kayla1

Also Ray Ferguson at Monash Vet in Oakleigh.

Done. Good luck with your Honours thesis!

I have a dog with bilious vomiting syndrome. He's only had it for a few months but it got to the stage where he couldn't go overnight without food - sometimes 8 hours without food and he would be uncomfortable in the morning. He doesn't always vomit but shows nausea/discomfort. I've been discussing with my vet about what to do next, but at the moment I feed him a snack at night around 9-10pm, then I get up in the early hours around 1-2am to give him another snack, then brekky at 6-7am. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks and he's had no further episodes. During the day is not an issue because he gets small meals throughout the day. I've just ordered an automatic feeder and when that arrives I'll try setting it for his overnight snack. Have you tried using an automatic feeder overnight so he doesn't go for so long without food?

Sorry to hear about your girl. Perhaps consider consulting a specialist oncologist, if you haven't already. An oncologist will be able to provide you with all the relevant info and a plan so that you're not left wondering about what to do. One of my dogs had major surgery earlier this year to remove a soft tissue sarcoma. The surgery was done at a specialist centre and he stayed there for three nights afterwards. I was so worried about leaving him there because he is very anxious when at the vets, but fortunately all the staff were excellent and he even became good friends with one of the vet nurses. So if you need to take your girl in regularly for treatment, it would be better to go somewhere that you feel comfortable with. Also you could try asking here

Yes, you must be devastated. Such a shock. It's great that you had Dr Ken on your side. It may not ease the pain, but at least you know you did everything you could for Frodo.

Smiley4444, I'm so sorry to hear about Frodo. You obviously loved him very much and shared a wonderful bond together. Run free Frodo.

I'm really glad to hear Jazz is doing so well. :) Hopefully the lump turns out to be nothing.

Poor girl! Sounds like you've both been through a lot. I'm glad the new crate arrangement is working. :)

Just another thought, is it possible that the teeth grinding coincides with the pain relief wearing off? Slightly different situation but I had a dog on pain relief for a spinal issue and had to try various medications until I found one where he didn't get any breakthrough pain. Good luck with your girl.

I'd be feeling the same way, but as you say other people had reported the dogs already and it still didn't prevent the attack today. Hope the person is going to be ok.

Agree with what others have said. She's only young and you need to know what's going on to be able to treat it. Even if tests indicate the cause is in fact a brain tumour and surgery is not an option, the vets may be able to prescribe medication to reduce any swelling/inflammation and at least make her more comfortable. But you need to find out more about the cause first, and I think the sooner the better.

My 14yr old dog has a suspected brain tumour or lesion. Fortunately she hasn't shown any sign of aggression though. I chose not to proceed with MRI because in her case it won't change the treatment - she is on medication already, and because she is really showing her age now, I won't be putting her through major surgery regardless of the MRI results. However if it was one of my younger dogs, I'd be getting an MRI done for a proper diagnosis and going from there. Sorry you are going through this.

Oh, so relieved!! It's been a stressful time, made worse because I kept questioning myself and wondering if I was doing the right thing by Maxie - risks of major surgery vs risks of the sarcoma growing back more aggressively. I was feeling pretty horrible for quite a while. Thank goodness we are past the worst of it now. So long as Maxie continues healing nicely then it's all good, and given the results were clear the chance of it recurring now is low.

I asked my vets a while back about heartworm cases, and they said they had seen one case down this way in West Rosebud. Not sure if the dog had travelled beforehand and contracted it elsewhere though.

A lovely eulogy for your beautiful Sooki.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your cherished companion. He was obviously very dear to you. Run free Keypa.

He sure is! Maxie had his stitches out today and got a very good report. They said he is healing remarkably well. I was a bit stressed out over the weekend because I felt a lump near the top of his incision, but it's just where the rib was cut when it was removed to get to the tumour site. We've still got a few weeks of restricted activity ahead, no running or jumping, so I'll be camped out on the mattress in the lounge room with him for while yet. Though he can start going for on lead walks now which is great. So it's all looking good so far. :)

Sorry to hear about your girl, Dave. I hope she does well on the chemo and her remission continues.

Yes! He came home yesterday evening. And good news, we have clean margins! Everything is going well - good results, good healing so far. It was a really difficult operation given the location and the amount of tissue that had to be removed but Pete has done an amazing job. He was able to remove all the tissue and then reconstruct the abdominal wall using mesh. Even more good news is Pete was able to use a biological rather than synthetic mesh which means there less likely to be complications such as infection in future. So now with clean margins, we can just focus on the healing. Maxie has lots of sutures and bruising of course, and swelling, but the incision is looking good. He's eating really well and toileting. I understand fentanyl can reduce their appetite but it hasn't affected his! And he is so happy, I don't think he could believe it yesterday when he got in the car to come home! In terms of pain, he is tender but seems pretty good. I'll take the fentanyl patch off on Saturday. He has anti-inflammatories too, and I have tramadol here as well if he needs it but he hasn't so far, and we're four days out now so over the biggest hurdle. We're going back to see Pete Monday week for a follow up, and I'll chat to the holistic vet down here about diet and supplements. So I'm back to sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the lounge room with him. Here is my little boy this morning...

Dr Kersti Seksel is a vet specialist in animal behaviour. I've never seen her but she sounds very experienced and consults in different locations, including Sydney. Perhaps too far away though.

Well fortunately the CT scan showed Maxie's lungs were clear, and he had his second surgery yesterday. It was a major operation and because sarcomas need such wide margins the surgeon had to remove a lot of tissue and replace part of the abdominal wall with mesh. It all sounded so scary when the surgeon told me and I couldn't bring myself to update this thread last night, but he is apparently one of the best surgeons in the country so I'm glad he did the operation. This morning his temperature was down a bit, which could have been the morphine, but has improved throughout the day. He is drinking and urinating normally, and today he even ate some mince and chicken! The surgeon is happy with how the incisions are looking. He'll be staying in to be monitored until Thursday, and then I can bring my little boy home. The pathology results should be back by Friday, then we'll know if it has all been successfully removed.

Yes, that's who I saw yesterday too. He must be an excellent surgeon to be able to do complicated spinal surgery.

I used it in the past for my older boy. Initially I didn't want to use it at all because I was worried about side effects and remaining in the system so long. But it was a last resort situation - my dog had a severe disc collapse and basically nothing else was working to control the pain. There was no other option. It worked very well and turned out to be the only medication that could control his pain. So it gave him very good quality of life for several months. However in the end it is thought to have contributed to his rapid kidney failure (his kidney function was fine before starting treatment). I don't want to recommend one way or the other, but personally I would only consider using it again if faced with another last resort-type situation where nothing else was working.

Thanks Steve. Could well be the same one cavNrott, he seems very good. I've since heard other positive feedback about him too.

Do you mean the nsaid called trocoxil?