GreytNut
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Does John E's bruise seem to hurt him at all?
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Vet said there's no appointments for at least another week (and that's with another vet who doesn't normally see greyhounds) unless of course it's a dire emergency. I described it to him and he didn't think it was anything to be too concerned about. The hematoma has considerably deflated. He did agree that a blood panel is in order, but he thinks the hematoma ruptured--either of its own accord or due to trauma such as a fall or collision--and is leaking down under the skin. While it looks scary, it won't cause her any trouble and the blood will eventually be reabsorbed.
I think this was a stab at humor. He said, "Look at the bright side. At least this way the mess is contained and not all over your house."
For her part, Raven is still oblivious.
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Just throwing out an idea here....
Our Doberman had something similiar happend to him (twice and several years apart). I found the injury almost exactly the way you did - by accident (I was horrified and of course the first thing I think is that he's dying). But the vet said it was probably blunt force trauma. The first time it happened we concluded he probably hit a stump in our back yard (he sure loved running at top speed) and the second time it happened it had to have been he injured himself on our tile stairs.
Is it possible the same thing occured with your dog?
My guess is that she probably slipped and fell spreadeagled on the laminate kitchen floor, which is slicker than snot and very unforgiving to soft hound bodies. That would likely have caused bruising, or (more likely, since it doesn't hurt her to touch the bruise) smacked the hematoma hard enough to rupture it.
We'll be going to the vet soon and I'll have a blood panel done at that time just to be on the safe side. When she goes back for a dental the hematoma is going bye-bye. In the meantime, I found some rugs with non-slip backing that I can scatter around the kitchen to make it less treacherous for everyone, four and two-legged alike.
She looks good today. The bruise looks like it's starting to recede a little bit. Still no pain, still acting normally.
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IIRC, the hematoma was the result of a blood draw from her neck. I know she's tested negative for Von Willebrand's because she was a blood donor and that would have prevented her from becoming one.
The bruise has not spread at all. It's darker, but that's it. The hematoma, incidentally, is shrinking and appearing to collapse a little bit. I think it's doing what Bailey's did. Her urine is a little bit dark, but not abnormally so. Still doesn't appear to be in pain. She didn't eat her breakfast, but she's often a picky eater so I won't panic unless she keeps refusing meals.
Keeping a cautious eye on her. Tiny is going in for his shots soon, so I think I'm going to take her with him and get her a blood test/exam.
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Raven rolled over for a tummy rub a little bit ago, so I obediently went over to massage Her Highness's belly. Criminy, there's an absolutely hoarking huge bruise on her chest! It reaches from her sternum up to her neck. It's bright red with blood just under the skin, but no actual bleeding on the surface.
After the initial panic, I formulated two theories 1) She fell on that %$#& laminate flooring in the kitchen and whacked herself really good, or 2) the hematoma on her neck is leaking. She has a hematoma about the size of a walnut in the hollow of her neck which the vet said was harmless and not worth putting her under anesthesia to remove. He said it ought to wait until she's under for something else like a dental. It's broken open once before and bled quite a bit, but it doesn't cause her any pain whatsoever. I'm wondering if maybe this time it broke on the inside and is simply leaking under the skin. If that's the case, it's nothing to worry about but I'll probably bump that dental up a couple of months and get it taken out sooner rather than later. FWIW, this bruise is not painful. She's oblivious to it.
Is there anything else it could be? Has anyone else ever had bruising like this on their hounds? What was it? Could it be the result of a bite from Tiny even though there's no teeth marks of any kind, or would that kind of trauma break the skin? Am I right that this is not a medical emergency and can wait another day for the vet to check out?
Here are pics. The bruise starts mid-sternum (left) and runs up to her neck (right). There are a few spots where it's really red, but she's not actually cut. The bruise is actually much brighter and more visible than it appears, but the camera flash washed it out.
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Argus, our first greyhound and also the first hound we've lost. He was only 7. He started limping right around Halloween, and was gone before Thanksgiving. The osteo was in his lungs before he ever even showed any symptoms. He certainly was a character. Dang, I miss that little ham.
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If it's not too late, I would suggest asking for a necropsy. If it was poison, you would want to know what it was so that another of your hounds doesn't get into the same stuff. If it isn't, that will put your mind at ease.
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She will be fine, especially if the body is cardboard.
We have learned to keep cat toys waaaaaay out of hound reach.
ETA: Hydrogen peroxide tastes NASTY, so they will always spit it out unless you pour it directly down their throats.
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Is it possible that she could have gotten into any kind of poison or eaten a poisonous plant?
What an awful way to lose a young dog, especially on a holiday.
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The limit would be what the injury/illness is, what the cost is vs the survival % and quality of life after treatment. I also would take into consideration the personality of my dog and how my dog might react to certian treatments etc.
Agreed. I would go deeply into debt to pay for vet bills (and have done so more than once) if I thought it would help, or at least significantly improve the pet's quality of life and extend their time here. You can't put a price on that. But you also have to take into consideration how near the pet is to the end of his/her life span and whether or not the treatment will provide a cure or lasting comfort, or if it's just throwing your money away and causing your animal unnecessary suffering. We could've amputated Argus's leg and gone for chemo, but the cancer had already escaped into his lungs and the vet doubted that it would buy him much--if any--more time. Argus was also a dog with a very low pain tolerance. If it had been Raven, I'd have been tempted to give it a go. She's tough as nails. Argus would have been miserable and I wasn't willing to put him through it to MAYBE buy him a couple more months. As the vet said, "It's not about quantity for them, it's about quality. He doesn't know he's supposed to live another 7 years. He knows he's in pain right now and it isn't getting better."
Working at a vet's office I saw a lot of different kinds of owners. There were those who wouldn't spend $100 to fix little Fluffy because "she isn't worth it." I wanted to choke them and beat their heads against the desk. There were those who really wanted to do whatever they could but didn't have two nickels to rub together nor any means of borrowing it. It broke their hearts to have to put a beloved pet down when the only thing standing between saving the pet and euthanasia was money... but they had families to feed and rent to pay. Reality sucks. There were those who had the money and dropped it without thinking about it, and those who begged and borrowed to get what they needed to save their pet. With the exception of those who just didn't care and were unwilling to spend anything to heal a pet, I tried very hard not to be judgmental. Not everyone can do it. It doesn't mean they don't love their pet or that they're a bad person. It just means they can't afford it.
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If they continue to exhibit strange behavior/symptoms, I'd take them in for an exam and blood tests just to make sure there isn't any lasting damage.
For future reference, if they get into something they shouldn't have (i.e., chocolate) you can make them barf with 3% hydrogen peroxide. 1 teaspoon per 10 lbs. of body weight, repeat once after 20 minutes if nothing happens. To speed up the process you can walk them around to jiggle their tummies and stir things up until they hurl. This is best done outside.
Works for cats, too. I had to do it with Sapphy when she got hold of a plant of questionable toxicity. It was gross, but better than the alternative. Do not use salt water or syrup of ipecac for animals. -
You are right to be concerned and that is where Argus's osteo started... but in all likelihood it's a soft tissue injury. They can come and go like that. They'll be healing up, then step on it wrong/bang it/whatever and the swelling flares up again. Treatment is pretty simple, usually Deramaxx for the pain and swelling, combined with lots of rest. The vet will probably x-ray it to see what the problem is.
I waited longer than I should have because Argus was a drama queen and I thought he was simply "milking it" and not really seriously hurt or ill. But the sooner you get Wizard in, the sooner he can be on the road to Wellville. It sounds like he's really hurting. In your shoes, I'd go sooner rather than later so he can have relief from whatever's bothering him.
Hugs to you and Wizard.
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Argus only ran 8 races and developed osteo when he was 7. To the best of my knowledge he never had any serious joint or bone injuries in that leg. However, he was a big-boned guy and I'm told that large-boned dogs (of any breed) tend to be more prone to it. His daddy Gable Dodge died from osteo in the shoulder, IIRC, at age 12. I think it had much more to do with his build and his genetic makeup than any racing injuries or trauma.
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I found this picture today and it made me laugh, then it made me cry. It's just Argus in a nutshell. Still apparently not "over it."
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BarbieJade was lucky to have had you, and vice versa. Thank you for opening your home to an older hound and giving her the golden retirement she richly deserved.
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She looks like such a sweet, gentle soul. I'm sorry you lost her.
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Shedding suddenly and profusely. Hair coming out in big fat clumps. Very, very messy.
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Oh, yes. Argus especially was the worst about this. When we were bringing him home from the kennel and he was riding in a car for the first time, DH almost ran off the road because his eyes were stinging so bad. We had to roll all the windows down.
Also have noticed that they blow their coats when they're anxious, like on trips to the vet.
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Hoping for many more pain-free days.
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What a little sweetheart.
I'm sorry you lost her, especially so soon after losing Maverick.
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Argus came to us in July of 2004. He was our first greyhound. Confident, bold and brassy, he charmed the socks off everyone he met. He marched up to total strangers and demanded that they fall down in worship before him. He was extraordinarily beautiful—even for a greyhound—and humans and canines alike stopped for a second look. He knew he was gorgeous, too. He would lie in front of a mirror and gaze lovingly into his own eyes. He could be bossy, possessive and greedy. In a human these traits would have been deplorable. With Argus… well, you just had to laugh.
But he also had a soft side. He loved to snuggle. He couldn’t fit in our laps, so he made do with shoving his head into our armpits. He did a wildly exaggerated ticklebutt dance. He was always a little bit afraid of the dark. He adored his beloved Floppy Cow and his Watermelon Blankie. Sometimes, just sometimes, he would allow Raven to snuggle in bed with him. He was Raven’s strength and courage. She followed him everywhere, took his cues for everything she did from eating to going potty, watched him greet strangers to make sure they weren’t going to eat her… and completely fell apart when I once made the mistake of taking him to a vet appointment and left her home alone. He was her guardian angel.
Argus was an almost eerily intelligent dog. Most of that brainpower was directed toward the procurement of food. He learned to open the refrigerator by watching me do it, forced me to spell out the names of certain treat items (until he learned to spell them, too, and G-R-E-E-N-I-E no longer worked) and once tried to barter me a stuffed toy carrot for some hamburger meat. You could see the intelligence in those huge, beautiful eyes. As a friend said upon first meeting him, “My God, those eyes just look right through you.”
At the young age of seven, he was stricken with osteosarcoma. It started with a slight limp which at first I doubted was even real. He was the consummate drama queen, and once came limping to me for a biscuit after I accidentally closed his ear in the bathroom door. But this time he wasn’t acting. From the first signs of limping to an emaciated, pain-ravaged wreck with his leg so grotesquely swollen that it looked like a stuffed tube sock… only two weeks. I still can’t believe it. On Halloween he was “helping” us pass out candy in his little Hogwarts hat… and now he’s gone. He isn’t hurting anymore, but Raven, DH and I are all heartbroken.
Raven is a basketcase. She went with us to the vet because she can't be left alone, and the techs fussed over her and kept her distracted in another room while we did what we had to do. Guess it was kind of silly to think she wouldn't know anyway. When we got back from the vet she went into the yard, lay down and wouldn't get back up. She and I are going this weekend to try to find her another guardian angel. He/she is going to have some big shoes to fill. I wish we could be happy that we’re giving another hound a home, but we really just want our boy back. Perhaps he will send Raven her angel.
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Carrier looks great. It's amazing how quickly he's healing, and how happy he seems.
If things had gone differently and the cancer hadn't already escaped into his lungs, we would have opted for the same treatment protocol for Argus.
Good luck to you and Carrier. I hope he has many more happy, healthy years ahead of him.
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It's hard.
Works for cats, too. I had to do it with Sapphy when she got hold of a plant of questionable toxicity. It was gross, but better than the alternative. Do not use salt water or syrup of ipecac for animals.
Anniversary Of Bailey's Gotcha Day
in Remembrance
Posted
What a smile....