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mom2zeus

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Everything posted by mom2zeus

  1. 2 more to add to the list. I've just not been able to write a fitting post about our old girls yet. We lost Milky Way on Oct 10 and Suzy on Dec 8. :weep
  2. Thanks for everyones input. We are going with the pill form and she is getting 1/3 of a pill once a day. I'm cutting them in half and then shaving off the extra to take it down to 1/3. She is also on pepcid to help protect the stomach. Suzy actually doesn't like the tast of the liquid. As soon as we fed her with no pain meds in it she ate with no problem. She's only getting the pills on a full stomach. I am aware of the dangers of NSAID's and am cautious. Suzy's kidneys and liver values are in the normal range. We will be upping the tramadol but want to start her on a lower dose so she gets used to it since it can make her sleepy. Last thing we want is to drug her to the point she's stumbling around and falls. If it's cancer a fall could shatter the bone To be honest, in my heart I know it's cancer and I think I knew that even before the x-rays Friday. She is acting very different then she ever has in the past when she was stiff from athritis or an injury. I'm hoping I'm wrong and if so she will not be on the meds long term, only a few weeks, and we always watch any of the dogs when they start a medication or are on something long term.
  3. Suzy, our 14 year old girl, had x-rays done last friday and vet said 60-40 in favor of bone cancer in the sholder. They couldn't get a really good x-ray without causing her a lot of pain and we don't want to knock her out if we dont have to due to her age. For now the plan is to wait 4-6 weeks and redo the x-ray to see if there is change. If it is cancer we don't plan to do any treatment other then keep her comfortable. She's on metacam once a day and 25 mg of tramadol 2x/day for pain. She can be a picky eater and I was thinking about asking the vet to switch her to the pill form of metacam, meloxicam, since it will be easier to make sure she gets it then mixing the liquid into her food. She's only 58 lbs and if I read the metacam dosage correctly she should get 2.9 mg/day. If you have a dog on meloxicam pills does this sound about right? The smallest the pills come in are 7.5 mg. How do you cut a pill in thirds? Does the metacam dose directly compute to the meloxicam dose? Any advice from those that give meloxicam would be greatly appricated. I want her to be as comfortable as possible and the best way is to make sure she gets her meds. I could stick with the metacam and squirt it in her mouth but a pill hidden in pb would be a lot less stressful for her
  4. We've got 2 older dogs. Milky is 12 and Suzy is 13. Milky has a lot of rear end weakness. She currently gets glucossimine, msm, fish oil and b vit daily. We all give her adiquen injection every other week and she has acupuncture on the off week. We've had a really bad week so she's also on previcox and tramidol for now (and as long as she needs it). I was researching adding antioxidants,likely co q10 and vit c and e. If you give any of these what is the dose you give. Also is there anything else you give that helps your dog? We're trying to keep the old girls as mobile and pain free as long as we can.
  5. We saw results with Milky after 4 weeks. We're on week 3 of once a week. One more week and we see if she can go a month between shots. Milky just turned 12 so she's not out running but she does have an easier time walking and doing the step into the house. And I can tell she feels better, her stubborn streak is coming out again. When she wasn't feeling well she wasn't nearly as stubborn
  6. I give them to Milky IM and my vet's only requirement was that I come in the first time for them to show me how. Milky gets her's in the butt and even at almost 12 she's got plenty of muscle (an very little fur) to make giving it IM very easy. I've heard of it given SQ to dogs and that is how I give it to my cat that also takes it. If it were me I would look into if it's illegal in your state or the vet just don't want you to give it at home. The only injection that I know of that has to be given by a vet by law is a rabies shot.
  7. We're starting week 4 of the loading dose with Milky and I've seen great results. We also started Accupuncture on Friday and this weekend she did a full greyhound stretch. I hadn't even realized she had stopped until I saw her all stretched out. Shots are easy to give and even with Milky the drama queen she doesn't seem to notice. We had a little diariah the first couple of weeks the day after the shot but that seems to have stopped. Also if she moves when I'm giving the shot she'll get a bruise and since she's white with a bald butt it shows up Cheapest place I've found to order teh Adequan is vet depot You do need an Rx. Good luck, hope you see the same results as we have.
  8. Milky has had some rear end weakness and we are working to get her some relief. She's on week 3 of the loading dose of adequan and she's been on previcox for about a month. We're also starting acupuncture this Friday. She has been on Glucosimine, MSM and fish oil for several years. I'm not crazy about keeping her on an NSAID for the rest of her life but I will if that's what it takes for her to be comfortable. And she has had a lot of improvement since she's been on the adequan and previcox but when I try to back off the previcox she seems to start having more pain. I was going to try switching her to the yucca from the Greyhound Gang to see if that would give her the little extra relief she needs so we could get her off the previcox. I wanted to know if anyone else has switched off a NSAID to yucca and if so how did you do it? Did you just stop the NSAID and start the yucca or give both for a few days? Has anyone had good results with the yucca? And on the off chance that we can't get her off the previcox, anyone had their dog on it long term? Have you had any issues. Thanks for any advice.
  9. Another cat veteran here too. I think everyone's covered all the important stuff. Only suggestion I can think of is ask if Lactated Ringer soultion can be used instead of Normosol-R. I know on the CRF list I'm on people said their cats reacted to the Normosol-R. but not the LRS. Seems the Normosol-R. can sting. It does get easier and it really does help to relax but that is the hardest thing to do when things aren't going well.
  10. Do the events happen at the same time as any event like monthly heart worm or flea meds or change in work schedule? I understand the frustration. our Milky way (also 11.5) has had issues of her legs swelling up and strange brusing but then is fine. In April we almost lost her and the vet has no idea why she got so sick. Her liver valuse were off the charts and she couldn't walk. We were preparing ourselfs to let her go the next day but when I called for a morning update he said she was up walking and eating on her own. everyone is clueless on the cause or why she got better. The assumption is some kind of auto immune responce that causes her body to over react to something little (bumping into something causes a lump or LARGE bruse instead of the normal reaction of a little bruse). No real prevention just keep a close eye on her and treat the issues as they come along so we watch her like a hawk and are always waiting for something to happen. Good thoughts for your Milky Way from us and our Milky Way.
  11. We try to be an equal opportunity family. We spread the bad around to all the vets in the practice Between Lincoln getting sick and passing in January and then Milky and her mystery illness in April, we've seen every vet several times. For the good and the bad. We do try to see the main vet in the practice for scheduled appointments. With Milky we've started doing all the follow-ups with the 2 vets that treated her in April.
  12. B Vitamins are great. Our cat with kidney disease gets them and they've really helped with her appetite and energy. Sending more good thoughts Traveler's way.
  13. So is this 1500 mg glucosamine daily or twice daily? Also, is there any way to buy just chondroitin? I found a glucosamine HCl that is a 3000 mg pill (which I could halve after loading), but it doesn't have the chondroitin in it. Puritan Pride does have just chondroitin here . Don't know what the dosage is for it but they only have it in 500 mg. I give 1500mg glucosimine once a day but they have been on it for a while so it's a maintenance level, not a loading dose
  14. I keep checking in for Lazer updates. Glad he's living life. I have a cat that gets LRS fluids daily and the cheapest place to get them is a local pharmacy, Costco being the cheapest). You may have to buy a case and need an Rx but buying local is cheaper then paying shipping. Those things are HEAVY to ship.
  15. I get ours from Puritan Pride also. We only are giving Glucosamine and msm. PP sells MSM in a powder form and I get the 1500 mg glucosamine tablets and crush them with a pill crusher. None of the dogs seem to mind that it's mixed into their food. Everyone get 1500 mg glucosamine and the old girls get 1500 mg msm daily.
  16. Sending prayers that you and the vet can get to the bottom of this and it's something that can be "fixed".
  17. I just started Milky on the beet pulp yesterday. We've been dealing with a month of liquid and soft poop. She's been on A LOT of meds during the time so I'm sure that's what caused it. But since she was so sick we thought we were going to losing her, the meds were a necessity to get her better. Anyway, just sprinkled a little on her food last night and this morning we had the first solid poop in a month!!! LOTS of fiber and since it's feed to horses, he's probably already been getting some in his "snacks"
  18. We switched to Iverheart plus in Jan and have had no problems with it.
  19. It's been a couple of rough weeks with Milky and we came very close to losing her but she is doing better. The vet doesn't really know what made her so sick. We saw what looked like a mass on her x-ray that was either on her liver or stomach and the assumption was liver since her liver values were through the roof high. At the time she couldn't stand on her own or walk and wouldn't eat. She was started on pred and several other meds and by the next day she was able to stand on her own and walk. She's continued to improve after we brought her home and she's being weaned off the drugs. When she came homes most of her liver values were back close to normal so now even the vets not sure it was a mass or shadow. She's on the denosyl for a month and then we go back for blood work and we'll talk about doing another x-ray or ultrasound at that point to find out if it is a mass so we'll at least know what we're dealing with. So here's my question, if her liver numbers are good when we go back I'm thinking we should keep her on the denosyl. Does anyone have there dog on this regularly? How are they doing and is it helping? Denosyl is the same as Sam-E but so far I've actually found I can get the denosyl cheaper on line then going to the store and buying the Sam-E. So even if you have your dog on Sam-E let me know what you think.
  20. She's coming home tonight so I'll know the names for sure then. I know she coming home on pepcid, flgyal and prednisone (only for a few more day on the pred I think.). There was one more med that was for the liver and Denamarin sounds familiar so I think that's what the vet said.
  21. It's been a long week. Saturday I really thought we were going to have to let Milky go to the bridge if she was no better by Sunday. She wouldn't eat and couldn't stand. But when we went to visit her at the vets on Sunday she was eating and walking on her own. When we took her back in Friday they saw a mass on her liver on the x-ray and her liver values were high. The values are coming down and she is coming home tonight. I know she will be on a bland diet for several days to get the diarrhea under control but after that I want to put her on a diet that is easy on the liver. I don't want to go the raw route (mostly a personal thing with me, not that I don't think it's good for the dog. I don't do well with raw meat but can handle it enough to cook it) but have no problem with a home cooked diet. Any other suggestions for a dog with liver issues? She hasn't actually been diagnosed with liver disease but those were the numbers that were elevated and she's responding to meds for the liver and they did see the mass on the x-ray so I'm thinking a diet that's easy on the liver can only be a good thing.
  22. I know with cats with CRF the rule of thumb is if they are throwing up bile then they have reflux issues. It's very common with cats with CRF and they can take pepcid. but we've been lucky so far with our girl. My SIL's older grey also took it.
  23. Is iverhart plus just hartguard plus in generic form? I searched and found people giving iverhart max to greyhounds so I'm assuming the plus is also ok. Anything special to do when switching from Interceptor to Iverhart plus? We can get the iverhart plus at a really good price through a rescue I volunteer at and if it's ok for greyhounds we'll switch over. I saw that some dogs don't like the taste but I already have a few dogs that won't take the interceptor unless it has PB on it so not a big deal.
  24. I'l post in remembrance when I can, but Lincoln is now pain free and at the bridge
  25. They are letting him come home tonight. His numbers went up to 19 after the transfusion but he lost a little yesterday. They expected it since he was on fluids. This morning he was up to 20 so he made up the ground he lost yesterday and gained a little. We're hoping this means he'll keep making red blood cells faster then he kills them off. He's still on HIGH levels of pred but if that's what's needed so we can think about his time with us in years instead of days, I can deal with the drinking a lot and peeing. We go back Friday as long as he doesn't show any signs his numbers are dropping for another blood test.
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