Ultrasounds

[Guest Peterhugh]

We lost our beautiful 14yo greyhound girl to something unknown ten days ago. She was healty and happy with some hine leg weakness that rimadyl and glucosamine helped very much with. One night something happened and she was not moving much. The vet speculated vestibular disease but doubted that because she was not responding to stimuli at all on her body and one front leg was prone and stiff, so perhaps a stroke or more likely a tumor went off. Either way we lost her. Awfully heartbreaking on us. So my question is, should ultrasounds become part of an annual checkup for grey's? Perhaps twice a year after age ten? The hemangiosarcoma threat (of which I never even heard of previously) alone could warrant this? From reading and consulting I've accepted that we'll never know what took our girl but I now suspect hemangiosarcoma, but who knows for sure.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Peterhugh

[KF_in_Georgia]

I'm not sure how useful ultrasounds will be in preventive care. I'm not sure they'll show things early enough for treatment. I lost my 11-year-old girl to hemangiosarcoma in October. We'd been investigating what was wrong, and we didn't know what it was until the ultrasound. But the ultrasound revealed a growth on her heart that wasn't even a little visible on an x-ray taken three weeks before. So many problems spring up quickly, and it's almost as if you'd need an ultrasound the right week for it to be useful.

 

I'm sorry you've lost your girl.

[XTRAWLD]

In Kasey's case, hemangiosarcoma never (fortunately) hit the internal organs, rather it was intramuscular. An annual u/s would not have helped us.

[Houndtime]

I lost two greyhounds to hemangiosarcoma of the spleen/and or liver. We did an ultra sound with one, but he had already been hemorrhaging internally, all day, unknown to us. He was in a lot of pain and we put him down. Our girl, was just like yours. Not acting exactly right. Something was off. By the time we got her to the vet, we could see the internal bleeding through her skin, and it was too late.

 

Don't beat yourself up. It is sometimes called the silent killer.

[MP_the4pack]

If I had done ultrasounds on both Pearl and Brindle, I would have caught that disease early enough to remove the spleen. I'm not sure with Crystal as I had her only 18 days.

 

I've lost three to this horrid disease.

[Guest Peterhugh]

I suppose I am beating myself up. I know its not right and many good people with decades of experience with Greyhounds have assured me that I didn't miss anything. A greyhound can be happy and active one day and gone the next, it happens. But I would have moved a mountain if I knew something like this was going to happen. It's only been ten days and i'm feeling better but it grabs you hard at times. And its not the obvious things like her bed or her leash still hanging in her spot, its the little things that hit me hard like expecting her head to quietly poke around a corner to spot me or the sound of her getting up and walking through the house in the morning, its what's missing that hurts.

[dante2zoe]

I am so sorry. I have lost two suddenly, but not to hemangiosarcoma, and the silence from their passing has been deafening. My office manager has lost two goldens to this disease. The first one passed while everyone was gone - he had been slowing down but they contributed it to being older. The second one they found out earlier, did the surgery and everything they could do but they still lost him. That disease is very sneaky and it is my understanding that it isn't curable really. Your baby knew she was loved and cherished - something we all ultimately wish we had. Wishing you peace.

[mom2four]

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Speaking from personal experience with the 4 Labradors I had BF (before Greyhounds), all of which passed from hemagiosarcoma, I am NOT hopeful if a dog is diagnosed with this disease. 3 passed within hours to a day of diagnosis and the fourth had her spleen removed but passed away 3 weeks later because of a major blood vessel bursting due to the hemangio. I hate the disease because IMO it's an immediate death sentence.

 

It comes on suddenly and an U/S would not catch it until it's probably too late.

[carronstar]

While an ultra-sound did find Aquitaine's hemangio at 8, it was because we were at the ER already and the overnight vets couldn't find anything. While waiting for the daytime vets to arrive, the overnight vet did an angio on his own authority because he wanted to learn (he was a reasonably new vet) and his roommate had recently lost an 8 year old greyhound. I don't know that we would have found the growth at her annual. Thankfully, Aquitaine was one of the lucky ones and her tumor, though the size of a softball, was benign. She lost her spleen but gained 3 years. We would not have even been there if she hadn't woken me up at 4-5 am to let me know she didn't feel right, and if the ER vets didn't accept "she's not herself" as a good reason to be there at that hour. She went a long way to saving her own life.

[NeylasMom]

I think it's understandable that you would ask this question, but I don't there's a good and cost-effective way to do what you're thinking. I don't know from a medical perspective how often you'd need to do the screenings to be effective, and there's also the question of what body parts are you going to screen? An ultrasound is specific to a part of the body - abdominal, chest, etc. What about things like bone cancer, which can also be quite aggressive and come out of nowhere. Are you going to add in x-rays of all 4 legs on a routine basis? Ultrasounds here cost $400+ a pop (per area of the body) not including the consult fees, x-rays from my ortho for just 2 views are $250 again not including consult fees. Completely not financially possible for me. Even if it were, I would have to weigh stress for my dog. I have yet to have a dog who is not stressed out by the ultrasound process (2 had abdominal ultrasounds, one had her shoulders ultrasounded). It wasn't the ultrasound itself, but the positioning and being up on a table that freaked every one of them out, including buy incredibly stable boy Zuri. Nothing phased that dog but he trembled through the entire ultrasound. Is that something I'm willing to do when I suspect a particular issue - yes? For screening just in case? Probably not.

 

You are understandably devastated about your loss. Try not to be too hard on yourself. It doesn't sound like there's anything more you could have done.

[tbhounds]

There's an ole saying in the veterinary field-"the more you look the more you find". ;-)

[greysmom]

Interesting concept, though if you're going to do a really qualitative, whole-body study, an MRI might be more effective. Of course, it's also 4 or 5 times more expensive than an ultra-sound.

 

I have to say, all three of mine have had ultra sounds on different parts of their bodies and there has been absolutely no stress on them. Our vet clinic owns a machine and the vet is quite capable of reading the results as they happen for most "normal" issues. There's been no anesthesia involved either. They just pop them up on an exam table and run the test. Whiskey just had one a month or so ago to look at his bladder. Toni has had one to diagnose a neuroma in her leg and to look at her heart. Lilly had one for intestinal issues (she was a bit sedated but not anesthetized for this). And the cost was comparable to an xray.

 

Cancer in whatever form it takes is just a monster. It steals our precious dogs from us with heartless malice, and leaves us looking for answers and second guessing every decision. You know there was likely nothing to be done and it's only natural to want to have some closure. We've all been there. I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[EllenEveBaz]

Just sending our sympathy.

[Batmom]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

[juliemac]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

I lost Riley 6 weeks ago, and 3 other greys before him. Only one of those lovely animals would have benefited from early ultrasounds, but ONLY if we had caught "the right spot". In fact, Picadilly had bone cancer of her spinal column, and even though she had shown signs for several months that she didn't like even medium length walks, the vets couldn't find anything wrong (until he did, and then i had 2 weeks with her). Picadilly was 3 weeks shy of her 5th birthday, so even if I started a regimen of regular testing of "seniors", I wouldn't have started the practice.

 

Gosh I pray for a cure ... or a vaccine or even an early indicator!

[Guest Peterhugh]

thanks Julie, losing our Chili has been tough to deal with, we loved her and I'm sure you feel the same with Riley. They are wonderful.