Friday, May 29, 2009

Paw Issue


One February afternoon, as Hanna was doing her "zoomies" (running around) in our living room (oh yes, they were allowed to do that once in a while, not too often to prevent injuries (both to our dogs & furnitures, hehe), and I was busy in the kitchen, she suddenly let out the infamous greyhound's "cry of death". It is just a very shrill yelp which translates to "I just hurt something, mom". I rushed over and saw her lifting her left paw. No blood, no visible deformation or bruise so I thought she just sprained something and it will go away in a week or so. A week and then a month passed, the limp was still there, we weren't too concerned because her appetite was good, no weight loss, no enlarged lymph nodes, no visible ulcer, she still jumps and plays, just that pesky limp that won't go away. Fastforward: vet did xrays, lyme titer and blood chemistry & CBC--all clear so we went home on Deramaxx.. She didn't think the corns are bad enough to cause the limping. Fastforward to 2 months later: no improvement, I did manage to remove a small metal splinter from that paw. Concern now is if there's ongoing infection /abscess formation in the splinter site. I have been nursing it with hydrogen peroxide & topical antibiotic every night. It looked good /dried up in the outside but Hanna is still limping so yesterday we sought a second opinion from another greyhound-savvy vet. Diagnosis: Lameness due to corn, left paw. If there is a grading for corn, it should just be a grade 1--not too thick nor deep enough to cause that much discomfort. Vet tried to "dremel" the corn a little bit. Then she prescribed Durham's Wonder Salve. This corn treatment is apparently the buzz in our new vet's "hulling" group. We thought we'd give it a try and then there's the special boots TheraPaw. I will be updating you on this. Meanwhile, here's a good article on corns:

http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/corns.htm

Maybe our Hanna has a very low pain threshold, or a diva with a low pain threshold.. ;)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Ikebana

A friend invited me to the local ikebana (Japanese art of floral arrangement) club's meeting last week. They had a speaker from out-of-town who came in and did some demos. These were some of the arrangements. I usually just enjoy my fresh flowers in a glass vase so seeing such creativity (using maple branches, twigs, hostas) is really amazing.







Crocuses



...one of the many reasons why I love spring! Got these from Americanmeadows.com last year. They were so pretty and dainty.

Sitting Situation




This is what happens when you have 2 cats and 2 dogs. Not pictured here is Louie hogging the big couch. Where do the humans end up sitting? On the carpet.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Remembering Tabora







Tabora, our friends' 5 y/o brindle greyhound, would have turned 6 last May 9th. She was the friendliest, easiest to take care of, & smart girl I have ever met. She was bullied by other greys/dogs (from the strories that her adoptive mom told us) before she was adopted. Before husband & I got our own greys, we always looked forward to seeing her with her owners/parents/people, during one of their walks. She would always pull her owners towards our house/direction and give us lots of doggie attention. Not long after, we got our own versions of Tabora--our very own greys.

She had a good life with her people until she got sick. Vets thought she had some cervical (neck bone) problem. Lots of tests done-even exploratory laparotomy was done , nothing. Vets couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Definitely not cancer so she was treated as a case of immune-related disease. We were optimistic she'd pull through. But she had a relapse early October 08. Her vet couldn't even determine if all these painful treatments would cure her so a painful decision was made by her parents. Tabora passed away October 18th....

Her parents consented to an autopsy and the result was vasculitis (initial symptoms she had: loss of appetite, nape pain, enlarging lymph nodes, loss of weight, enlarging spleen & fever) , inflammation of her blood vessels. She was being treated correctly based on the working diagnosis, she just got too weak and since it was so rare in greys , even her vets could not assure a good prognosis. The doctors at Cornell are optimistic that Tabora's case can help them treat dogs with similar presentation in the future.

Not sure if it is related, but incidentally, she was on Nutro.