Thoughts And Prayers For Duke, Please!

[Charlies_Dad]

Regret is natural when we look back at pups we lost and can see clearly in the rear view mirror. At the time though, it is much more difficult to see the signs something is wrong. You did everything for your boy so don't regret, he knows he was loved.

 

We also know what it is like to lose two close together, one at 9.5yrs from Osteo and another at 8.5 yrs from a sudden embolism. It is brutally hard and tears your heart to pieces. From afar we are all mourning Duke as he left too soon.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Charlies_Dad

[Fiona3]

Please don't second guess yourself. Regret is inevitable when you have lost your beloved dog. We have been in your shoes all too recently. You did the very, very best you could for your dog. The signs you feel you missed are every day things that happen to our pups. The incidents become notable in looking back.

 

We lost Fiona on May 5th (different illness than Duke's) after 3 days of heroic measures from our e-vet. There are so many "what if I had done.....", "what if I had taken her in earlier....." "what If I had not had the procedure.....". It's normal to think this way but so very painful to feel.

 

We know that if we were faced with the exact same situation in trying to save our dog, we would do the same thing again. It is only in retrospect, that you know Duke was not going to make it. There were positive moments (when he stood up, when his values improved). How could you not be encouraged by those bright moments. Always remember that you did the very best you could and loved him dearly.

 

My wish is for healing and comfort to you and your family on your loss. Duke was an extraordinary dog. His roooing was amazing to hear. In time may you laugh and find joy at the memories of your beautiful boy.

[MP_the4pack]

All those points that you mentioned that you should have gone to the vets.... I looked at and thought "Opal did that, or Tanzi did this" I'm on the frequent flyer program to my vets. I don't need speed dial, my fingers mover faster than that. But I would not bring my dogs to the vets for anything you mentioned. It all points to maybe an upset tummy or itchy skin.

 

But I am truly sorry about two such tragic losses so close together, especially since Duke was still young.

[Victor]

I am so very, very sorry :( I kept praying for a turnaround. You all fought so hard. :(

 

I just read your post above I'm sure I'm just paranoid, but our Larry, who is also 7, seems to have developed the same kind of limp just in the past couple months as well. Not a true limp, like our Nube had with osteo, but like you said, the gait is off now. And Larry also had a bout of vomiting in April? I think -- they did a barium GI and everything came out ok, but there was a "shadow" in the xray. He's been fine since.

 

thanks for the info -- if I notice him licking his chest (he does sometimes snap his head and look at it like there's a fly on it?) I'll get him in asap.

 

Thank you, RaineysMom. I'm sorry to hear that Larry is having similar symptoms. Hopefully it's nothing, but to be safe I'd ask for an abdominal ultrasound. That should allow them to see if there are any abnormalities in blood flow to organs that could affect the GI, such as the spleen. They should also be able to check Larry's portal vein using ultrasound. They weren't able to see Duke's portal vein using ultrasound because too much fluid had accumulated in his abdomen. (Duke had to have a CT scan, which requires anesthesia.)

 

I assume they also x-rayed Larry's leg and shoulder to rule out osteo? I don't want to scare you, but Lana also did the fly biting thing before we discovered she had osteo in the leg she would bite at. They say fly biting is a type of seizure, but I think it can also indicate a source of pain.

 

Here's a video of Duke that shows his gait when walking uphill. At times it was more pronounced, but this is the only video I have:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAJH3D9anzc

[Victor]

Victor, you did everything you could for your boy. Please don't beat yourself up. Duke's condition was one where he had a chance of full recovery. It wasn't a degenerative condition where there was no hope of a turnaround. I don't think there is anyone who loves their dog that wouldn't want to fight for that chance. Everything you did along the way, in response to what you think in hindsight might have been signs of his clot, were absolutely normal and responsible actions to take. How could you have known. You couldn't have done any more.

 

Most of us know - and wish we didn't - how devastating it is to lose a beloved dog, so my heart really is with you at this time. Duke was lucky to have a family that loved him as much as you did.

 

 

Thank you, LazyBlaze. That is so kind of you to say.

[macoduck]

Many of us here have second-guessed medical problems with our dogs. We shared your pain and your hope that maybe, just maybe things would get better.

 

Many times I've brought one of my dogs to the vet and said "something just isn't right but I can't put my finger on it". And despite the vet not finding anything, my dogs died very soon after those visits.

 

You have not failed Duke. You have shared his story and in doing that you, and he, may save the life of another greyhound.

[Victor]

Regret is natural when we look back at pups we lost and can see clearly in the rear view mirror. At the time though, it is much more difficult to see the signs something is wrong. You did everything for your boy so don't regret, he knows he was loved.

 

We also know what it is like to lose two close together, one at 9.5yrs from Osteo and another at 8.5 yrs from a sudden embolism. It is brutally hard and tears your heart to pieces. From afar we are all mourning Duke as he left too soon.

 

I didn't realize you also lost two close together, Charlies_Dad. I'm so sorry for your losses. Our hearts are truly in pieces.

I am sure that Duke knows how much he was loved. Don't beat yourself up. We love our dogs as much as we can, but, some things are just out of our control.

Thank you, Houndtime. I'm afraid you are right that some things are just out of our control.

 

All those points that you mentioned that you should have gone to the vets.... I looked at and thought "Opal did that, or Tanzi did this" I'm on the frequent flyer program to my vets. I don't need speed dial, my fingers mover faster than that. But I would not bring my dogs to the vets for anything you mentioned. It all points to maybe an upset tummy or itchy skin.

 

But I am truly sorry about two such tragic losses so close together, especially since Duke was still young.

Thank you, MP_the4pack. That is good to hear.

[Victor]

Please don't second guess yourself. Regret is inevitable when you have lost your beloved dog. We have been in your shoes all too recently. You did the very, very best you could for your dog. The signs you feel you missed are every day things that happen to our pups. The incidents become notable in looking back.

 

We lost Fiona on May 5th (different illness than Duke's) after 3 days of heroic measures from our e-vet. There are so many "what if I had done.....", "what if I had taken her in earlier....." "what If I had not had the procedure.....". It's normal to think this way but so very painful to feel.

 

We know that if we were faced with the exact same situation in trying to save our dog, we would do the same thing again. It is only in retrospect, that you know Duke was not going to make it. There were positive moments (when he stood up, when his values improved). How could you not be encouraged by those bright moments. Always remember that you did the very best you could and loved him dearly.

 

My wish is for healing and comfort to you and your family on your loss. Duke was an extraordinary dog. His roooing was amazing to hear. In time may you laugh and find joy at the memories of your beautiful boy.

I'm so sorry for your loss. May you and your family find peace, too. Duke would've been very happy to know that you liked his rooing. Whenever we said "I love you" to him, he would respond back with a roo roo that sounded like "love you". I so wish I had recorded a video of him doing that.

[Victor]

Many of us here have second-guessed medical problems with our dogs. We shared your pain and your hope that maybe, just maybe things would get better.

 

Many times I've brought one of my dogs to the vet and said "something just isn't right but I can't put my finger on it". And despite the vet not finding anything, my dogs died very soon after those visits.

 

You have not failed Duke. You have shared his story and in doing that you, and he, may save the life of another greyhound.

Thank you, macoduck. I'm so sorry the vets weren't able to find anything wrong with your dogs when you knew something wasn't right. Our vet always says she wishes her patients could talk so they could tell her where they're not feeling good. I hope Duke's story can help.

[tbhounds]

I'm sorry you feel guilt and regret--I think that is only natural. You did what you felt was the best for your boy at the time and you had veterinarians advising you along the way. I'm a firm believer that where's there's life there's hope. Had you not tried to treat Duke medically I believe that you would have regretted not trying. At some point we all need to make finals decisions for our babies. I have been in your exact shoes-actually a few times. I still wonder each and ever time if I a made the correct decisions for everyone of my babies-all I can say is we do the best we can at the time and need to accept the end results no matter how painful it may be.

One thing I wanted to make that may benefit another hound someday is to run a urinalysis along with your routine blood work. Many times it's a diagnostic test that is overlooked. If protein is found in your hounds urine please, please do not overlook it. No protein in urine is acceptable. Always follow through with further testing. Proteinuria may and often does lead to thrombosis.

If anyone would like to learn more about why please feel free to pm me.

Victor-once again I'm very sorry-please, have no regrets--your boy loved/loves you and I'm sure he wouldn't want you to feel badly or upset.

[Victor]

I'm sorry you feel guilt and regret--I think that is only natural. You did what you felt was the best for your boy at the time and you had veterinarians advising you along the way. I'm a firm believer that where's there's life there's hope. Had you not tried to treat Duke medically I believe that you would have regretted not trying. At some point we all need to make finals decisions for our babies. I have been in your exact shoes-actually a few times. I still wonder each and ever time if I a made the correct decisions for everyone of my babies-all I can say is we do the best we can at the time and need to accept the end results no matter how painful it may be.

One thing I wanted to make that may benefit another hound someday is to run a urinalysis along with your routine blood work. Many times it's a diagnostic test that is overlooked. If protein is found in your hounds urine please, please do not overlook it. No protein in urine is acceptable. Always follow through with further testing. Proteinuria may and often does lead to thrombosis.

If anyone would like to learn more about why please feel free to pm me.

Victor-once again I'm very sorry-please, have no regrets--your boy loved/loves you and I'm sure he wouldn't want you to feel badly or upset.

 

Thanks, tbhounds. I'm so sorry you've had to go through this more than once.

 

That is good to know about always doing a urinalysis with routine blood work. I will make sure that we do this with Joy. If they do find protein in the urine what is typically the next step?

[tbhounds]

Finding protein in a otherwise inactive sample a UPC should be run (urine protein creatine ratio). Just to put in rather simply terms--when losing protein in the urine you are losing antithrombin (an anti clotting factor) by default. Of course there are other reason our guys form clots but, running a urinalysis is simple, quick and quite frankly not done enough.

[robinw]

Victor, you did the best you could for Duke with the information you had. All of your actions were done out of love.

[carronstar]

We all second guess, and we all feel regret that we could have done something sooner/better/more. Duke knows that you did everything that could possibly be done for him, the most important of which was love him.

[Victor]

Finding protein in a otherwise inactive sample a UPC should be run (urine protein creatine ratio). Just to put in rather simply terms--when losing protein in the urine you are losing antithrombin (an anti clotting factor) by default. Of course there are other reason our guys form clots but, running a urinalysis is simple, quick and quite frankly not done enough.

 

I think you're right—urinalysis should be done more often. Looking through Duke's records, I see that his last urinalysis was in July 2011. Since that time his creatinine increased from 1.5 to 1.9 in July 2012 and and again 1.9 in February 2014. I wish I'd known to ask for a urinalysis then to see if his kidneys were losing protein.

 

Do you know if there's a thread or page on GT that gives a list of routine tests to run, things to watch for, etc.? If not, I wonder if it'd be possible to create something like that?

Victor, you did the best you could for Duke with the information you had. All of your actions were done out of love.

Thank you, robinw. I just wish I could have done more .

 

We all second guess, and we all feel regret that we could have done something sooner/better/more. Duke knows that you did everything that could possibly be done for him, the most important of which was love him.

Thank you, carronstar.

[macoduck]

www.greythealth.com It will be listed on the Greyhounds Are Different med card I'm sending you.

[Victor]

www.greythealth.com It will be listed on the Greyhounds Are Different med card I'm sending you.

Thanks, macoduck.

[Victor]

The results from Duke's autopsy indicate the clot was most likely due to protein-losing nephropathy (PLN). From the report:

 

No gross or histological lesions were identified indicating an acute hemorrhage; the widespread hemorrhages observed in multiple tissues are therefore most likely associated with decompensation arising from DIC [Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation]. The most likely cause of this is the diffuse chronic membranous glomerulopathy. Aside from the large portal venous thrombus, additional large organized thrombi were observed in the spleen, indicating not only a widespread but also a chronic process, consistent with the chronicity of the renal disease.

 

Please always insist that your vet do a urinalysis along with routine blood work, as tbhounds suggested above. Duke hadn't had a urinalysis in quite some time, and it possibly could've saved his life.

[Batmom]

Thank you for sharing the results.

 

Your boy was well-loved and will be well-remembered. Hugs to you and your family.

[EllenEveBaz]

We will always remember from now on the need for a urinalysis.

[Victor]

Thank you, Batmom and Ellen. I hope this can help someone else.

[Guest LazyBlaze]

Thank you for posting this Victor. I hope you have been doing okay.

[carronstar]

Thank you for sharing these findings. I hope you have been healing.

[Bogangles]

What a beautiful love story and a beautiful sweet boy. I am so sorry for the unhappy ending... Duke was loved so much.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Bogangles