Annette

So very sorry. You are the best doggy dad. Taylor knows that he was loved.

They never got back to me. Our water tested ok for lead, but we have copper plumbing so now Miriam gets filtered water.

It has been a while since I posted about Miriam. Miriam has been on Penicillamine for just over 4 months. She most likely be on it for 4 more months. She was diagnosed with Copper Storage Disease back in October: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/319251-why-isnt-she-acting-sick/?hl=miriam. Her ALT is finally starting to come down. At its highest point, the ALT was 528. Her last blood work shows her ALT at 198. Now I just have to keep her interested in her "mickies". She is a stubborn girl.

Taylor, you are one cool dude! Between being a "Spokespup" for the Morris Animal Foundation in December to a front page story in you local paper. How do you handle the puparazzi??

Our Rhett made it to 14 years old. He had arthritis, possibly lumbrosacral stenosis but no life threatening health issues.

So sorry. Cancer really sucks.

So sorry

We have had 7 greyhounds in total. Our first was hit by a car (4 yo). Our second survived 11 months post hemangiosarcoma tumor rupture on his spleen (11 years old). Our third was 12 1/2 yo when she was electrocuted. Our 4th was 14 years and his body wore out. Our 5th had laryngeal paralysis and we had her put to sleep when she had a very bad breathing episode which she wouldn't be able to recover from (12 yo). We lost Pogo in July to osteo. He was 8. Our third (Scarlett) also had cancer - mesenchymal spindle cell sarcoma but all signs were that she beat that cancer.

So sorry you are a part of the awful "osteo club". We lost Pogo on July 7, 2016 to this horrible disease. Pogo was 8 years old. He was part of our family for less than 2 years. We did have his leg amputated and he underwent chemo treatments. Pogo made it 7 1/2 months post amputation. The hardest part of making "the decision" was that I had to do it without Roy being physically present. Pogo's name was perfect for him because if he wasn't sleeping, he was pogoing. Losing a leg did not slow him down. The vets and vet techs were amazed by his exuberance (considering he was supposed to be a laid back, calm greyhound) and Pogo was always happy to see them. Eventually mets were found on his lungs and he developed medical issues (for a lack of a better term) due to his exuberance. We didn't expect to lose Pogo so suddenly, but he developed breathing problems and he wasn't his happy self. We already had an appointment with our local vet for a checkup and bloodwork. Pogo did not want to get out of the car, he didn't want to see the people he was always so happy to visit. A vet tech had to carry him into the clinic. We never did bloodwork because xrays showed more mets and a fluid filled chest. It was obvious we had to let him go. It never gets any easier to make that final decision. Roy and I have had 12 fur kids in over 28 years of marriage (7 greyhounds and 5 kitties). We have lost 10 of our 12 "kids". You and Nattie will be in our thoughts.

It looks like the Rapamycin study is back open: https://uwveterinarycare.wisc.edu/clinical-studies/oncology/ http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clinicaltrials/current_trials/by_service/oncology.cfm

What worked for us to keep Pogo off of our bed (dogs are allowed on the couch) was to get a plastic floor mat that you put under office chairs so they will roll easily on carpeting. We put it on the bed with the nubby side up. We couldn't forget to do that or we would find Pogo on the bed when we came home.

I shot an email out to Pogo's vet at the University of Wisconsin to see if he can give me more information.

Pogo had no side effects with the gabapentin.

Our pups have been very good at finding mice tunneling in the snow.

Miriam is right around the 60 pound mark.

I think I was going into "mama bear worry mode". I don't think her drinking habits have changed and she has never drank a whole lot of water. Because she still cannot drink our tap water (no lead, but copper content most likely to high for her) I have been tracking how much she has been drinking. She doesn't drink more than 6 cups of water per day (including what I mix with her food). It has been a really long year and I can easily worry about our Miriam pup when she just looks at me different. Today is actually the one year anniversary of Pogo's amputation.

How much water should our greyhounds be getting per day?

We just used a Little Tykes plastic wagon: Someone from our adoption group used a garden cart/wagon similar to this: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200641817_200641817?cm_mmc=Bing-pla&utm_source=Bing_PLA&utm_medium=Lawn%20%2B%20Garden%20%3E%20Wagons%20%2B%20Yard%20Carts&utm_campaign=Ironton&utm_content=46529

Sending hugs

Sending hugs and healing thoughts. Please keep us updated on how she is doing.

I will be working with Veterinary Nutrition Program at the University of Minnesota to create a home cooked diet that will meet Miriam's nutritional needs. Hill's will not give me a straight answer about copper content in their liver diet. I have been told the copper content per serving should be calculated based on calories and I have been told the copper content per serving should be calculated based on weight. When I asked them how to calculate it I was told to contact my veterinarian. I basically told them that I wanted to calculate the content myself, just give me the formula to calculate it, I have to pay for the food so I should be able to get the information I need to calculate the copper content. We have had Miriam for 5 years. We found out her liver values were out of wack in March of this year when she had an episioplasty. The numbers came down a bit but never into a normal range. We finally had her liver biopsied to make sure she wasn't in liver failure (she is not). When they did a fine needle aspirate there was some copper present and the full biopsy confirmed it. Copper storage disease isn't caused by copper in the environment. When a dog has copper storage disease, their liver is unable to process copper properly and their copper intake must be limited. Miriam will be on a chleating drug for 2 - 4 months and on a special diet for the rest of her life. Our soil lead report came back and we do not have high lead in our soil. Still waiting for the water lead and copper report to come back. We also are having the water tested for copper since we have copper plumbing. If we have copper leaching we need to know that and filter that out. Hopefully the water test results will come back soon. I have been drinking more juice and milk than water and I miss water. One of our neighbors has their water tested regularly because they operate a dairy farm so I filled a couple 5 gallon jugs with their water and I can go over there and fill up more when needed. That's it for now. I will update when the water test comes back.

Miriam had her liver biopsied on October 14th. What should have been a simple laparoscopic biopsy turned into a full blown surgical biopsy. Because the size of her spleen and how it is positioned, her spleen was nicked when they went in for the laparoscopic biopsy. Once they stopped the bleeding, they had to do a full surgical biopsy. One thing they did was staple her incision instead of stitching it. I don't know if that made a difference, but she really did not show much interest in the incision site. She does have copper storage disease. Her copper level: 2268 ppm (normal 137-400; >2000 consistent with primary copper hepatopathy). She will be on D-penicillamine for both copper and lead. The unsettling number that came back was lead: 32 ppm (normal <3.0). Her lead level is 10 times higher than normal. Why doesn't she show any signs of sickness??? The house is only 9 years old, so we do not have lead paint or pipes. Sent in soil samples and a water sample for testing. Hopefully we will be getting results in less than a week. The lab that analyzed the lead levels do not believe they made a mistake. They are surprised that she shows no signs of lead intoxication. They are saying the elevated levels could be due to an exposure to lead a long time ago. How would she have been exposed to lead a long time ago? Miriam will be on a low copper diet. We are going through the University of Minnesota Pet Nutrition to formulate a homemade diet. We do have a bag of Hill's Liver Prescription Diet, but we are not going to continue with it once Miriam finishes it up. When I looked on Hill's website for the liver diet, the website showed a different copper content than on the bag that is in our pantry. I contacted them via their website and they were supposed to have someone get back to me and they haven't so far. I also contacted them via online chat to find out how the copper content was calculated per serving. I have had one person say it was calculate based on calories while I calculated it based on weight. When I asked the person how the copper content was calculated, I was told to contact my veterinarian. When I told her that a veterinarian (not Miriam's veterinarian, just a veterinarian that we know) told us to contact Hill's she said that veterinarians have access to some special webpage. Well, since I am the customer, I should be able to find out from the company how to calculate the copper content. I told her that and then I asked who I can contact to file a complaint. She then attempted to transfer me to someone who could supposedly help me. She then said that the transfer would not go through and gave me a phone number to call and a reference number. I will call Hill's on Friday. I don't have a job, but I am volunteering at the local historical society and don't want to bring my bad mood that I will most likely have after speaking with customer service to work with me. At least the political ads are done till the next election, so that isn't annoying me now.

So sorry.

We don't have the finalized interpretation of Miriam's liver biopsy yet. Hopefully we will have it by the end of today. Otherwise we still wait. Preliminary analysis shows pretty high copper levels. Has anyone had experience with Primary Copper Storage Disease? If the final interpretation does not show anything different, we may be dealing with this disease. From what I can find on the subject, it is most common in Bedlington Terriers, Doberman Pinschers, and West Highland White Terriers. Thanks