HopeForHounds

Praying for many, many more days of plodding through life for Striker. Hugs to you guys Bev.

So glad it is in May this time. I should be able to go.

I was almost to scared to look. I'm so glad I did! i still have his little package, I didn't want to jinx anything and then........ Well, now I'll hold onto it so I can give it to him in person and give him a big hug. You guys are still planning on coming to Planet Day on the 30th right?????

Rita I am so happy that Robin has improved so much. I will be talking to Dr Couto tomorrow or Tuesday afternoon. I will share what I find out. Jake is completely back to nomral now.

Thinking of you today Susan as you struggle to accept a new reality. Holler if you need anything, I'm only one province away, I'll hear you. I have an extra special donation I'm makingto the Miss Nellie Auction in our Dancing Queen's honour.

Kyle, I was so haping for better news. Great advice Kristin, because that really is what quality of life is all about. He's pain free and that's a biggie. I'll be praying you get a differing opinion.

Lisa I've always bought the store brand at WalMart. I've used it on different dogs for different reasons with reasonably good response. I hope this works for my buddy Max.

This looks so familiar. I just had a quick email conversation and Dr Couto says that Jake seems to be suffering from "greyhound swollen leg syndrome" I kid you not! He said there is an article in the next issue of CG. I will be talking to him on the phone next week, since we are now out of crisis mode.

Can't type thru the tears. Suffice to say that I echo Miss Susan of NE's words, above. Me too.

A good massage therapist could really help at this point. They can also show you how to massage to reduce the edema. Jake's right front leg was huge this weekend. Partly from whatever was hurting, and partly because he was sore and wasn't moving around enough.

It's so scary when you face something like that. Glad your boy is still with you.

I really miss reading about her antics, I was thinking about her just yesterday Robin. I bet our girls were partying that week, it was Foxy's gotcha day on Oct 6th.

Just got this email from Miki. "The bloodwork is back and it looks fantastic. There is a slighly low white cell count and high red cell count in the typical greyhound fashion! All liver/kidney/protein/electrolytes values are normal. The platelet count is normal. Jake is perfect on paper, and the metacam is not causing any issues" I've asked her a few more questions, but I'm liking these reults a lot. Leg is improving, swelling slowly reducing. It is slightly purple again, and that worries me. I'm sending a new photo to Miki so she can see.

I hate this! I am so very sorry, and that truly doesn`t describe how I feel. My heart is with you.

I second the use of tramadol. I always start with an anti inflamatory med, then add the tramadol if that just isn't cutting it. It's possible that he has some hind end weakness. If he is hurting elsewhere that puts a strain on already weakened muscles. It also could be muscle strain. Yes, it could be related to Friday's incident. Jake fell up the stairs on Wednesday last week. If you read his H & M thread you'll see he has continued to have issues that didn't show until Friday really. Restless night - try melatonin. It's a naturally ocurring substance in our bodies and theirs. It should help him settle and sleep. Which he really needs right now to heal. I would start something like that asap. Pharmacies carry that here now. An assist harness would really help. Massage therapy would be helpful as would accupuncture. Once he is better I'd say chiropractor too. MT and chiro can help asses if there is anyhting to help with the hind end weakness as well. I hope you get some answers that help you and Larry. to both of you.

Kristin, I'm so very sorry.

You're right! Miki is expecting it to be normal. Can I wrap him in bubble wrap for the winter? It will be warm.

Well, look at this. They used direct pressure, then put a bandage on. That was at 9:45 today. I took the bandage off at 5:30. I was not expectlng the large bruise above where the blood was taken.

Lots of good things to report. No x-ray needed his shoulder definition is back to normal leg itself is much smaller than last night But, foot and wrist area still very swollen and bruised. Today we did a full blood panel, and Miki gave me 7 days of a different antibiotic, We are reasonably sure that when he fell up the stairs, he pulled and very likely tore a muscle. However, since he has a lot of redness and swelling she put him on , Bioclav a braod spectrum antibiotic for 7 days. Also,since he's proven yet again that he is a bleeder, she is going to order in some Amicar to have on hand just in case. She also pricked a growth on his belly to see if it would go down. It did, reduced in size by more than half, so most likely a hemangioma. I went to pay, and all I got billed for was the blood work and antibiotics. Have I said how much I love my vet?

Some good news. I think. His legs seems ever so slighly less swollen. He started to eat this morning, but tonight he ate Jet's dinner Then he had one chicken foot and played with another one. I have a few things to bounce off our vet. Bloodwork is a for sure, not as sure if we need an x-ray we'll see. I am going to talk to her about getting some Amicar to keep on hand for him. Mr handsome and his fat foot which doesn't hurt at all.

Not this time. The way this presented it looked like an injury. Since he did fall up the stiars last week, it could be a torn muscle. We're doing rest, ice, metacam and tramadol. The only time I've seen this bruising is if we go out. That suggests to me that he is standing and likely wandering around. He's low positive for Von Willebrands so bleeding from a torn muscle is definietly a possibility. He goes back to our vet tomorrow at 9:30 so blood work will be done then. I'm going to request a script for amicar. Seriously nothing this boy develops medially runs a normal course.

Came home to fresh bruising. Now I'm really worried. I'll be home all day tomorrow, today I guess, so I as long as things look better in the morning, I'll keep him very quiet if I have to sit on him.

Ugh! I don't know if he stood up the entire time we were gone out, but his wrist area is huge. We have to go out for Thanksgiving dinner and my birthday/Olivia's birthday celebrations. We can't take him with us so I'm thinking benedryl or melatonin will be in order. Off to ice the bugger!

Heading back to the vet at 10:00 we won't see Miki today but, let's see what fresh eyes can see. Well, we go back on Tuesday when our vet is in and they have the staff to do the bigger stuff like x-rays. We did bounce all kinds of scenarios around, but didn't come up with anything that makes sense. He is on clavamox just in case he has an infection, which I don't think he does but better safe than sorry espcecilly with it being a long weekend.

Very happy to hear that Deeni is home with you. She will start to heal much quicker in her own home. Arnica is awesome, the other thing I really like to use, and in this case it would be my first choice, is Traumeel. You can get it in drops and in pill form. It does come in a topical, but when there are large areas of bruising I prefer the oral form. It was designed for trauma and surgical bruising. I use the drops for my dogs (for me too) My daughter had a breast reduction, and I was shocked at how awful the bruising was. I gave her the Traumeel pills and her surgeon a week later said she must not bruise much because he had never had a patient loos so good.