Merry

Thank you!!!

Howdy All- thanks to everyone for your feedback and thoughts!! We took our hound to his vet yesterday and were given a glimmer of hope! It was explained, the original x-rays were not of the greatest quality among other particulars. Our vet did new x-rays which is contrast (and unbeknownst to us) were visibly more clear. There is damage to our hounds top bone BUT symmetrical in nature, only in one bone AND not as bad as the original x-rays demonstrated. Our vet is very skeptical that cancer is present as the bone lesions are symmetrical on either side- cancer or a bacteria typically show up more randomly AND not in just one bone! Valley fever is highly unlikely due to his blood results being normal and that our hound was never in a location where same is present (we live in Toronto). Our vet believes this is possibly an old injury from sitting in a kennel for as long as our guy did. Our hound sat in an Alabama kennel for a year with no racing (he was slow) before we adopted him. He had ZERO fur on his bum and hind quarters when he came to us. Sitting for long periods of time in a cramped kennel can wreak havoc on neck muscles whick in turn pull on certain bones in the neck. All that being said, there is still a small chance of osteosarcoma because there appears to be a tiny growth on one side of his neck- could also be inflammation. His new x-rays and ultrasound images have been sent to an expert radiologist in Florida with 40 years experience. Once we have ALL the results and opinions required we will be sending everything off to Dr. Couto. So, we have narrowed a possible diagnosis down to: 1. Osteosarcoma 2. Osteomyelitis 3. Muscle injury from track (making its presence known as Briggs gets older) 4. A disc about to slip (in which case an MRI will be done). Keep praying please!! Our boy is comfortable, now that he is on regulated pain management and constant bed rest with bathroom breaks as needed and harness only walks (only to do his business). Send me your email if you would like a picture of our guy! For some reason I can't post pictures on greytalk and don't have Facebook. Have a great day! Love, your your Canadian loving hound dog!!!

We were told he originally raced in Daytona but was sent to Alabama after not placing well. When he came to us 3 years ago we battled hook worm for 8 months. Thank you for the lead. Will mention same to vet this morning!

Hello Everyone: I have a greyhound named Briggs (JG Blackhawks). He is a 5 year old black and white male with the sweetest disposition. A true gentleman. His fur sister is a 9 year old Boston Terrier. My husband and I adopted Briggs 3 years ago- one of the best decisions we have ever made. History: About a month ago Briggs yelped when he tried to get up from a nap. He did this a couple of times then stopped- we thought at first, perhaps he is just being dramatic or did he startle himself? Was his leg asleep? Fast forward 3 weeks later and something was just not right. He was lethargic, not exactly interested in kibble (he finally ate, reluctantly) and had a difficult time getting up from sleeping. He cried out in pain and was clearly in distress. We rushed him to emergency. At emergency the vet thought he had just tweaked something in his neck. She sent us home with pain meds and told us to monitor him. If he doesn't improve after a week with pain management and rest then take him to your vet (this was on a Thursday). Friday rolls around and he seems to be doing a little better, then Saturday morning he goes out for his morning business, I feed him, give him his meds then my husband and I leave for just over an hour to run some errands. When we returned he could not get up. Each time he tried he cried out in pain. We gingerly helped him to his feet and rushed him back to emergency. During this visit the vet took an x-ray. The wishbone shaped bone at the back of his head in his neck was in bad shape. Something was eating away at his bone showing as lesions, causing him severe pain. The vet thought Briggs could possibly have either osteosarcoma or osteomyelitis. She suggested a chest x-ray to see if there were any tumors in his lungs and blood work to detect if there was a bacteria or virus present. Both the x-ray and blood work came back normal. We were then told to see our regular vet on Monday. So they gave him an opioid shot and prescribed him 600 mg of gabbapentin for ongoing pain management. Later that night (approx 6 hours later) our hound was in distress and in a lot of pain. We took him to a different emergency and forwarded his earlier test results for review. This vet could also not help him and refused to do a biopsy indicating it was "too risky of a procedure" and that she had never seen a biopsy done on this particular bone. She suggested we get an MRI and/ or CT scan etc. Infact she said she had never seen osteo present like this as did the other vets. She even showed their oncologist his x-rays the next day and their oncologist was reluctant to form an opinion because the lesions were so strange looking. We ended up reaching out to the rescue we adopted our sweet boy from (were good friends with one of the founding members). We were put in contact with Dr. Couto who kindly agreed to review our hounds x-rays and blood work. We will be taking our boy to our vet tomorrow morning (first available appointment) and they will be forwarding off his results to Dr. Couto. We are utterly heartbroken and are desperate for answers. What is this strange symmetrical decay of bone in our hound? Why are his blood results normal? What is going on with our sweetheart??? Please help...