaching him stairs was fairly straightforward: pick up one paw, put it on a step, then repeat x4. but as you can imagine, that sort of thing is nearly impossible with only three legs.

i suppose it depends on the journey. since his second treatment, tempo has had minimal to non-existent side effects from his IV-chemo and since the vet hospital is literally around the corner, his monthly visits are very low impact. the worst part about them is that his cousin rocko hates the vet and whines the whole time. tempo loves all the technicians and they love him, so he is showered with attention from the time he gets there until the time he leaves. by far the hardest part was amputation and recovery -- which was very difficult indeed -- but that's way behind him now.

today is tempo's 6th birthday. i hope this wont be his last. i had to work, and since every one of tempo's days is functionally his birthday, replete with lavish gifts (a 12,000 BTU air conditioner, an unlimited supply of desiccated bull penises and other ghoulish treats, weekly trips to the dog bakery, and my obliging his compulsive desire to play fetch at the dog park, even at 1:45 in the morning), this evening was a modest celebration. first, we played fetch despite the fact that we were experiencing national weather service emergency-level flood rains: this photo was taken while i attempted to hide under a tree for shelter as my dog simply waited for me to come out and kick the ball. this process was repeated several dozen times. then it was time for dinner. tempo is a connoisseur of the disgusting. but since grocery stores dont sell dead squirrels, discarded chicken bones from the edge of sewer grates, and frozen pieces of dog poop, we settled for a plate of herring, cheese, and kibble, all of which he promptly vacuumed away.

i was in touch with both my oncologist and with dr. cuoto today. i hadnt quite realized that the data on post-IV chemo was so bleak. basically, there is no empirical evidence that any of it does anything, though i suppose the only caveat is that there isnt much data to go on either way. my oncologist recommends either artemisinin or metronomic chemo, on the basis that there is reason to logical believe that the effects of the treatments would be beneficial. but she does not recommend administering both at the same time, which was surprising to me. somehow i find this all to be very deflating: its been months of difficult decisions and harsh treatments, but now i feel like clinicians are basically telling me that the end point of this journey is to effectively throw up my hands and just see what happens, or to just choose whichever option makes me feel better. not that its their fault -- insufficient data is insufficient data. still, its frustrating.

whoa, your oncologist recommended the metronomic protocol of drugs to be given simultaneously with the main chemo? this is something i've never heard. basically every source i look to provides different information, sometimes radically so. the lack of data, coupled with the wildly varying standards of care for pets, as opposed to people, makes me fear that all this stuff may not be any more effective than just throwing up my hands and seeing what happens. i can pick plan a, because someone had great success in one case with their dog, or i can pick plan b, because someone else had success with that. or i can mix them and match them, or try some various herbs and supplements. i feel like i'm stuck in a labyrinth of anecdotal evidence.

those photos of twiggy are astounding, as usual. tempo has reached the point in this recovery where it is time to cautiously come up with a hopefully long-term strategy. today was his 5th carboplatin treatment. as per the evolving course of previous treatments, he has, as of this treatment, shown zero side effects. in fact, this time he wasnt even tired, and demanded to go out and play fetch just hours after we got back from the vet. in any event, next month, if all is still well, he will have his sixth chemo, but he will also have his second chest x-ray. if his lungs are clear, i need to come settle on a plan going forward. the two options i am aware of are the metronomic chemo protocol, artemisinin, and/or a potential combination of the two. i am fairly certain that i want to continue with the oral chemo dosage, but the lack of meaningful data for any of these post-chemo treatments is worrisome, and makes me feel like we'll perhaps just be flailing around in the dark.

why do you do this to me?

healthy paws has a custom claim form you can generate for your pet online. i then fill it out, get it stamped by my vet, attach the invoice, scan them, and then email them in. i usually get an email stating that my claim has been processed within and hour or two. it is extremely simple.

home depot sells a number of different dremel kits. the only different is that they include more or fewer accessories. if you want, you can just get the tool itself and the little sanding drum attachment that looks like this that one bit will last a very, very long time, and works perfectly for trimming nails. the sell extra sandpaper sleeves, which you can buy if you want, but you really wont need them for a very, very long time, if at all.

incredibly loud after-midnight spontaneous toy box rampage complete