ZoomDoggy
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That was quick - Troy had to stay over for a couple of nights. I remember checking his temperature every couple of hours for the first 2 days. He didn't eat until the 2nd day so if Chancy's appetite isn't back tomorrow, don't get alarmed. Once she starts eating, you won't keep up making those meatballs.
Continued best wishes for her recovery.
My vet called me back a few hours ago to check on Chancy, and to let me know that he'd spoken to the surgeon about waiting until morning for food. The surgeon said that as long as Chancy was "very alert" and not woozy, I could offer a small amount of food to start with. So I gave her a few smallish meatballs with her evening meds. She didn't hesitate, and swallowed them with no problem.
: If those seem to stay down well, I'll give her a few more before bedtime. 
Have I mentioned how much I like this vet?
I've been so disappointed with so many of my vet experiences over the last few years, it's nice to have a positive experience for a change. -
Wow!!! they wanted Darius to stay for 2 days...which he didn't, he is better home with me. He did spend one night.
The vet isn't a 24-hour place, so she's better off home with me (I'm a feather-light sleeper, especially when I'm concerned about my pets). She is also terribly shy, so staying in a strange place overnight would probably stress her more than necessary. She's still snoozing comfortably. I had to wake her 30 minutes ago to give her a pain med, wrapped in a cold ball of peanut butter. She's still waaaay out of it, so I was thankful that she swallowed it fine. She also had a few laps of water earlier, and no coughing so far.
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My gentle stripey tiger-girl is home.
: She's very wobbly and woozy from the anesthesia (getting up the five steps to the house was a small adventure), but dang if she isn't breathing ever-so-quietly! In fact it's almost eerie how quiet it is in here right now. I keep checking to make sure she's still breathing. 
I have several pages of after-care instructions from the surgeon, in addition to the pages of info I grabbed from that Yahoo LP group. I feel reasonably well armed, information-wise (but always appreciate hearing others' experiences).
I made a huge batch of Sissy's meatballs for Chancy last night. But my post-op care sheet says to wait until the morning after surgery to feed for the first time. That's a long wait. 
I'll take pics of the incision later when she's feeling a little perkier. She's snoozing in her bed right now.
Thank you everyone, for checking in on us.
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I intend to take tomorrow off and spend the whole long weekend with her.
I don't know if we'll ever see this again:
But at least she can breathe!
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The vet just called. He said "Hi Aimee, how are you doing?"
I paused and sort of began to stutter something...
He said "Wait, let me tell you how you're doing... Chancy's doing great."
I thought I was going to fall over with relief.
Chancy's awake and breathing easier already.
: She's alert and sphynxing in her kennel, but hasn't tried to stand yet. The surgery went well. He said both sides of her larynx were completely paralyzed, allowing only about 15% of normal airflow through. Kind of amazing she was even staying conscious! They tied the left side back, and also removed a small irritating growth on one of her toes (I figured as long as she's under...). He said she came out of the anesthesia even better than some otherwise healthy dogs. They'll give her another hour or so before they try to coax her to stand and walk. So I should be able to go get her in a couple hours. The hardest part is over. Now I just have to worry about post-surgical complications: infection, pneumonia...
But she's awake!!!
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I just got to work from dropping Chancy at the vet. I wanted to wait while she was there, but it'll likely be several hours, and I might as well try to get some work done.
Here's a pic I took with my phone, right before we got out of the car at the vet's office.
She was bright-eyed, and had been very excited to go for a surprise car ride.
: I hope to offer her many more fun car rides soon... -
My sweet Chancy-girl and I are leaving for her surgery in about 40 minutes. She keeps looking at me with her big doe eyes, wondering why I'm not offering her breakfast...
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I'm so happy to hear he did well through the surgery.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery. 
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Oh I'm so sorry to hear this diagnosis. You and Bodie are in my thoughts today. I hope the surgery is a huge success!
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Meet with an oncologist. They will be able to tell you your options. I'm sorry to hear the diagnosis, and wish you good luck.
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Today we get the pre-surgical blood profile. We just had her blood tested a month ago, but because Chancy's got so many risk factors, it makes sense to do it again...
Started out last night being not so great again. Our bedroom is too stuffy for her on humid nights (only one AC vent for the whole floor up there), so by 12:30am I brought her downstairs and we had a girl-slumber-party in the livingroom. She slept right by the AC vent, and seemed fairly comfortable the rest of the night. She had a better walk this morning too. We made it three blocks, better than yesterday's one.
Appetite is still good. We're off of the smoothies now, back to her regular diet of softened kibble with various goodies added. She hasn't requested a sandwich in two days now. I'd planned to bring Chancy to work with me today, so we could go straight to our vet appt, but I got a late start. If I'm arriving at work around 7:30, there are too many "scary" people around to comfortably get my shy wobbly Chancy up the six stairs into my building. So instead she'll relax at home, and I'll just leave a little earlier for the appt.
Surgery is tomorrow (if today's bloodwork looks good enough), don't know what time yet.
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My Tipper has a thing like that in the exact same location. He also has pannus, but that's unrelated, according to my vet ophthalmologist. I don't recall exactly what the specialist called it (not a stye, that's what I thought it was too), but it was most likely a benign cyst-like growth. She said just to keep an eye on it for a couple days. Sure enough, the swelling went down and now it is just a barely noticeable bump on the edge of his eyelid. It did flare up one other time for no apparent reason, but again went back down in a day or two. He's had it for over a year.
I'd watch it for a couple days. If it gets worse or doesn't go down, have it looked at.
Oops, I type too slow.
I see you're already bringing her in. Good luck! -
I'm scheduling scoping and probable laryngeal tieback surgery for Chancy this Thursday. I can't stand to watch her struggle to breathe and not do anything about it.
This is very risky on several levels, but the fear of her suffocating to death is just too much... -
I empathize with your frustration, I really do.
One other trick that sometimes worked for no reason I understand, is offering food on a different plate. This has worked for both Sissy and Chancy. I'd just put a bite or two on a small plate and offer that. If they eat, then put another bite or two on the plate. It's painstaking, but for whatever reason, the novelty of the plate piqued their interest when they'd not touch the same food from a bowl.
:With Sissy, I'd gotten to the point of dipping my fingers in the baby food and letting her lick the food off. She wouldn't touch it any other way...
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Ten days later, there's no anesthesia left in her system. Do you give her a bedtime meal? Sometimes hounds can get a sour stomach just from it being too empty. Especially if she's on any post-op meds...
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At her age, and especially if she's losing weight, I'd be offering her anything her little heart desires. To put weight on Sissy (the pickiest eater I've ever had), she had a daily breakfast of meatballs (aka satin balls, or fatballs). The recipe has many variations, but is similar to the above (beef, molasses, eggs, gelatin, oats, etc). But I formed them into balls and froze them raw, thawing as necessary to feed.
When Sissy fell ill, I was offering her anything and everything. I know some of the things I gave her upset her intestines a bit, but in her case, it was more important to get something in her, and worry about the consequences later. That's a judgement call for you to make. That said, I had a fair amount of success with baby food, meat flavors. I've also fed eggs (prepared various ways) chicken, bacon, braunschweiger, cheeses, anything that came to mind... When she stopped eating anything solid at all, I used an oral syringe to feed her vanilla Ensure. She actually seemed to like that, more than I'd thought she would.
My Chancy's been feeling a bit off lately, and doesn't always want to eat. She has a weakness for soft white bread, so if she eschews her normal meal, I give her a "sandwich" which is a hotdog bun and a pile of sliced lunchmeat, all shredded into bite-size bits. So far she's never turned that down, though she's decided she prefers I "hold the cheese, please."
I don't like to let her skip a meal, because without food, her meds will upset her stomach. -
Yes, Ensure is okay. Just not the chocolate flavor, of course.
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Sonny
in Remembrance
Thank you for so vividly sharing his life with us via your fond memories. I'm very sorry for your loss.
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I'd have a vet look him over, probably schedule another dental if he's healthy enough for anesthesia. Some vets dentals are better than others. There's one vet (who shall remain nameless) our group uses whom I believe charges us for dentals but doesn't actually do squat.
I've seen dogs come from their dentals from this place who come out looking precisely as bad as they came in. And the "dental vaccine" is still in research phase, I think...Also, if he'll let you play with his mouth, I'd start a regimen of daily toothbrushing with enzymatic doggie toothpaste. His gums may bleed a bit at first, but be gentle and consistent, and his breath should improve significantly. Of course that's assuming it's the bad teeth causing the breath...
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Aww, he's gorgeous! Welcome to Greytalk!
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My Marla is a compulsive bed-licker. For her, it seems very much like the comfort kids get from sucking their thumb. She goes almost into a trance-like state when she's licking: eyes half-lidded, lickalickalicka... She'll do it for stretches of ten minutes or so, leaving a large wet spot on her bed. It's harmless, just a little strange.
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We arrived home from our Grapehounds excursion on Wednesday evening. The trip went well, and Chancy held up about as well as we could have hoped for. She spent the hotter parts of the days in the cabin's AC with either Tip or Marla keeping her company. She didn't get to visit many wineries, but she had her heart's content of car rides over the past week.
Her appetite is still a bit touchy. She's lost her taste for smoothies for the past few days, but has regained an occasional zeal for her old kibble mixture. When she's not in the mood for that either, I give her a sandwich.
She LOVES bread (it's the only thing she's ever stolen from the counter), and who doesn't like lunch meat? So yesterday and today for breakfast, Chancy has had a salami and turkey sammich on a potato-bread bun, no mayo and hold the cheese please. : (she's decided she doesn't care for cheese lately either. 
) I figure she need something in her belly before I give her meds, so a sandwich is better than nothing.
Last night was a very restless night. It was a little stuffy in the bedroom, and Chancy couldn't seem to get comfortable. Breathing laboriously and swapping beds frequently. Neither of us slept well.
She seemed a little better this morning on our walk, as it was cooler and less humid than yesterday.
Her tummy still seems a bit swollen to me, usually worse later in the day. I intend to call the vet and give him an update, see if he thinks we should change any meds. Maybe discuss the tieback surgery again...
That's the update for now. My tough ol' Tigerdog is still hanging in there.
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I'm just seeing this sad news now. I'm so so sorry for the loss of your absolutely gorgeous boy.
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Chancy's doing fine, hanging in there. It's been very humid again, so our outside-time has been minimal, much to her dismay. But when she's cool & calm, she breathes relatively well.
I don't know if the heart meds are doing anything. I'm told that if the heart is affecting the spleen size, it'll be a week or two on the meds before I might notice a change in her tummy swelling. Poor ol' gal, I can tell it's uncomfortable for her. We're still planning to do our road trip, leaving tomorrow morning.
: If those seem to stay down well, I'll give her a few more before bedtime. 
I've been so disappointed with so many of my vet experiences over the last few years, it's nice to have a positive experience for a change.
: She's very wobbly and woozy from the anesthesia (getting up the five steps to the house was a small adventure), but dang if she isn't breathing ever-so-quietly! In fact it's almost eerie how quiet it is in here right now. I keep checking to make sure she's still breathing. 
:
I've seen dogs come from their dentals from this place who come out looking precisely as bad as they came in. And the "dental vaccine" is still in research phase, I think...
:
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Confusing Reports On Bodie
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
It's horrible to not know... I'm sorry. Can you give them your cell number as primary contact, so you won't miss future calls? I hope Bodie gets to come home soon!