HopeForHounds

He is beautiful. Welcome home Wally!

Never even noticed that thanks, I just cut and pasted it from an email. It is Dr Couto with Bosha. I will let Bosha's Mom know that he has a fan club, she'll be pleased.

I recieived this update on Bosha one of the greyhounds on Hope for Hounds Inspiring Stories page. I will update the website later today, but wanted to share this with all of you now. BOSHA UPDATE: Bosha had his 21 month post-osteo diagnosis check-up at Ohio State University Vet Hospital on July 5, 2007. Words cannot express the joy and relief in our hearts when we heard the GREYT news - his radiographs were completely normal and he passed his physical exam with flying colors. We do know how very blessed we are to still be able to have him share his life with us. He is truly a "Miracle" as he continues to bet the odds in fighting this terrible disease called osteosarcoma. Bosha loves every minute of every day and lives his life to the fullest. The sparkle in his eye is never ending and his will to live is steadfast. As he continues on his life's journey - please continue to keep him in your prayers - as this truly does make a difference in everyone's life, but especially for Bosha who has continued with the courage and strength to live on despite all odds. Dr Couto and his pal Bosha

Prayers continuing until he is home safe.

That just makes me grin. Way to go Isaac!

Prayers and warm thoughts from here.

Mary, I have sat where you are. Not knowing when or if the tumor will return is a killer. BUT...................the risk of any problems is lower than with many other cancers. There are treatment options. One that Dr Couto offered us is an injection of chemo mixed with sesame oil right at the removal site. It is done under sedation, but has excellent results. Let me know if you need more info, you have my email addy. Right now concentrate on Rickie healing and life as normal, because it really is. Do regular checks on his leg for regrowth. I used to do this a lot, and no I won't tell you how many times a day Eventually you'll only check once a month or so. Believe it or not I don't even do that so much. On the 29th we will be at the 3 year mark, that is after I was told 70 % chance or return in the first 3 months. Yes, we are lucky, yes we say thanks everyday. I'm praying you will too.

Alan you are my hero.

After a very scary day last Sunday, Miz Foxy is doing well. Thread in case you missed it http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=172280&hl= She came home Monday night, and has only had 2 benadryl since then. Our vet is sure that the crisis was caused by the stress of going visiting. As much as she loves to go out, she gets herself all wound up and that triggered her breathing crisis. Hopefully now that she is under house arrest we won't have a repeat occurrence. We do have Ace for her in case whe does get anxious. The only problem we have now, is that she licked the spot her IV was in raw. It is really red and angry looking tonight. I cleaned it and slathered it with polysporin. I'll be doing epson salt soaks as well. If it isn't better by Tuesday I'll call the vet and ask for some antibiotics. I had just commented on Friday about how she had left it alone for once. Should have known better, Foxy is a notorious licker.

What a gorgeous face! Welcome!

I agree too. What Irene and Donna said makes sense, we have no idea how long these dogs would have lived as they weren't getting the chance years ago. Now they are, and on the whole are a pretty healthy bunch. I try not to get overly wound up about new cases of cancer posted here. The hard thing is they are often dogs I "know", so I hurt for their families. I will still keep cancer in the forefront, the benefits to Dr Couto's research will benefit all those yet to come and who knows maybe even us. But, I won't dwell on it, I know only too well that things can happen in the blink of an eye. Enjoy every minute you can with your hounds. When you are with them, do what they do - Live In The NOW!

Jake hurt his shoulder in the fall. After a week of alternating ice and heat we started doing massage therapy. It really helped. We also gave him Traumeel a homeopathic anti inflamitory. It took quite a long time, but he was doing his immitation of a helicopter by Christmas.

Same here, Foxy had her's removed July 29, 2004. No recurrence even though we did not have clean margins. She had a chest x-ray in Feb because of her breathing problems, no cancer there either. I'm praying you have the same results.

He is Diane.

Dr Couto is writing an article for GH magazine in which he will explain things in laymans terms. What he sent me is from the article that is being published in the Journal of Vet Internal Medicine. Don't know if this helps but here is his answer to BauersMom and David_42's queery. Regarding the data, as soon as the paper comes out, I can share all the info, but yes, 58% of the dogs that dies during the study period (2 years) died of cancer, and almost 7% of the dogs developed OSA in a 2-year period (ie; 3.5%/year). Although it is difficult to extrapolate, if there are 150,000 retired racers in the US and Canada, roughly 5,000 hounds will develop OSA every year. Now keep in mind that the study design was not aimed at answering that specific question (we are currently designing a study to look at incidence/prevalence).

I started a new thread with Dr Couto's answer to my email. http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=172445&hl=

I'll ask him. I'll ask him for you.

As promised here is a portion of the email Dr Couto sent me today. As promised, here are some answers to your Qs, with data from our survey, that will soon come out in the Journal of Vet Internal medicine (and I will be sending a lay version for CG soon).• 15% mortality within a 2 year period• 58% of Greyhounds died of cancer• 25% of Greyhounds died of osteosarcoma• the prevalence of cancer for Greyhounds was higher than that reported for other breeds• 45% of the cancers diagnosed were osteosarcoma

I'm so sorry. There are some wonderful friends showing him around. Godspeed Bounty

You have our prayers. Hang in there, I know how tough this is.

I'm so happy another girl is coming home. It's the best feeling.

She's home! Foxy's own vet callled me at 12:15 and said Foxy was doing really well. She got a bit anxious when she saw Miki and thought she was going somewhere with her. She really loves her vet. Miki gave her Ace and she calmed down. We have some Ace pills for her if she gets anxious again and instructions on when to repeat that and the pred if either isn't working optimally. Keep your fingers crossed that this is a one time incident for a very long time. Foxy is a bit wonky. Ace takes longer to leave an older dog's system, at this point that isn't a bad thing. She had a huge pee on the front lawn, a big drink and a nap. I fed everyone and Foxy had a 1/2 can of food. You should have seen her face. She looked at it, smelled it then looked at me as if she was thinking "you're kidding right? I get only the good stuff!" Then she chowed down. It must be hard work licking up your dinner, she left about 1/2 a tablespoon and went for a nap. Right now she's on her love seat snoozing away. Her brother's and sister are so happy she's home, and so am I. Man I love that old girl

I just left her at our vet for the day. They will watch her throughout today and once our vet is done her surgeries, she iwll assess Foxy and call me. She acutally looked pretty good, albeit sad. She hasn an NG tube in for oxygen and an IV for meds.

Not such good news this morning. She didn't do well without the oxygen overnight so is back on it. She will be reassessed this morning by the vet on duty. I've arranged to pick her up and take her to our own vet clinic this morning. They will moniter her this morning and I will meet with our vet later today. (she's in surgery all morning) So please keep her in your prayers, she is still not out of the woods.

I just talked to the vet tech and Foxy is resting comfortably. She is off the oxygen and her pulse ox is good. They recommended keeping her ovenight, they felt that if the car ride home got her excited she could have a relapse. Her larynx (sp) is swollen and it wouldn't take much at this point to set her back. We'll pick her up first thing in the morning and bring her home. We'll be getting meds to keep her calm should she have another episode like todays. One thing I learned is that she can't go anywhere. Any ride in the car is too exciting and she breathes too heavy, that causes large amounts of pllegm to build and swelling to start. Today, even though this was a house she's been to many times before and knew everyone there, it was just too stimulating for her. Hate to say it but she'll be under house arrest. Thank you everyone for your prayers and good thoughts.