*Lakey*

Omg Jess, I never thought to ask you about Raw feeding, perfect person ???? If it's ok, I'd love to come and chat to u about it, where u source it all etc. I did see the Ivory Coat but if I remember correctly he needs less than 10% fat but I'll look back at the notes. That may be incorrect. Like the look of the Raw food, that could be handy. A good compromise. Thanks so much!

Thanks for the replies. Surgery was briefly discussed but due to his age mainly we felt medically managing him was in his best interests (he's 11). With 3 young children, remote location and part time work raw is not feasible, he requires feeds every 3 hours so I am using an automatic feeder when not home. I could manage if it was quick to prepare but time is not a luxury I have unfortunately. Thankyou Powerlegs, quality time with him is all I'm after. I understand he will go, probably sooner than I want. It will never be long enough though. Rappie, if I can work it out I will thankyou.

Hi Everyone Only my 2nd time posting here, hopefully you can help me. Our 11 year old boxer was recently diagnosed with an Insulinoma in his pancreas. This will produce spikes of insulin which then absorbs all his glucose, leading to hypoglycaemia and seizure and death. ???? In order to manage him and avoid hypo's we need to feed him frequently with high protein, fibre and fat diet, no simple sugars. Ideally raw would be the way to go but time and location restricts me. I'm trying to source a dry food that fits this bill. The best dry I found had the second main ingredient as potato which isn't good for him. Just seeing if others had suggestions or had been through this before? He is also on prednisolone twice a day which isn't good for him long term but at the moment it's balancing quality vs quantity of life. Thanks for reading. Jodie and Rocky

Thankyou all so much, I really appreciate your thoughts and advice. Rocky's platelets have increased dramatically~! Up to 125, so still a tiny bit low but the vet was really happy with how far they've come in 10 days. I thought he had lost weight over the week so put him on the scales whilst there, 2kg in 10 days. So that is a bit concerning, but she did say the pred. can knock them around a bit. We will now halve the dose and have another test next Friday and see what's happening then. I asked whether he would need to be on the drugs long term and she said it would be a fair while, I asked about long term affects but we got side tracked as I mentioned his parents and 1/2 brothers/sisters etc, none had made it past 12 years (father died at 8 1/2), so long term effects may not be much of a consideration She is sending the results to a specialist to find out whether he thinks it's worth having a full body scan to see if they can see why it's happening. I guess being a boxer, there is always the concern that cancer has started and it's his body's way of trying to fight the cancer off. This sounds like it could be quite an expensive exercise, we'll see what it comes back at and have a think. I would hate to think we decided not to go ahead because of the cost and then find out later it was the start of something we could have stopped or slowed dramatically as we've found it early. So bit more wait and seeing but so far looking reasonably positive. I'll post back next week with another update :) Thankyou all again.

I would be doing this to help his system recover beyond the prednisolone and hopefully so that the prednisolone is no longer required. What sort of herbs? And yes, have now been careful to ensure he's not too exuberant. The weather has helped keep him quieter than normal, but at 9 he no longer acts quite like the puppy he was :) Unfortunately there will be no 'play dates' with his one and only friend for a while They play very rough when they get together.

Thank you both so much for replying. I hope we'll find out more tomorrow, he will have had his initial 10 day dose of the pred. Fingers crossed platelets have increased in numbers. I contacted his breeders to find out if there was any history, he'll be lucky to make it to 12 years old! I knew boxers were renowned for cancer, but every single one related to him has gone at around the age of 12 due to cancer, no blood cancers though. His sire died at 8 1/2 of cancer, very young But they did give me a name of a specialist veterinary hospital to contact if the vet gets stuck. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Hi Everyone, This is the first time I've ever come here, let alone posted! What has driven me here is our 9 year old pure bred boxer had a routine blood test a week ago before the removal of a skin tag. The blood test showed everything normal except his platelets, these were extremely low, 14 when the number should be a minimum of 150 if not double that. The sample was sent to another pathologist which also screened the blood, they too got the same extremely low count. Another 2 samples were taken over the next 3 days and the levels continued to drop, down to 7. The dog seems well in himself, there are no lesions in his mouth, good colour, no lethargy but the vet is concerned. She has put him onto Prednisolone tablets for 10 days which will hopefully bring up the platelet levels, if not it looks like there is some pretty serious testing ahead. I was wondering if anyone else had ever experienced this? Might be able to short cut the process somewhere hopefully. I hope there's nothing wrong with our dog, we've had him since he was 8 weeks old, we care for him a lot! Thanks for reading.