Annette

Thanks. I ordered a stool guard from GEM last night.

Unfortunately Miriam was a pretty bad spook when we adopted her. While she may have improved and feels comfortable around us, she spends her days and nights mostly curled up in her crate or in the corner of the bedroom. She does better at the vet because there is no place to hide, but even there she can be a handful. We have attempted to hull corns on her paws and that sent her into the bedroom for several days where she only came out to eat. It doesn't take much to bring her spookiness back. If it wouldn't be for Pogo, she probably would never come out of the bedroom. Also, she is too flexible for the soft collar.

So sorry to hear this. You have to face this with a combination of knowledge and your gut feelings. Pogo is 8 years old and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the end of October. We immediately sent xrays to Dr. Couto for a consult. We were really hesitant to put Pogo through Chemo. Our second greyhound, Icabod, had hemangiosarcoma back in 1995. I cannot remember the cocktail of chemo drugs he was on, but he did not do well. I think we stopped the chemo partway through his 3rd round. Once we stopped the chemo he was happy again. He made it 11 months post tumor rupture on his spleen. Fast forward 20 years to Pogo. He had his front right leg amputated on November 20th. He had some complications after the surgery. He developed an arrhythmia most likely from the pain meds. The cardiologist could not find any physical problems with his heart. Pogo also quit eating so the vet school sent him home hoping he would eat for us. Unfortunately that was not the case. He would not eat for us and we could not pill him. We took him back to the vet school where they found that he had a fever of 106 and a UTI. Once his fever and infection were under control, he began to eat again. I think he ended up spending a total of 9 days at the vet school. Yesterday Pogo had his 3rd carboplatin treatment. He has not had a bad reaction to the chemo, but given our bad experience with Icabod 20 years ago, I have given Pogo cerenia after each carbo treatment. If Pogo was not part of the rapamycin study, his 3rd treatment would not have been delayed, but for the study, his neutrophils were too low. We are treating Pogo with gabapentin for phantom pains, but I think we may be starting to get a handle on those now. There is a reason we named him Pogo - he pogos and pogos a lot. The staff at the vet school cannot get over how energetic and non-greyhound like Pogo is. He hops around the clinic, barks at other dogs, and whines and howls if he doesn't get enough attention from staff or humans in the waiting room. When our neighbors came over for dinner during the holidays, Pogo was hopping and jumping to greet them at the door. Even though our neighbors knew we had a greyhound (they did not meet him till that day) with osteo and that he had his leg amputated, they did not even realize it because of all his jumping. There is a osteo thread here that you can get much information and learn of others experiences with osteosarcoma: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/305786-osteo-thread-part-8/ Many people on this board have been through this so you can always come here with your questions. Annette

Thanks

Can dogs still drink water if they are wearing a muzzle with a stool guard? Miram has a vulva infection and she came to us as a spook many years ago and she is having a really hard time wearing a lamp shade. I have had it on her since this morning and she has not drank any water since I put it on her. If she gets up she panics, paces, and pants. We have to keep her from licking, but the lamp shade is really making her stress big time. I am hoping it is possible for her to drink water if she wears a muzzle with stool guard. Thanks

Need a LIKE button

Thanks

Does anyone know what the normal range for greyhounds in regards to Creatine Kinase and AST? Pogo was supposed to get his 3rd chemo treatment on Tuesday but did not because of decreased neutrophils. When I received the discharge instructions for Pogo it stated that he had slightly increased creatine kinase and AST numbers. His Creatine Kinase is at 588 U/L and his AST is at 62 U/L According to Dr. Couto, Pogo's neutrophils were ok for receiving his chemo treatment. I guess I am going to have to educate his oncologist on greyhounds while I am still learning about bone cancer. Pogo is our first greyhound with bone cancer. Icabod had hemangiosarcoma and Scarlett had mesenchymal spindle cell sarcoma (no idea if I spelled that correctly). That makes 3 of 7 dogs we have experienced different cancers with in almost a 27 year period. Thanks

Keep up the good work Twiggy!!

She will be missed. Donna made Scarlett's and Rhett's hats for the 2004 Beer 'n Biscuit Ball in Dewey.

I just got an email from Wrigley's mom. The GI bleed was too much. She is now whole again at the rainbow bridge

How is Twiggy doing?

My thoughts are with Vinny and Rohan. Please let Vinny know he will have good quality time with Rohan. Pogo had his leg amputated on November 20th and he is up and running and pogoing. The first few weeks may feel like hell, but they get better. Pogo developed an arrhythmia (most likely caused by the pain meds) and then quit eating. Pogo is not a dog that you can force a pill into. He ended up going back to the vet school where he was also treated for a UTI infection (he had a 106 fever), but now he is pretty much normal. I think he runs more now that he has three legs. He does a good job of running in our snow covered back yard. He is on gabapentin now. We suspect he is having phantom pains, but we also suspect he is having muscle pains. Pogo hardly limped before he had his surgery, so his legs were not muscled up ahead of time. Even if the cancer came back tomorrow, I feel we did the right thing. Right now he is as happy as can be. He eats well, runs around, and if we don't put the plastic floor mat (nubby side up) he climbs into bed. We may not have had our usual Christmas, but we received the best present: A happy and bouncy Pogo

Please keep my friend's greyhound in your thoughts. Wrigley had her leg amputated on December 16th. She was re-admitted on January 5th for dehydration and iv pain meds. According to Wrigley's mom, they think she hurt her back. It's tender or it could be cancer spread to spine but so far X-ray are clear so fingers crossed its just a sprain. They did a ct scan to check the lungs and spine again. They found a gi bleed on the ultrasound. So they are doing everything to get that healed they say about 48 hours. Then they have to figure out what is causing the discomfort in spine ugh. It has been a rough few months for my friend. She lost her 15 year old greyhound in November.

Sending hugs.

:pepper

Hope she continues to improve. Pogo sends his best. He plans on racing against Twiggy in next year's radar run at the GPA-WI annual gathering.

Our Pogo boy has jaws of steel. We originally found this out after he had his leg amputated and would not eat for us and therefore we couldn't hide his meds in his food. We tried opening his mouth and forcing the pills, but he clamped his jaws so tight that Roy was surprised that his fingers were not broken. Pogo has improved a lot. So much so that he had to prove that a three-legged greyhound can catch the bunny. Roy tried getting the bunny from Pogo, but he was not going to give up his prize. His jaws were clamped tight on his bunny. Is there a way to train a hound with jaws of steel to give up whatever prize he desires but really shouldn't have? After 26 years of greyhound parenting, we have one that doesn't fit the stereotype. That is why we named him Pogo. Any advice? Thanks

I will be keeping you in my thoughts. Towards the end of October our 83 pound Pogo developed a slight limp in his right front leg. It wasn't persistent and he put weight on that leg. Took him to the vet and of course he did not limp at the vet. There was some swelling just above his wrist and the xrays also showed a fuzzy, swollen area. We actually had the xrays done a 2nd time when our vet got in a demo model of a digital xray machine in so that the xrays would be more convenient to email to Dr. Couto. Dr. Couto did confirm that the xrays showed cancer. On November 10th we went to the vet school in Madison, Wisconsin for a consult with the oncology department. They did a needle biopsy and were able to confirm cancer. On November 20th Pogo had his right front leg amputated. He has taken us on a roller coaster ride, but he appears to be on the mend as best as a dog with cancer can be. He is walking without assistance, doing slow trots to the ramp we built for him, and occasionally "pogo'ng". Please keep us updated. Annette

Pogo had his first chemo treatment today. He was even "pogo'ing" for the staff in oncology. I was sent home with a bunch of "if needed" medications: Metronidazole in case he has diarrhea, Mirtazapine if needed to stimulate his appetite, and cerenia if needed for nausea. The pharmacist went over the drugs with me and he told me that one of the drugs is supposedly more bitter than the tramadol but I have already forgotten which one that is. I have a call into the oncologist. He was busy when I called the school. I expect an email from him later but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask the folks on this board. Thanks

I picked up new antibiotics for Pogo. The er-vet called the new script into Walgreens yesterday but never called e back to let me know. It is so good to see Pogo eating that I may have fed him too much this morning. He has been basically eating Prescription ID canned food, chicken, and a couple satin balls. I have gotten so excited seeing him eat that I added 1 cup of his usual dry food and a bit of store bought canned food. Well he vacuumed up the dry food, store bought canned food, the chicken, satin balls and some of the ID. He started sniffing at the food and decided not to eat the majority of the ID food that contained his meds. He did get at least one of his pain pills. I guess I will have to leave him a bit hungry so he doesn't have time to smell the food he is eating.

Pogo will be getting his stitches out on Thursday but no chemo until the UTI is gone. UW-Madison vet school is good, but it really is a pain that Pogo does not have a "vet-in-charge" for him. The oncologist I met with initially is not his primary doctor. Eventually the person in charge of the Rapamycin study will be his primary oncologist, but until then there is no primary anything. The vet who did his amputation is not his primary and the e-vet we saw on Friday (who released him on Sunday) prescribed clavamox for his UTI. She said she would be contacting me on Monday regarding the urine culture that was done to determine if the clavamox was the appropriate antibiotic. She never called to let me know that the official results were not ready. I called today to see if the results were received and I waited for her to call. In the meantime I called to verify Pogo's appointment to have his stitches removed. I spoke with the person in charge of surgery dept and she verified his appointment, and since I had her on the line I asked her if there was record of the "official results" of the urine culture. She said that they were in and that the clavamox would not get rid of his UTI. After I spoke with her, the e-vet finally called. She asked if there was a Walmart, Target, or Walgreens that she could call in a prescription to. Told her to call Walgreens as they have a drive-thru and that way Pogo could come along. As she was ready to hang up I asked for the name of the drug he would be getting. I was wondering why the antibiotic (I cannot remember the name off hand) sounded familiar, so I went and looked in the cupboard and found a bottle of the antibiotic that was prescribed for Pogo when he got some kind of object lodged in his paw. He did not do well on the drug and since Pogo's paw looked fine, we just did not give him anymore of the drug. I immediately called the school to speak with the e-vet about his reaction. Couldn't get a hold of her and left my phone number for her to call. She called Roy's phone and he works 2 1/2 hours southeast of here. I again tried to get a hold of her. The receptionist said she would page her and have her call me back instead of keeping me on hold indefinitely. When she did not call, I called again and the receptionist seemed surprised because she had given her my name and phone number to call. Well anyways, she left for the day and no one there can help me. I have to wait until morning and hopefully she will call. I think I will try calling the surgery student that helped with his surgery and see if that will get the e-vet to call me. When we lived on the Illinois side of Terre Haute 20+ years ago we always took our critters to the vet school in Urbana, Illinois for anything major. We never had this problem. Our second greyhound had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tick Paralysis, and ultimately ended up having hemangiosarcoma. We had a primary vet on each occasion, and if we had any problems, any qualified vet on staff was able to help if the primary vet was unavailable. At the UW, even though the surgery vet that I spoke with when verifying Pogo's appointment knows the results of the urine culture she could not help me. I have to wait until sometime tomorrow for the e-vet to call me. This is extremely frustrating. I am not going to give Pogo a drug that will upset his stomach when he is finally eating and taking all his medications.

Here's a picture from when we first adopted him just over a year ago. He was still unfamiliar the little "flashy box" back then and I could take a picture of him. He absolutely hates to have his picture taken. Soon as he sees a camera he literally runs away from me.

Pogo is back home and eating the Prescription ID food they sent home with us. We are able to hide his meds in the food. He finished off the chicken I baked for him, now he will be getting the left over turkey breast I made on Saturday. I did mix some dry dog food in and he also ate that. He has a UTI and is receiving antibiotics for that. The diagnostic impressions on his discharge papers report the following: Primary problem: elevated temperature,, urinary tract infection, hyporexia Secondary problem: elevated total bilirubin, CK and AST He really wants to lay on the couch, but I am keeping him off it for now. Overall he is looking much brighter.

thanks