HopeForHounds

Yes, that is the right one for Dr Couto. You can also send directly to the Greyhound Health and Wellness Program too, that way you make sure everone sees it. Use the link under my siggy, all the info is posted there.

That sounds like a rough emotional day, good job Smiley dozed through it all. Glad to hear he did well, but I'm not surprised. A huge hug for you and Pete. I'll be checking in from time to time for updates, nothing but good thoughts going out for an uneventful healing. Give Dr C a huge hug for me please.

It's bigger than a pimple, it's as big as the top of my finger. Her hemangioma was smaller than this.

Good. And Judy, Peanut thinks of Sammie has her Big Brother!

You both have settled me down. She did have a hemangioma removed a few months ago and they did say she'd likely get more. I can get her seen tonight so we'll know then. It just came up so suddenly.

Did his bleed?

Peanut just rolled over and I saw this on her belly. I know it wasn't there yesterday, because.................well she's naked and there is now way I would have missed this. Would a hemangioma come up this quickly? Or could it be a small hematoma, she was play fighting with Jake in the yard last night. It isn't a scab, because when I tried to gently wash it off it began to bleed. Okay, we're home and we were all wrong! The vet (not our regular) looked at it and said uh oh! Really not what I wanted to hear. Then she read the report on her hemangioma removal, came back and picked at it. Took the entire thing off with her nail and guess what was under that? A deep puncture hole! It bled like crazy, but then stopped. We have 10 days of antibiotics, but she'll be just fine. What the vet did tell me is that it was lucky I had noticed it so quickly, the red ring was the beginning of an infection. The location can be quite dangerous since it's a quick entry to her organs. I guess for once it's a good job I was worried it was something else. Phew!

Tom, how can that be? A year? Wow! I think it shows she really is still present in our thoughts and the memories you have shared this past year.

Well crap! I was so hoping it might be something else. Still holding out that it's a not so aggressive cancer. Hugs to you all.

Krista, I'm so sorry you are going through this. You've been given some good information. I strongly recommend you contact Dr Couto. You'll get the information you need to make a sound, informed decision. You can find information about the Greyhound Wellness Program at OSU by clicking the link to Hope for Hounds in the top line of my siggy. Please let me know if I can do anything to help. Normally I would say this in a PM, but since you can't use them yet I'll post it here. If you need someone to talk to, ask questions, or just plain rant let me know. I have unlimtted long distance and try to be supportive of any Mom with a hound who has cancer. You can reach me by email jshafferATcasualblingDOTcom (remove the AT etc and replace with symbols)

Beth I'm so glad I saw this. I'll change my prayers to add a safe and uneventful surgery. You know when I started HfH I had not met Dr Couto nor really knew anything about his program. I chose them because they were the only greyhound cancer research at the time. After meeting him, I knew I had made the right choice, he's amazing isn't he? The money we all raise either for Hope for Hounds or independantly all goes to provide the kinds of things they do for us. The caring and quality of what they do is what makes the so very special.

I have every faith in Dr Couto and his diagnostic skills. Dr Couto and his team have blessed us before, remember when Chrissy took Speck with what had been diagnosed as osteo. Turned out it wasn't. Hope you get that same kind of great news too.

I would have the x-rays sent to Dr Couto at OSU. He will be able to give you advice on your next step. Click on the link below my siggy to get the info on the OSU website.

Ouch! Nope, not jaded just educated. I had a similar experience a few months ago when I phoned my vet and told them Peanut needed stitches. They were really busy but said come ahead and we'll have someone assess the wound and "if" it needed stitches they would try to slot her inbetween patients. I get there and the vet tech said she would take her down to wait for stitching. I asked what happened to the assessment, she laughed and said "Miki says if you say it needs stitches, it does. Otherwise you would have fixed it yourself."

Welcome! Tito sure is handsome.

That would be as if the "u" wasn't there. Between that and his first name Guillermo I used to hate introducing him.

As promised, here is Dr Couto's response to me this morning Dr Couto says "Dogs (not just hounds) have a higher risk for developing OSA if they have had a surgical repair of a fracture and have hardware (nails, wires, pins, etc). Trauma does not seem to be a precipitating factor"

Email sent to Dr Couto, I'll report back when he answers.

I'll send off an email to Dr Couto tonight, I'll ask if he has noticed a relationship between osteo and injury. My own vet and I discussed this as a number of hounds I know have had injuries, then a few months later developed osteo. None of them developed it in the same place though. She said she wouldn't be surprised if the stress of an injury made what was dormant become active.

Oh Beth, I am sorry. You've been given the advice I would have given and you have Dr Couto's email address. Let me know if there is anything I can do.

There's lots of snow in heaven. I hope he found Miz Foxy, I think she would have liked him a lot I'm so sorry Lynn, Rob and Alyssa. I know he is leaving ahuge hole in your life right now. I hope in time the memories you have will make you smile and laugh The picture of Alyssa and Rico breaks my heart. She sure does love her puppies doesn't she? Godspeed Rico

Alisha and Bob, I am so sorry. Iceman was one of my favourite hounds to see, those fabulous ears and that amazing smile. Sending you many hugs and gentle thoughts. Godspeed Iceman

Today is a better day. Jake is putting weight on his leg, although it is still swollen. Plus he went upstairs today without crying for 5 minutes before he went up. Mary, we talked about re running the tick panel, but Miki decided not to. We may as well put the money into treatment. Especially since if it is tick it's more likely to be one we haven't tested for. I'm going out later to get him his own weekly med container. He's got more pill containers than I do. From today, can you see how much bigger his left hock is than his right?

Yes they were Julie. I'm really confident about the tests we've done. Dr Couto has given us guidance all along. We were all shocked I think when the joint tap did not show Immune Mediated Polyarthritis. Especially with the rotating lameness.

I didn't post earlier, as this started as the same old thing - swollen leg no real reason. Then I was just plain scared. As many of you know, Jake has had recurring leg swellings(3 different legs) for almost 2 years. Swelling, hot, sometimes a fever, often not. We've done many tests including a joint tap with no answers. Dr Couto and my own vet Miki deducedf he was just a klutz and recommended metacam and rest for future injuries. I ordered a new bottle of metacam on Dec 13th and realized, when the clinic phoned to ask if I wanted to supersize my order , that we were seeing an increase in flairs. That could be explained by the snow since he loves to spin in it. I got a bit worried when we had one Dec 13, another Dec 24. both were his back right. And then on Dec 28th he started limping heavily on his back left. He could barely hobble around with both legs affected. I was having many panicky thoughts. We saw Miki on Tuesday and she found that his hock was really, really hot, no fever but his lymph node behind his knee was up. She is stumped. He tested neg to tick disease when he was a blood donor, using a DNA test But, since we know there are many, many tick diseases and likely some we don't know exist, we are going to treat him as if he has one. Lets pray the doxy has a positive effect and he gets a break from all the discomfort.