LakeshoreGreys

I'll have to call tomorrow and ask about the gabapentin. Thanks for the tip! Thanks for asking about the amp so gently. It's something DH and I went back and forth on many times since we saw his ankle. We did consider it because it would eliminate his pain from the osteo. From what I was able to research, it is very pricey especially combined with radiation therapy, plus he would have recovery time from his surgery as well. And it seems that results are kind of a crap shoot. If there were a better probability of a positive outcome, or if the amp would totally remove the cancer from his body...

This post appears to be from today--Sunday. Why can't you pick it up today? Tramadol can be purchased at ANY human pharmacy. I take it myself. You don't need to get it from your vet! I'm so sorry to read about Alex. Sorry I wasn't very clear - we do have the tramadol. Thanks to advice I received here, I had her prescribe and fill it right away so that we had it when we needed it.

Thanks for the clarification, Jey! I just wish I would have had the foresight to choose the best pain medication to treat osteo right away. It breaks my heart to see him like this.

The Rimadyl was working - he had no limping at all until yesterday, when he limped just a little. Today he's limping a lot. And it appears larger today too. Had the vet prescribe Tramadol and we picked that up on Thursday. Thanks to those who suggested getting it right away and having it on hand, because we did give him one this morning (and just gave him another as the limping did not improve at all). I feel so bad for my boy, and I'm hoping that this second pill does the trick. I did ask her if there was something more effective than the Rimadyl but she said there is a 10 day waiting period between drugs. ??? Is that due to liver issues?

His racing name is Streakin Diablo.

A pic of my boy this morning. We've had this chair with all 8 of our greyhounds over the years. He is the first and only one to get up and sit/lay in it.

Keeping Beau in my thoughts and prayers. P.S. Our Beau was also called "Beau Beau." Tho' my DH sometimes would mock me and call him "Bee-ewww Bee-ewww!." (rhymes with "pew")

Just got a call back from the vet. She says it's likely the ketoconazole causing his appetite change. The good news: We can take him off of it. The tests came back negative for blastomycosis. The bad news: The tests came back negative for blastomycosis. He has osteo.

He didn't want his breakfast yesterday. Thought it was because of his medication (ketoconazole) so DH picked it out. When I got up a 3 hours later (no, I'm not a complete sloth...he gets up for work and feeds them breakfast at 4a!) the bowl was still sitting there full with his Rimadyl laying on top. Took the pill over to him on his bed and he ate it, then came into the kitchen and ate breakfast. No feeding issues for lunch or dinner, and he got his dose of ketoconazole wrapped in little balls of bread so he swallowed them whole. Today, no breakfast again. Dave did get the ketoconazole in him with our pill shoooter thingie. He wouldn't take his Rimadyl from my hand at all. At lunchtime, I got desperate and mixed in some turkey gravy and then after a few initial sniffs he gobbled it up. Gonna call the vet and see if we should discontinue the ketoconazole. We noticed he has been really gassy too - not so much in the afternoon, but definitely at night, which coincides with his ketoconazole dosing. This dog is not known for ignoring his food bowl, so it makes me nervous. Something is affecting his appetite.

It is heartbreaking when there's no clear cause. We had that with one of ours too. You're in my thoughts and prayers! Keep us posted, okay?

Fingers crossed for a simple resolution.

The vet made that comment too...that they usually don't "hope" for blasto, but in this case. Hope you and FedX reach that goal!!

Nothing new here. He's been on the painkillers which seem to work fine and on the anti-fungal treatment too. Wrist still looks the same. I guess we just wait for test results at this point, which could be another 2 weeks. Thanks for thinking of us! Will post again with test results or if something changes before then.

Glad she seems to be feeling better!

Yup, that track was in Delavan, Wisconsin. Thanks for looking that up!

You are right, the plan so far is to start him on pain meds and ketoconazole and wait for results. I was pleasantly surprised to find the keto was not as pricey as I thought - $26 for 35 tablets. I don't believe she did any other tests on the urine other than sending it out for the blasto test. She is familiar with greyhounds, especially ours. In fact, she requested that the next time we come in, we do so for simple vaccines or something as we haven't been there since we put Joe down in December from an osteo fracture in his front leg. I did ask for the xrays to be emailed, but she said that we'd need specialty equipment to view them (is this true?) I made noises about sending them off and she said that if it comes back as negative for blasto, they'd need to re-do them anyway and at that point she'd set us up with a specialist. Wow! So that gives me a little hope that it's blasto. I kinda figured no considering he really has no other symptoms, but it looks like yours had very slight symptoms too. She did the urine sample and sent it in for blasto testing. I guess that's kind of a new way to test. Sorry to hear about Count. Glad that you're able to keep him comfortable. Hope the appointment on Monday goes well - fingers crossed. We live in Wisconsin. His racing name is Streakin Diablo. Went over to Greyhound Data to check where he raced, but I forgot my password and are waiting for them to email it to me. He came into the adoption group when he had just turned 3. ----- One question that keeps popping in my head is how long do we have if it is indeed osteo, especially if we choose not to amputate? Our others that had osteo were so far gone when they were diagnosed that we had to put them down immediately. The first, the mass was closing off his trachea, and the other had a broken front leg and lung mets. The meds seem to be helping his pain as he is not limping, but the mass looks the same today. Thanks for all of the comments. It definitely makes me feel less "alone" in this.

Sending gentle hugs.

Rest in peace, Mittens. Sending hugs to you - it's never easy.

Just got off the phone with the vet. She said that his creatinine and kidney values were up, but that she wants to go ahead with some pain relief and the ketoconazole anyway. Looking at the kidney values (don't have a number because I returned her call and she didn't have them in front of her) she was surprised he isn't having drinking/peeing issues. She says the ketoconazole won't hurt him, even if he winds up not having blasto. DH doesn't believe it's blasto and doesn't want to start the anti-fungal med (ketoconazole). I'm not so sure it's blasto either, because he doesn't have any of the other more common symptoms. Not sure what to do, but I do have all afternoon to mull it over before DH comes home. I hate this.

Beth, don't worry...I was already there last night. In fact, when the vet came in the room and saw it, she kinda had a look on her face. I simply said, "Am I crazy to think..." and she cut me off with, "No, not at all. Didn't you guys just go through this not long ago?" Sadly, yes we did. Going to lunch with DH to fill him in.

Yes, I forgot to mention that, sorry. They xrayed the leg and his chest. Chest didn't show anything too interesting. Leg didn't show any fractures, but did show what could either be a tumor or she said a fungal infection can show up the same way. From what I've read, if it were blasto, you'd notice more stuff on the chest xray.

Vet thinks it's either a tumor or blastomycosis. She said there is bone involvement - that it's not swelling. I kinda figured that already because the mass is so solid. Her reasoning for thinking blasto is because one of his pupils is larger than the other. She took a urine sample to send out to test for blasto, but it takes a long time to get back, 1-2 weeks. She wants to start him on ketoconazole right way while we wait for results. And also give him something for pain. Of course I came right home (10 minutes ago) and did some searches for blasto. He does not have any lymph node issues, nor does he cough or have any of the other blasto symptoms, so I'm skeptical. Right now I'm waiting for a call to see how his blood panel came back, so we know if he's okay to give meds to. Any thoughts???

Snagged an appointment at 10a. Will update here when I can. Thanks for all of the prayers and good thoughts!