Magic Mueller

I seemed to have blinked and the rest of 2013 went by in a flash…

Miller has continued to grow stronger and has taken his chemo with incredible positivity and patience. All the oncologists and nurses at the specialists have fallen head over heels in love with him and he continues to improve every day, it’s taken nearly 6 months but the hair that was shaved around his op site has nearly grown back and he’s beginning to put on enough weight to be classified as “normal”. Chemo was probably more unsettling for us than him, he showed few symptoms of being uncomfortable, wasn’t off his food any more than usual and could always be tempted by the odd treat, he’s always been a huge favourite at our local park where there’s a huge fenced in area where the dogs can run offlead but since his op he’s attracted even more attention and has even taught a little girl who has always been terrified of dogs that not all dogs are scary…

Our first big day following Miller’s surgery was our wedding. I was so thrilled that Miller was able to be with me all through our wedding preparations and that I got photos with him before heading off to the church

Miller and me on my wedding day… This moment made it all worthwhile

Before we knew it, the festive season was upon us, and we were still doing a 4 hour round trip every four weeks for Miller to get his chemo. Typically he was fine on the day of the chemo, although he did once grumble at the vet when she was trying to give him his anti nausea medication. After that they decided to see how he would do without the anti nausea IV drugs and he actually coped very well. Usually around day 10 he’d lick his lips a little more frequently and be more likely to reject his food but an oral anti nausea tablet usually fixed that within about an hour. To add to our already chaotic life, our other dog, Toddy was a cryptorchid and we’d finally got around for taking him in for his corrective surgery and castration. He had a really tough time during surgery and was definitely in a lot of pain Miller was so sweet to him and really looked after his baby “brother”…

As always we trekked all around the country over Christmas visiting family but the dogs came with us (of course) and had a lovely time, they even got given beautiful new coats by my sister-in-law, custom made for a perfect fit… Such a thoughtful gift as he’s really feeling the cold at the moment and likes to wear his “smoking jacket” even indoors… when we take it off he grumbles until its put back on!

We had some of our closest friends over for New Years Eve, including 3 additional dogs, all of whom were subjected to the humiliation of having their photos taken in party hats – this is Miller’s, he’s really very accepting of us putting silly hats on him, I think he just loves the attention!

 

On the Friday after New Years Day we took Miller in for his sixth and final session of chemotherapy, he wasn’t all that impressed to have been dragged away from his warm bed and voiced his objection by leaving a deposit in the middle of the waiting room (despite having been walked around the carpark for a good few minutes to encourage him to do his business), They took him in and sedated him to x-ray his lungs to look for signs of metastasis while we went off to visit friends as it was too far to go home. While we were at lunch the lovely vet telephoned us to say that his x-rays were ALL CLEAR and that she was about to commence with the chemo. It’s been a really long journey this far but the news that he’s doing so well at this stage is really heartening. Thank you so much for all of your support in 2013, we really couldn’t have got this far without all of the really useful information on this site and we wish you all the best possible health and happiness for 2014.

…and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

A lady on the retired greyhound facebook group said this to me the day Moo broke his leg and encouraged us to amputate. Turns out she was right. the results came back from the lab today and it was intermediate stage Osteosarcoma. I guess the good news is that we took the right decision in amputation, and he’s doing really really well on 3 legs. His appetite is good, better than before, in fact, and he genuinely seems thrilled to be alive.

We took him for a check up with our vet on Monday and he said that he was fit enough to go on short walks with us so we walked him into the field where the dogs play and brought a bed for him to lie on while Toddy romped around with his doggie buddies. Moo had his equivalent of a big daft grin on his face the entire time. I finally had my “it was worth it” moment seeing that he could still enjoy whatever time he has left with us.

Miller’s a fighter but he’s an old dog, we’re going to talk to the oncologist on Monday to decide how to proceed. My fiance is off on his Stag do this weekend. Would have been nice to have gotten the news when he was around but I think I’ll save telling him until he gets back. I feel bad that he was probably in quite a lot of pain before he broke the leg but didn’t show it. Then again he broke his leg by charging around like the goof ball that he is… Maybe the break was a blessing in disguise and we’ve caught it early, I can only hope!

Well Moo Dawg is finally home and it’s like he’d never been away. Toddy, the Goldendoodle was overjoyed to see him, tail wagging so fast we could barely see it. The appetite is certainly not an issue, first thing Miller did was go to Toddy’s empty breakfast bowl and start licking it. Then he tested out both beds for comfort before looking around to see who would be first to fuss him. I made him dinner and he had a really good go at it until it looked like his remaining hind leg was getting tired when he went and laid down. Still he’s got something in him, and he took his meds without issue… so far so good. He’s learned an interesting technique for peeing, instead of twisting his hip away from his standing leg, as he used to in order to cock his leg, he now twists towards the standing leg and pees between his front and rear leg… I was impressed!

While I was typing the above I just looked around and Miller has somehow got himself onto the sofa, he turned round a few times, decided it wasn’t as comfortable as he remembered (he’s not allowed on the sofa but occasionally sneaked on) and climbed quite easily back off!

Pictures of Moo and his war wound below – not for the squeamish as he’s very bruised.

Got the call we’ve been waiting for this morning, Miller had a good day yesterday, is up and about and eating plus the swelling is significantly reduced. He’s still black and blue (in addition to being a blue greyhound) and he has a cut on his other paw where the swelling got so bad it effectively burst the skin in the early days post surgery, but he’s able to come home. It’s been 10 days since I saw my beloved pooch and I can’t wait to see him. I’ve been warned that he looks bad, even for an amputee, I’ve looked at as many post op photos as i could find in preparation but I suspect it will still be horrible, still, he’s alive and coming home, and he’s still the same dog! I’m sure that, if Toddy could understand, he’d be over the moon to know his big bro’s going to be home soon!

More to follow…

Today was huge for us, I got the call that Miller had been moved out of intensive care and back onto the regular ward. For the first time I don’t feel twitchy every time the phone rings incase he’s crashed… I know there’s still a huge journey to go, but the vet is confident that all of his blood levels are returning to those he had pre-surgery, his swelling and bruising is reducing and he’s up and about. He’s not eating unless he’s hand fed but that sounds a lot like him normally -and he’s manipulating everyone into giving him lots of love. They said that he’s hopefully going to be able to come home this week, once he’s able to cope with meds that they can send him home with.

My other dog, our 18 month old Goldendoodle, Toddy, is moping, the last he saw Miller fell down and didn’t get back up. He’s been off his food and generally subdued, and this morning he was making some very weird noises. In my still paranoid state I, of course, immediately got him an appointment at the vet. Turns out he has an inflamed throat and his lymph nodes are up so he’s got antibiotics and anti-inflamatories to take now… I can’t wait to have a couple of healthy dogs at home again.

Finally we got a call and generally it was all very positive. Miller has been standing, and was taken outside to stretch his legs by our lovely specialist he had tried to pee but still had tubes in so the vet took him back inside, took his tubes out and then took him back outside where he relieved himself naturally. He’s a bit unstable, probably not helped by the fact that there’s bruising all down his remaining leg, but it generally sounds positive. He had a temperature which they couldn’t figure out but that all seems to have subsided now. Most importantly he’s eating and drinking

I’m so impressed by the surgeon that’s been looking after Miller, he seems to have been there around the clock and gives us really detailed updates, never making us feel stupid for asking lots of questions. He even answered an email I sent about Moo’s bleeding in the middle of the night (I emailed as I was assuming he’d answer it in the morning!) If anyone in the UK is looking for a practice to be referred to, let me know, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending these guys.

Finally I feel like I can breathe again. I know that there are still many things that could affect Miller and his recovery, but for now, things appear to be on the up…

I’m beginning to get tetchy, I don’t like not having my dog around and I’m continually wondering how he’s doing. While the staff at the surgery are fantastic, I called at 12:00 and they couldn’t tell me anything as apparently they were late doing rounds this morning but that they’d be starting phone calls soon, it’s now 2 hours later and I still haven’t heard anything. I know that no news is good news, but thoughts about surgical complications, especially bleeding in greyhounds in the days following surgery keep blocking any other rational thought processes.

Our other dog, Toddy is mopeing as he misses his big brother, I guess the fact that I’m slightly on edge isn’t helping that much so I’m trying to be as calm and rational as I can for him.

Speaking of Toddy, I’m slighly concerned that his youthful exuberance might be a bit more than Miller can handle for a while. We’ve been discussing different ways of protecting Miller from his boisterous younger brother, potentially by digging Miller’s old Crate out of the shed and allowing him to sleep in there so that the risk of Toddy bounding on him is reduced. We’re probably going to have to rethink transportation arrangements too as they normally curl up together in the boot of the car but that may be too close for comfort while he’s healing. I guess I don’t really have to worry about all that yet, until we know he’s out of the woods and able to come home. I do wish they’d hurry up….

My boy did well overnight, the specialist seemed so much happier (although sounded very tired) although he’s not out of the woods just yet, he’s staying in ICU over night and now really needs to start eating to build himself back up! Thanks to everyone on both sides of the Atlantic for all their prayers, love and support, and for providing me with sufficient information to keep my brain from freaking out… Please keep going for the next few days!

And now we wait… Miller made it through surgery, just. Typically, for a retired greyhound he’s lost a lot of blood, a dangerous amount… They’re giving him plenty of blood products to encourage clotting in the small blood vessels in the cut muscle but we just have to wait and see. Hopefully we won’t hear from them ’til morning. I miss my hound.

On Monday, the day before his 11th birthday, Miller was bounding around our local park sprinting and jumping in circles. Next thing I knew he was laying on the floor, howling in pain with his leg looking really suspicious, I grabbed our other dog and took him home leaving Miller with my fiancé and another family with their dog. After dropping Toddy with my friend Tina and borrowing her husband, Ed to assist in the rescue operation we hightailed it back to the park to get Miller. He was still in serious pain so we instantly knew it wasn’t just a usual greyhound overreaction so the decision was taken to rush him to the out of hours vet as our local vets had just closed for the evening. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the bald guy with the umbrella who stayed with Miller sheltering from the rain, we wish we knew who you are or where you work to thank you personally, we owe you!

The out of hours vets (Vets now in Reading) were fantastic and I cannot praise them highly enough. They X-rayed the leg and showed a serious fracture of his left hind femur. They called the veterinary specialist that our regular vet usually referred to and the resident orthopaedic surgeon called them back within 10 minutes, having received an email of the x-ray. He said he’s see him the following day at 12:30 so we left Miller in their care overnight and went back to get him early the next morning.

Happy Birthday Moo Dog…

We spent Miller’s birthday driving between vet surgeries but wound up at the specialist 150 miles from our house on time. Our specialist was fantastic, talked us through every possible scenario but left us in no doubt that Miller’s leg shouldn’t have broken so easily without their bring an underlying problem, probably osteosarcoma which, having been involved with greyhound adoption for a long time, I was very aware of. We left confident that, whatever the outcome, Miller was in the best possible place.

When the specialist called, later that evening he seemed completely torn about the best treatment option, the CT scan was abnormal but not necessarily cancerous, the blood work was clear and he was awaiting the results of a needle biopsy. He assured us that miller was comfortable and showing no signs of distress.

Yesterday morning I emailed the specialist with my contact details for the day and he sent me a lovely email back saying that miller was doing well, and had been “working his magic on the kennel staff” who had been sitting with him and giving him love and fuss, he said he’d call as soon as there were results.

When he called back we were no further, really, the latest results were also clear of cancer which left the question, why would the bone in an otherwise healthy dog break in such an unusual fashion. Che choice was simple, amputate and have a tripawd or try to fix it. He spent ages listening to our questions and providing clear answers which reassured me that he really wanted to make sure he guided us to the right choice for Miller. He suggested that he get together a group of experts in different specialisms the next morning and that he’d call again with a conclusion but that at that stage he was thinking of having a more invasive biopsy.

This morning he called as promised, miller’s leg had swollen considerably over night and he felt that we really should do something today. He made us aware that the senior orthopaedic surgeon had reservations about trying to fix a bone that was clearly abnormal so we took the decision to amputate. That was at about 10am this morning, it’s now 10 hours later and we’re still sat with fingers crossed waiting to hear how things have turned out.

It’s a relief that the decision has been taken and that we’re actively doing something to relieve his suffering. I know that IF our senior boy makes it through surgery, the next few weeks are going to be really tough but if we get to see him playing with his buddies I’m the park again, it will definitely be worth it.