okslater

Thank you racindog, those are lovely. I particularly like the Assisi quote! I will tell my partner that one later. It's amazing what you do, Time4aNap. We say we would love to give some seniors a home one day when we have more room, but I don't klnow how you managed to cope saying goodbye to four in a year.

Thank you all, that has been really helpful. It's good to know I'm not alone (I don't think my friends really understand. I lost my best (human) friend to cancer the year before and I don't feel I can say that the pain of losing my dog was actually a lot worse. I felt so responsible for her and that I failed her, even though I know that's not the case. I'm happy to know the good memories will start to surface. She was a really quirky grey. We didn't realise as she was our first, but our other two are much more like dogs than she was, she did all the funny things like intense teeth chatter, she ruined all our bed sheets by making massive forts in them every day, and she would whistle at us like clockwork to keep us on schedule for her feeding/walking/etc, and she would push items off our kitchen table to knock them on the floor to get our attention if we weren't doing what she wanted, and slam her paws on the table to demand food (we shouldn't have encouraged this bad behaviour but it was funny!). She was always looking at us -watching and figuring out what we were doing before we even knew it ourselves, evaluating whether she wanted to be a part of it or not. I was looking through some old photos recently and I noticed she was always in the background, watching and evaluating what I was up to. Our current two are just stupid goofballs, which is also nice, but I don't feel like I'm having a two way conversation with them, and I miss it. It is great to reminisce on that special bond we had. Thank you all.

I posted on this forum a lot during the past year when my girl, Lemming, got cancer, and had a rollercoaster year of recovery and then rapid decline, and got lots of nice support from you all. Lemming died in January. My partner and I are still so sad. We miss her so much and I ache with the loss. She was my first dog. Is it like this every time? Or does it get easier? I have two more greys. I don't think I can face having a lifetime of carrying around the pain after each grey passes. I thought I'd be feeling better by now but every now and then the grief just hits me like a wave. I'm generally not a particularly emotional person, and nor is my partner. He said to me he wouldn't be half as upset if I died, and I think I agree! I'd give anything to have her back.

Definitely the right thing to do, and when we've recovered from our loss we will also do the same. We've got very used to having two greyhounds and one seems so lonely to us now.

Thanks, everyone. We keep hearing her whistle at us around the house. She's wrapped into the fabric of the building. We got her shortly after we bought this house so it's really strange her not being here. She was also our timekeeper so we've slept in late since she's gone. We have no one whistling and barking at us to tell us it's time to get up/feed/go for a walk/have a nap. We found this trait really annoying about her when we first got her but adapted to her strict regime, and now we're totally aimless without it. Do other greyhounds whistle and keep strict schedules? Our other grey has no concept of time or space, and totally relied on her to boss him around too, so he's also disorientated.

Okay, that's good to hear that. We said goodbye to her this morning. It was definitely time. She was really struggling.

I'm so sorry to hear this.

Bad news. It's a super aggressive, never seen before in a greyhound (by the cancer department in Edinburgh) sarcoma: Splenic Histiocytic sarcoma - haemophagocytic. It's a real nasty one. It's everywhere digesting her red blood cells. She is home with us now and looks a terrible state. She was really stressed out yesterday but is calm today, but the light has gone out in her. I think we will be booking her departure tomorrow. I am so, so sad. I have no kids and she was my little girl. I'm glad I have another dog because otherwise I wouldn't get one ever again this pain is so intense! The thought of doing this over and over again is terrible.

Hi! Panic over. It wasn't a bleed in the end, it was just her albumin levels were too low and she couldn't hold fluid. They gave her a transfusion of some blood product (without the red blood cells) and she stabilised, and started eating again yesterday. The vets said they've never been so happy to see a dog eat. They are looking to discharge her tomorrow if she continues to be stable. We're looking forward to getting her back although also dreading the state she'll be in. Thankfully we're working from home these days due to covid so can tend to her. Thanks again for calming me down. I really hope if it is cancerous she at least recovers enough to go on her favourite walks before it's game over again. But at the very least she wont be dying in a hospital, I hope. I want to make sure of that.

Unfortunately it seems she’s having post operative bleeding. Her blood pressure is down as is her blood count. They’re doing a blood product transfusion but it’s not looking good. She’s so weak. Poor lemming. It’s going to be a long night. We’re trying to remain positive. Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts.

Thanks, Remolacha, and sorry to hear about your dog's experience. I think the inflamed pancreas must also be partly to do with the horrible diet we've had her on for the last month, as the only thing I could get her to eat was cheese and greasy pork sausages. I can't believe how much unwanted education on disease I've had over the past year. I guess this is something you have to get used to as a dog owner. I've only had cats before and they seem to just drop down dead in their old age with no warning, there's none of this heart wrenching agony of diagnosis and decision making the deal with!

Thanks everyone. The surgery went well. No sign of any metastasis that they could see. The adjacent organs looked ok, except for the pancreas which is inflamed. They want to keep her in extra days for the recovery due to the pancreatitis which is fine by us. Hopefully she behaves herself as she is quite feisty and doesn't like strangers. Now it's just fingers crossed that it's benign and the pancreas recovers...

Thank you. She's under the knife right now so we're just sitting here waiting for news. We're prepared for the worst but hoping it's plain sailing and she gets to fight on another day.

Unfortunately it is a huge tumour on her spleen. It seems horrific bad luck to survive one cancer and then come down with another one a year later, but the likelihood is that's the case. They are performing a spleenectomy today. She is not in great condition so we will see how that goes. There was no sign of spread, but if it's a sarcoma then the prognosis is weeks. If it is a benign hemangioma then we're back on track. Poor Lemming. We weren't sure whether to put her or ourselves through this again but she is in good care. Fingers crossed we are lucky and she lives to see some better weather at least. She doesn't like winters.

Thanks Macoduck, I'll check those out.

Hi Beehounds, okay that's good. Lethargy, loss of appetite, and panting heavily were the real danger signs for us. We first noticed her being fussy about food a week or two before it all kicked off. She's usually incredibly greedy, and ate well the whole way through her cancer treatment, so we knew something was really wrong. Unfortunately the vet didn't spot the problems when we first went in (it was a young vet) so it was over a week later before she was diagnosed and in a much worse condition.

Hello, some of you may remember I posted about my trooper of a girl, Lemming, who had a nerve sheath tumour and was very close to passing over to the other side. Miraculously, she had surgery and radiotherapy and reached a no evidence of disease state. We had 2.5 months of bliss with our happy girl back, before it all went pear shaped just before Christmas. She wasn't eating and we presumed the cancer was back with a vengeance. Of course it was Christmas so impossible to see her regular vets, and half of them are off with Covid too, not helping matters. It has been a real struggle to get vet appointments or even to speak to anyone over the Christmas period, it's a real mess for vets in the UK at the moment. Anyway, to summarise, she has been diagnosed with IMHA. Another disease with a terrible prognosis. Poor Lemming! Her body is really out to get her. 17th December she had a PCV of 34%. 28th December (when we finally got the diagnosis as we saw the good vet) PCV of 26%. By this point she wasn't eating at all, her gums were snow white, she was completely lethargic and we had actually brought her in to euthanise her as we thought the cancer had got her. Fortunately an experienced vet was in and he diagnosed IMHA and put her on 2mg/kg pred and anticoagulants. 31st December PCV = 25% 2nd Jan PCV = 24% 4th Jan PCV = 24%. However, she seems a bit brighter and is eating more now. The Oncology clinic in Edinburgh reopens after their Christmas break next week, and we have an MRI and CT scan booked on Thursday (this was booked several months ago). Our goal at the moment is to keep her stable until then so we at least know if this is primary or secondary due to a recurring tumour. Her reticulocyte regeneration is high which indicates it's unlikely to be bone marrow related but you never know. Has anyone any experience of IMHA and any comment on the PCV percentages? I was expecting her to either die or improve after a week of treatment, not this stable half way house we are in. The vet has suggested adding in more steroids on Friday if her next scan is the same. I think we are just buying time until the vet hospital in Edinburgh reopens and we can potentially get some answers. I'm hoping that her body is just taking it's sweet time to respond to the steroids and by Friday her numbers will be up, but I know her luck has to run out at some point. Thanks for your help!

Hello, I just came on here to put a post up about my own dog who has been recently diagnosed with IMHA. One of the symptoms was bright orange poo. Has your vet run her bloods? If it is IMHA it can progress quickly. Are her gums looking okay? My dog's gums are completely white, indicating severe anaemia, not the usual pink.

So lovely to see her doing well!

Hi @EllenEveBaz Thanks for the message. We are 250 miles from Edinburgh, so we are renting cottages during the week. Fortunately we are both working remotely these days, so we can do this. She starts radiotherapy today. They did an MRI and CT scan yesterday and confirmed there is no evidence of macroscopic disease, so the RT is to further expand the clear margins with the expectation that her prognosis will now increase to years. This is amazing, as we were only aiming to get an extra few months with the initial surgery, but it went so well the outcome greatly improved. She is taking trazadone to help with her anxiety, but she actually seems fine. The cannula isn't bothering her at all, and she was happy enough at the hospital yesterday. Hopefully we can just plough through this month of treatment and then we can finally relax!

Thank you both for the replies. Chemo for this type of tumour is pretty ineffective. As it's a rare type (in humans and in dogs) not much effort has been put into finding any optimal chemo therapies, and the type of cell doesn't respond well to traditional chemo combos. That sounds like the protocol they said they would follow, tbhounds. I think they are the UK centre of excellence for small animal cancer treatment and they have high tech kit, so I think we're in good hands. Lem is a very smart greyhound. She's anxious but very observant, and she learns quickly, so maybe she will get into the swing of things and just get on with it if none of the intervention has caused any immediate pain, which it sounds like it wouldn't, especially if she has a port for the IV. Yes Greysmom we've been so happy with the surgery, we were really expecting the worst, especially when we saw how bad she looked when we got her back. But each new report brings more hope with it. That's not my usual experience with cancer, so I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but we're very grateful to have our little girl almost back to normal again now, except for all her shaved patches. She's getting lots of attention out on our walks.

As some of you already know, my 7 year old Lemming has a peripheral nerve sheath tumour on her vertebrae (C2 - so right up in her neck). She had debulking tumour removal to slow progression of the disease, but actually the neurosurgeon did such a good job, she completely removed the tumour with clear (small) margins (marginally excised), which is pretty much unheard of in this type of location. Lemming was referred on to the cancer treatment centre in Edinburgh, UK, where they have suggested a course of definitive intent radiotherapy to kill any cancer cells that remain, to further prolong her prognosis (which could be years now, instead of the couple of months we were expecting). This is all great news, except the RT program, due to the location on the nerve root, requires a gentle approach, so 5 sessions a week for four weeks, with short anaesthesia each time. Our girl is very sensitive, and hates intervention/noise/new people, so this is going to be really hard on her. She also developed facial palsy from the anaesthesia last time (potentially, although it may have been idiopathic). Has anyone put their grey through this level of prolonged intervention? Did they cope ok? How about all the IVs etc. She still has bruising and sores on her legs from the last round of cannulas, she licks the wounds for weeks later making them worse. If she was older there is no way I'd put her through so many anaesthesias, but at 7 I'd hope she'd be ok. Any similar stories gratefully received while we try to make our decision.

My dog Badger is like this. He goes up to everyone, wagging his tail and sticking his nose in their crotch. By and large, everyone seems to love it, and I've been getting to know all my neighbours through him. They stop and give him a pat and have a chat. My other grey looks very standoffish and everyone ignores her. I feel sorry for her, she's very misunderstood.

Oh yeah. I was going to add, both my greys are very active. One (age 4.5) would literally walk all day, and he goes insane when I put my running clothes on (unless it's raining). The other one (aged 7), demands four walks a day, even if it's raining. I have yet to experience this lazy grey persona! Maybe it's because mine had no racing career, and the other a very short racing career. They're certainly not worn out.

Don't worry about it. Our first grey we adopted straight from the trainers at 18 months. They thought she might be cat safe but weren't sure. We were completely out of our depth but persevered, but it was a full six months before we took all the baby gates down. Our second grey was two and a half when we adopted him from the Greyhound Trust. They had done some rudimentary prey drive tests with a small furry dog, and he was disinterested. When we got him home, we took him straight out for a walk and he was going insane at the squirrels and we thought we'd made a mistake. However, after a week or two he took no interest in the cats at all, once he realised they were part of the pack. Now all four of them, the two greys and two cats, happily lounge around in the same room together. As more experienced greyhound owners, we felt more confident in what to do this time, but also, I think hound 2 took his cue from hound 1, which made it easier. Basically, as the others have said, she will find another home, and you can probably find another more laidback dog who takes the home situation more in their stride. You may need to be prepared to go a bit longer than a week or two, though. I think we took it in turns to sleep in the lounge with ours for a month or two when they first came home, as they weren't keen on being crated at all.