Holistic Cancer Protocol: Cancer Basket

My father was not a healthy man. He had Buerger's Disease, Heart Disease and Congestive Heart Failure. His medication regimen was epic. After a long hospital stay he would always come back home with new pills and new doses. Pill boxes are fine if you take two or three pills a day. When you take a handful - not exaggerating - at a time, 3 to 4 times a day... well, they didn't make pill suitcases back in the 1990s.

So, my dad always sorted his medications in a basket. All of the morning meds, went into that basket. Afternoon and bedtime medications had their own basket too. If meds repeated, he just used empty pill bottles to sort them accordingly.

While Seka doesn't have 15+ pills to take at a time, we have our own Cancer Basket. It keeps everything in one place and I can get to the meds at all times. And our Cancer Basket looks like something the Easter Bunny would bring you. If you added some plastic green grass, a plaid bow and threw in a few Cadbury Creme Eggs, it would be a lot better.

Here's what's currently in the Cancer Basket. It's a mix of holistic and traditional treatments to keep her feeling as good as possible, as long as possible.

Morning
150mg Rimadyl
300mg Gabapentin
100mg Tramadol
400iu Vitamin E
250mg Vitamin D
400mg Krill Oil
4 tsp Immunity4Pets (Avemar)

You know that Seka has been a corn dog for a very long time. I totally credit the Immunity4Pets for improving her corn situation. After hulling the largest ones in late December, they have not come back. Her pads look more normal than ever before. I've also started Roxy on the I4P as both a preventive measure and to improve her allergies.

Lunch Time
300mg Gabapentin
100mg Tramadol
500mg Vitamin C

All pain control. All the time. I will admit that early on, I was worried about giving too much pain medication. After this past month, the one thing I have learned about Osteo is that you have to be generous with the pain meds and stay ahead of the pain. So I guess our Cancer Basket had Cadbury Creme Eggs after all - they are just in the form of little white pills.


Bed Time
300mg Gabapentin
100mg Tramadol
Low Dose Naltrexone (no longer using due to Tramadol use)
2 Artemix Tablets or 4 Artemisinin Tablets
3 Buytrex Tablets

The Artemix and Butyrex are to help kill cancer cells when they are most active (middle of the night). Lots of people and canines both have benefited from this natural herb. I give the Artemix and Buytrex between 10:30p and 11:30p in about three tablespoons of full fat yogurt. The full fat dairy is important to the uptake of the meds. There's lots of information out there about how this works, but I can tell you that NOTHING out there warns you about how bad Buytrex smells. If bad or weird smells make you gag, then find someone else to give this to your dog. If weird smells don't bother you, be prepared - you may have met your match.

I'm a firm believer that the combination of the holistic supplements and the traditional pain meds are key to keeping Seka comfortable. We are making a trip to the Auburn University Oncology department on Monday for a pain management consultation. We'll pack the cancer basket for the trip!

Cancer Is Not for Pu$$ies

Yep, it's vulgar. So is cancer.

Last Monday sucked.

Seka couldn't get comfortable and didn't want to move around too much. She was panting no matter if she was laying down or standing up. Needless to say, I freaked out. This was her first truly bad day since her diagnosis. A day where I couldn't figure out how to make her happy or at least pain-free. A day where every time she moved I felt like I needed to jump up and help her in fear of her falling over or worse, breaking her leg.

I called every greyhound expert I know. I emailed them too. If you are one of the people that I attacked on Monday, I thank you for dealing with my crazy. Adjusting pain meds and getting fancy oncologists to call you back can consume you. I'm thankful for the fantastic resources through GreyTalk and various Yahoo groups. I'm just sad that all of their experience is thanks to this disease.

Seka's limp has become more pronounced these days. She isn't panting while she is standing nor while she is laying down. I've assumed she will always limp, although some people tell me her altered gait is what I should be using to measure her pain. I don't always feel like I'm doing the right thing, but I'm trying to do my best.

Monday was the first day I felt hopeless, and realized that only the worst was ahead for the both of us. This chapter in our lives together will conclude with only one ending, and it's not pretty.

So, Monday gave me a gut check -  "Are you tough enough to care for her through to the end?"  This week I've had to have a good cry and give myself a pep talk. Hopefully my strength and focus won't waiver too much from here on out. Suck it up buttercup!

PS: My pity party is embarrassing when I think about my friend Shelley, who was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in October. She's fighting with everything she has, including the most amazing positive attitude. 

Holistic Cancer Treatment Protocol: Cancer SLOP

Cancer SLOP includes as few carbs as possible
and cancer fighting super foods

I've been feeding my girls a raw diet for approximately five years. Seka has always been a bit of a picky eater when it comes to kibble, and switching to raw allowed meal time to not be a game of begging, pleading and guessing what she would like to have that day. I used to feed lots of chicken backs, turkey necks, beef heart and ground beef/turkey, but as the girls have aged - and lost their teeth - I've moved to a ground mix of organs and muscle (both beef and chicken/turkey) with a calcium supplement. 

Most people who feed raw also feed a SLOP mixture of pureed vegetables alongside the meat. I'm no different. After experimenting for a few months, I finally found a go-to recipe that my girls ate without question. This recipe included:

• Carrots
• Kale
• Black Beans
• Tuna water or chicken broth
• And whatever veggies I had left over from the week

According to my research, this SLOP recipe could do more harm than good when it comes to feeding a cancer dog. Evidently, cancer likes carbs. Really, who doesn't? But the goal is to starve the cancer, not make it fat and happy. 

Our new Cancer SLOP includes the following vegetables that are considered super foods in combating cancer:

• Kale
• Mushrooms
• Parsley
• Broccoli
• Red Pepper
• Tumeric
• Mackerel water

I blanch everything together in one pot - just enough for the greens to turn bright green and the mushrooms and peppers to soften. I throw everything into the food processor and pulverize away. Think of this like pre-chewing your baby's food like Alicia Silverstone did for a year. The dog's stomach can't breakdown the cellulose so the only way to get the benefits of the veggies is to do some of the chewing before hand. I stir in the tumeric by hand b/c it stains everything it comes in contact with, including my food processor blade. 

Each of my girls get 1 lb of food a day. Slop usually makes up 1/3 of that total weight, but because even this mix includes some natural carbs, I've dropped that to 1/4 of that total weight. So they get 2 oz of slop at each meal (2 oz SLOP, 6 oz meat = 8 oz in the morning and at 5:30p).

My kitchen now smells a little spicy at the end of a SLOP making session (I make enough for the week). But after making Tuna Fudge or dehydrating liver jerky, the spicy smell is very tolerable. 

This is the first in a series of posts where I'll describe the protocol we are using to manage Seka's osteosarcoma. Notice I said "manage". This isn't a cure. I'm not delusional, although you may think so based on some of the things I'm doing. Please know this isn't our first choice of treatment. This is our only choice. So you play the cards you are dealt. 

Digging My New Bed

We have dog beds in just about every room in our house. Cheap beds from Walmart. Expensive beds from fancy online places. Homemade beds stuffed with old clothes and monogrammed. Remember the evil Orvis bed?

They really should be called fluffy rugs, puffy stain covers, or fancy sit-upons, because rarely do the dogs use them. I use them more than they do while they consume the whole sofa. This is not a complaint. This is just a fact of my home and most of the time I love it.

I know there will come a time when Seka may not feel like jumping up and down off of our sofa or our bed, so I took advantage of the online sales and ordered 3 new beds for our Queen Bee, in addition to considering the purchase of a twin mattress for our bedroom.

This bed, from Drs Foster & Smith, is enormous and actually can fit both of my girls on it at the same time - if they are willing to touch each other. From the first day this bed was in our house, Seka has been obsessed with digging in it. She has always been a nester, but full fledged digging with both front feet is something new for her.

Yes, that front leg is the leg her cancer is in. Obviously it doesn't hurt enough for her not to do it right now and it seems to make her much more content, so I'm trying not to freak out every time she begins her efforts to dig a hole in her brand new fancy bed.The funny thing is, after all the digging, she only lays on it for just a few minutes before getting up on the sofa. So for now, this giant dog lounger is really just an overstuffed carpet.

I may or may not have tested it out while watching a couple of episodes of the Walking Dead this weekend. Someone has to break it in.

Happy 2014 - Sort Of

Happy 2014, everyone.

I've been away from this space for exactly one year. I guess I needed a long break. It is hard seeing my beloved girls getting older and slower, so I really didn't feel like I had anything worth while to share.

2013 didn't include very much in the way of exciting outings or adventures for my fur babies. Seka went to the chiropractor every two weeks. Roxy went on a couple of walking dates with our neighbor's dog. We went to the beach in April with the girls in tow and enjoyed running in the sand. Seka and I spent a second year as the READing Dog team at a local elementary school. I left the girls at Manyhounds Inn for 15 days this summer while we drove up the east coast and have sworn I will never be separated from them again for that long. I started buying raw dog food from a local butcher and the girls have become celebrities when we go pick up the goods.

See - nothing too exciting. In fact, our Facebook page is full of pictures of the girls sleeping on the sofa. We've become a retirement home.

Then in December, Seka started limping on her front right leg. And like any greyhound mom, I immediately got sick to my stomach, even though thanks to the arthritis in her back and back legs she has had limping episodes frequently that go away. After our chiropractor gave her an adjustment and we didn't see any improvement, I went in for x-rays.

When Dr. Hottie took her back for x-rays, I somehow knew what they would show. Call it mother's intuition. I was right. Osteosarcoma, in the right front leg. After a review by an oncologist at OSU, Seka officially had her cancer card.

We had no treatment options. Her deformed back hip and arthritis combo didn't make her a candidate for amputation. And without amputation, chemo is pointless. Thank goodness I have a great chiropractor/holistic vet in our
life and she has been a blessing in helping me find the right supplements and adjust her diet to give her as much time as we possibly can.

What I hate more than anything is not knowing how advanced it is or how long we have. It's like walking around in a dark room with a hole in the floor. You know you're eventually going to fall in it, but you don't know when it will happen.

What I'm most afraid of more than anything is a pathologic break. I don't want that for her. I don't want that for us.

I wish more than anything that I could explain to her what was going on. Why mommy cuddles her and cries a little each day. Why she now has to have weird powered stuff in her food. Why she has to go out on a leash instead of running after squirrels in the back yard with Roxy.

So I've come back to this space to share our journey - however long that might be. Writing has always been a comfort to me. I hope it doesn't let me down when I need it the most.

Pins & Needles

I'm so behind.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

There, I think I caught up.


We have entered a new phase of our lives with Seka - Pre-Seen. This is the period before a dog becomes a true senior citizen. The time where they start to get ornery. Where they start testing you by refusing to do things every now and then that have always been routine. When they must have their way no matter what has to happen. I've been through this period with my mother five years ago. I'm sure hoping Seka will be easier.

While Seka can still get around pretty well, she has started to show signs of neurological weirdness (that is a medical term). Like not being able to climb the stairs after having been outside for 15 minutes sniffing every new leaf in the yard. Or, getting the creepy crawly skin when you barely touch her. Or when she wakes herself up out of a deep sleep because she has to chew a spot on her back that has nothing to do with being itchy. It was time to consult someone other than Dr. Hottie and his team.

Of course I contacted my greyhound Yoda and she suggested an awesome place in Atlanta - two hours from me - that has everything I could possibly imagine in the way of chiropractic, acupuncture and rehab offerings. So in an effort to save money, I talked to Dr. Hottie about doing a referral and getting all the bloodwork and x-rays done locally. After all, country x-rays are cheaper than city x-rays.

Dr. Hottie let me in on a secret - there was a new vet in town who specialized in chiro and acupuncture and she was going to start seeing patients at his office weekly. We were first on the list, I believe.

We've been seeing Dr. Miller every two weeks since early December and I can honestly say we have seen improvement in a number of ways. Seka is moving better in general. The shaking in her back legs is considerably reduced. The creepy crawly skin thing - gone completely. The crazy chewing, over. We're on a two week schedule for now to manage her arthritis and we plan to add water rehab to help strengthen her back legs this summer.

I would never have been able to take the time out of work and afford a bi-monthly trip to the ATL for her treatments. I'm so thankful Dr. Miller came into our lives at just the right time. She has really been a huge help to keeping Seka sound as we enter this new phase of our lives.

Oh, and forgot to say Dr. Miller is super cool, childless-by-choice and is starting agility with her 16 month old cocker spaniel, Frida. Maybe I can convert her to a greyhound person eventually!

ANGRY!

We are still here. My mom is just lazy. I've tried to type my own posts but my dewclaws get in the way. I'm frustrated!

The Return of the Corn Dog

Several years ago I attended a seminar at a greyhound gathering where Dr. Couto (aka greyhound cancer Yoda) talked about a variety of illnesses and injuries that plague our breed. He had a course of treatment for everything he talked about except the only one I cared about at the time - corns. Evidently, little rock formations on the bottom greyhound feet continue to baffle modern veterinary medicine. 

We've tried everything to keep Seka comfortable when it comes to her feet. What started as a corn on one back foot, quickly became one on each back foot. Now we have a total of four corns, one for each foot because we can't leave any appendage out.

The corns on her back two feet caused her a lot of trouble. She didn't want to walk when those cropped up. We used Therapaws when we went on walks or were out and about, but she never liked wearing them. I fully believe that she knew people and other dogs were staring - and they were.

We did the whole duct tape thing, wart remover, the cold sore remover, vitamins, the natural cream with the baggies treatment - you name it we tried it. We ended up turning to laser surgery on both of those back pads to cut the corn out as deep as possible. While the recovery was not fun and it took FOREVER, it did improve her mobility and now the corns are very shallow and I can just pick the hard area right off the top of the toe. It's more like a scab or scar tissue than a deep corn.

For her front feet, I regularly use the same method Genji's Corner uses with their corn dogs to remove the corn as deep as possible from her paw pads. This seems to make her more comfortable, well at least I thought it did.

On her front feet, the corns are so big around and so deep it is almost like removing the entire pad from that toe. She is left with a giant crevasse on the bottom of both of her front feet. Seka HATES it when I remove those corns from her front feet. I mean, shows her teeth and gives me little growls (which are kinda cute but I know she means business). I guess I'd hate it too if someone was digging at me with an icepick. But I figured walking without rocks in your feet must be more comfortable than walking with rocks in your feet.

This picture does not do this corn justice. 

This summer I was lazy when it came to her corns. I absolutely let her pads go. One day I realized that she was walking better than I had seen her in a long time. She is still a bit gimpy on that back hip, but she was solid on her front feet and putting good weight on all four limbs - which is huge for any corn dog. I looked at her feet and the size and shape of the corns on the front of her feet were truly shocking. There are little mountains growing off the bottoms of her feet and one even protrudes out a bit from the bottom of the foot pad when she is standing.

I'm sure what I'm about to say qualifies me for greyhound jail, but despite the size of these boulders on her toes, I didn't do anything to her front feet. I just left the corns alone. I figure if she starts limping, I'll grab the trusty root elevator and remove them. But for now, she seems just fine on those front feet, even on hard surfaces! I am curious to see how big these might get or if they will just fall off at some point. There's no doubt in my mind, Seka would win a biggest corn contest. 

I guess the best medicine might be to leave them alone. Maybe that's what Dr. Couto was saying after all. But next time you see us, ask to see her corns. You'll be shocked for sure. 

P.S. If you're like me (let's hope you're not) and you like to get all of your news through Facebook, I started a special Greytblackdog Facebook page. While you'll find the latest blog posts linked there, I try to add spice up the content throughout the week with tidbits from my girls. Take a minute and use the link on the right of this page to like GBD on Facebook and we'll show up in your news feed. 

Table Manners

My mother and grandmother were sticklers on table manners. I even had to go to a White Gloves and Manners class when I was in the 4th grade. No lie, this is what it was called. I learned, among other things: how to properly sip soup from a spoon, how to cut my meat and butter my bread without offending others and how to set a table for a formal dinner party with all sorts of plates and silverware. Little did I know that when you grow up, the only women who throw dinner parties with that much flatware and china have a net worth of $1 million. What I wish I had learned is how to throw a dinner party for 10 and spend under $50.

During the week, I cook no more than three times a week and I try to serve at least one meal at the dining room table. The rest of the time we eat at the island bar in the kitchen. The dining room table is actually in the kitchen, so I'm not sure why we just don't move over five feet and sit in a real chair instead of a stool, but we don't.

Oh, wait a minute. Yes, I do know why we don't. My mangerie has the worst table manners in the world. I know it is my fault that they are always underfoot while we are eating at the table or, in the case of the cats, on top of the table. I can't complain about what I allow, so I've decided to start putting up the baby gate to keep the savages away from the gourmet meals I prepare. Maybe they will get the picture or at least make a better attempt at not being so annoying while we enjoy our food.

I'm not sure if they will pass my greyhound White Paws and Manners Class, but maybe they can learn to keep their elbows off the table.

Water Bugging?

In the South we call roaches, "water bugs"mostly because they seem to show up in your house when there's a lack of rain and we think they are searching for water. This is just a polite term that I'm convinced that some Southern woman came up with as to not offend her neighbor. You know it can be rather rude when your host opens up a cabinet to reach for a glass and one of them big ole' "water bugs"crawls out and you scream roach. You only call them roaches when they are present due to poor housekeeping.

Lately, Seka has spent more time with all four feet up in the air lately than I think she ever has.  Who can blame her? With 100 degree temperatures daily everyone moves at a snail's pace. And since she is a Southern dog, I prefer to refer to her position as "water bugging" instead of that nasty creature, the roach. Maybe we'll start a trend - at least for those greyhounds below the Mason Dixon line.

Hidey-Hole

Tub Safety

It has been well documented that Roxy is a thunder-phobe. When we are at home, she hunkers down in our bathroom floor, face on the air conditioning vent, thinking good thoughts until the storm clears. I break out the soothing storm music and aroma therapy on exceptionally rowdy storms for added "protection." And for afternoons where the storms just keep coming without a break - as they sometimes do here in the south - we have drugs to help her get through it. On those afternoons, I wish I had drugs to get through it too, but that's another story.

We have that home routine down cold, but when we travel Roxy has to decide where she feels safest. Anywhere dark and cold is her usual go-to location. While staying in our mountain house during the week of July 4th, weather dog Roxy struggled to find just the right place to feel safe during the regular afternoon boomers.

Seka could care less about the storm.
Bonus, she gets all the Kongs!

Thunder in the mountains is exceptionally loud. Even small rumbles often feel like they are right on top of you. Add that to the redneck fireworks display each evening and Roxy looked like she needed a drink. Finally, she decided that the actual bathtub with the shower curtain pulled most of the way shut was the best place to be. Every afternoon around 3p, whether the weather was stormy or not, she would retreat to the bathtub hidey-hole and take cover until we went to bed, only coming out for a brief dinner and a potty.


I tried to make her come out, but the more I fussed with her, the more upset she got, so I just let her spend time in the tub if that's what she wanted to do. I was afraid that this psycho behavior would carry over when we got home, but so far she's been pretty normal - whatever that is for Roxy.

Breakdown

When I'm getting ready to go out of town I make lots of lists. Chores to do in the house. Things to gather for the dogs. Stuff to pack for the cats. Things to tell the house sitter. Clothes to pack for myself. Despite all of the lists I usually forget something. And while throwing out the milk that would go bad while I'm gone was on my list - throwing out everything in the fridge and freezer was not.

This is the second time since we purchased the fridge 11 years ago that it has crapped out on us. The first time I tried to salvage as much as I could in a giant cooler, but ended up throwing away everything anyway. This time, I didn't have a choice. With the exception of three packs of chicken backs still frozen enough for the dogs, most everything was toast. I guess when it's 117 degrees out, things don't last long in the ice box no matter how cool you keep your house.

We hadn't restocked the fridge since our Chicago trip eight days ago and we rarely keep anything in the freezer other than dog food and a few frozen dinners. So trashing everything wasn't as painful as it could have been. And at least it happened while I was still here and not tomorrow when everything would stink up the place after a week without cold. Now it will just stink up the trash can for the next week. I won't be here to smell it. I hope the raccoons leave it alone.

The girls did their part in helping clean out the fridge. I stuffed their Kongs with some roast beef, which kept them busy and their nose out of the trash as I cleaned. Roxy is so polite I can just hand her slices without fear of losing my finger. Seka on the other hand, may not have many teeth, but she still finds a way to chomp on my fingers.

Circle of Life

On Tuesday my girls caught their first bunny. Now, for some of you, this isn't a big deal. Your greyhounds chase and catch just about anything. For my girls, this was a notable achievement for two reasons:

1. My girls rarely chase ANYTHING in the yard - squirrels, bunnies, cats, opossums, armadillos. We have all of these critters in our back yard at some point during the year and the girls rarely take after any of them.
2. Seka has an old, broken down hip and missing toes and Roxy is rarely allowed to do anything unless Seka - aka the Fun Police - says it is okay. It's never okay.

So I'm sure the sweet little unsuspecting bunny who was eating grass in our back yard absolutely thought he could scoot through the fence before two broken down greyhounds could get to him. Well, bunny thought wrong.

Seka made the grab and shake. Roxy chose to run around with the trophy showing it off like she had won Wimbledon. Luckily, the carnage was pretty contained and quick. After the initial celebration they could have cared less about Russell (that's what I named him - yes I name every animal including the incredibly large rat that lives in my shed. His name is Artie.). I started to take a picture of their prize, but I thought it would be disrespectful and I'm sure PETA would throw paint on me or something.

But a funny thing happened, Roxy had bunny remorse. She went upstairs, curled up in the floor and wouldn't come down until I coaxed her down with the promise of dinner. While I'm sure other dogs would immediately go back to the site of the take down, Roxy wouldn't go near that part of the yard for days. I guess she was sad for little Russell too.

Seka on the other hand napped all afternoon and then when she got up I realized she had dislocated her toe pretty badly. A trip to Dr. Hottie the next day, a reset toe (the dislocation between P1 and P2 actually poked out through the skin), a cool bandage and we're as good as new.

Instinct is an incredible thing. And even if you know better, sometimes you just can't help yourself. Maybe Roxy felt guilty about her celebratory lap. Then again, maybe not. She's almost caught three squirrels in the last three days. On second thought, I like to think she let them escape and just enjoyed the thrill of the chase. She is a sensitive little thing.

Greyt Readers

I believe that every dog has a purpose. Some of them are agility superstars. Others are expressive actors. A few are so obedient they earn ribbons for their attentiveness. My girls are none of these - although we've tried our hand a couple of these activities. It's just not in their blood.

But making people feel good, that's something Seka has always excelled at. She's always been calm, sweet and curious about people in general. She's respectful of an individuals space and she's pretty much bomb-proof when it comes to sounds. It didn't take me long to realize she would be a great therapy dog and I got her certified about a year after her gotcha day.

For a couple of years, we did therapy visits at nursing homes and children's hospitals a few times a month. Seka loved her nursing home visits and was always eager to lead me down the halls to her favorite residents. No shock, these were the same women who often saved their bacon from lunch to sneak to her.

When Seka's corns started to get really bad, we had to reduce our visits and eventually we took a break all together and let our TDI certification lapse. She was just so uncomfortable on her feet and no amount of pain meds or Therapaws helped her attitude - and no one wants a therapy dog with a bad attitude. I thought her days as a therapy dog were over. That was until I heard about ReadingPAWS.

ReadingPAWS is a reading support program aimed at helping to improve reading comprehension and vocabulary. The idea is pretty simple - have a struggling reader practice their reading aloud to a non-threatening audience. Certainly, their classmates, teacher and often their parents don't fall into that non-threatening category. But a crazy lady with a dog certainly does. And that's where the magic happens - reading to a dog improves their confidence, allows the students to practice without fear of ridicule and have a positive experience with reading - all thanks to the dog.

Seka's best trick is laying down and taking a nap. And since one of the characteristics of a ReadingPAWS dog is being relaxed for 20 minutes at a time - it sounded like a great fit for us. We went back through the Therapy Dog certification process and a half-day ReadingPAWS training and found a match with a local elementary school where for the last four months we've been tutoring four young readers weekly.

It certainly is amazing to see the progress these second graders have made since January. On our first couple of visits I could barely hear one young man. By the end of the year, he skipped part of field day (something I found shocking for a 9 year old boy who loves P.E.) to read to Seka at a volume that the whole library can hear. Another student stuttered while reading aloud and struggled with fluency. But if she petted Seka with one hand and followed along with her other, she was flawless.

School is out for the summer starting on Thursday and my readers are taking home a "pawtographed" book with a picture of them with Seka placed snugly inside. Our readers even signed Seka's favorite book for her.

ReadingPAWS is an incredibly rewarding experience. Seka looks forward to going to "work" every week. If you can't volunteer at a school, you can volunteer at a library on a monthly basis or at a kids camp or at a church. Check out ReadingPAWS for more information on programs in your area or how to start one yourself.

Oh - and if anyone has any ideas for a purpose for a dog that might be classified as a mental patient, Roxy is looking for some ideas.

One Tough Bitch

Getting old stinks. Your knees, ankels, shoulder, hips - just pick a body part and at some point over the age of 30 it will fail you based on how you treated it when you were younger. I was a dancer and believe me, my knees remember this even if the rest of my body doesn't. 

Dog bodies are no different. It's hard to watch my girls age, slow down, hobble a little more. I don't know about their life before me, other than the number of races they ran. I know what racing kennels look like, turn out frequency and feeding habits of life is like at the track, so I can assume what daily life was like. What I have no idea about is what they were like as puppies and to be honest with you, I really never wondered about it until a couple of weeks ago.

Seka has progressively become more and more weak in her back legs over the past year. The trembling, the shaking and the lack of stamina is apparent to me. This doesn't mean she doesn't want to do things. She loves going places. She enjoys our READing Paws visits and our therapy dog work. On warm days, she's happy to lay in the sun and play with her squeaky toy in the afternoons. But after a spill in the backyard on February 5, I took her into the vet for x-rays. 

They knocked her out for a good set of hip, spine and leg x-rays to make sure nothing was broken or out of place and to confirm a muscle strain. X-rays confirmed no breaks - well no new breaks. Despite the many x-rays we've taken over the years, including those when she had her toe amputated, obviously didn't include a hip x-ray in that particular view. Because if they were taken, we'd seen a long time ago that she had a break in her hip that happened when she was approximately 6 to 8 months old based on where the fracture healed in the growth plate (I know, right?). 

Of course I had no idea of this injury. Seka ran four races. Seka lure coursed. Seka retrieved a ball as many times as we threw it. A hip fracture at six months old would have prevented all of this, right? 

According to the ortho surgeon at Auburn University, Seka is one tough bitch. I'm guessing that's a clinical diagnosis. 

Between Dr. Hottie and Dr. Smarty (the ortho surgeon at AU) we've been presented with two options: femoral head ostectomy (FHO) surgery or adequan injections. The FHO sounds scary to me and let's face it, it's a surgery done on lots of other breeds, but rarely on greyhounds. Seka's x-rays are out for additional opinions with Dr. Gillette at AU and Dr. Couto and team at OSU. She's feeling much better by increasing her Rimadyl, but I know we can't do that forever. 

Seka's being true to her official AU diagnosis - she's one tough bitch. Now to figure out how to be like my dog as we decide what to do next.

Goldilocks

There has been an ongoing challenge in our living room lately between Seka and Sam. Both are sunshine girls. Some days they bake themselves in front of our living room window all day. While there's plenty of room for a 65 lb dog and a 13 lb cat in the afternoon sun spots, it seems like there's an unwritten rule that they cannot share them.

Seka was like the third little bear today with someone sleeping on her bed. Sam thinks that Seka's bed in the sun spot is just right.

Random Days of Christmas: Day 14

Day 14: You Need a New Sofa When...

The greyhounds prefer to rearrange the cushions so they are actually being eaten by them.

Random Days of Christmas: Day 13

Day 13: Reindog

Seka is a certified therapy dog. Most of the time we go to the nursing home alone, but we've recently become active with a local therapy dog group in Dublin - which is about an hour away from us. When Seka was younger she loved going to the nursing home and didn't really like visiting with kids. As she has aged, she doesn't like the nursing home so much and prefers to hang with the youngsters. Maybe she thinks I'm going to leave her at the old folks home. Or maybe it's because kids are sticky and taste better than nursing home food.

We were a part of Santa and his reindogs visits this year and of course, Seka made the best reindeer of all. In fact, maybe a little too good. A few of the residents thought she was a real reindeer.

These antlers were given to us years ago and she wears them like a champ for about 30 minutes. The bell collar - not so much. I do have to admit, from far away she looks rather real.

Happy Holidays to each of you!!!

Random Days of Christmas: Day 10

Day 10: Dear God, Make Me a Cat, So I Can Get Out of Here

We have had a lot of work done to our home in the last month an a half. New roof. New hot water heater. Fixing of leaky pipes (3 of them). Merry Christmas!

All of these required the dogs to be stowed away so they can be out of the way of the men as they went back and forth to their truck for whatever they needed. Sometimes they got stuck up stairs with an ex-pen blocking the stairs. Other times we all spent the day in the basement together. The girls didn't mind either of these options.

But for quick visits (an hour or less), I just shut them in our bedroom. Within 10 minutes of being stuck behind a closed door, Seka began devising a plan to shrink herself and escape. Despite the fact she is less than small boned - she has a super tiny head!

Random Days of Christmas: Day 3

Day 3: Seka and the Sunshine Band

We had a huge tree removed from the front of our house in early fall. We really like the way it opens up the front of the house. The animals love the way the sun shines right in on them 90 percent of the day. Seka has taken advantage of these day-long sun spots more so than any of the others.

As you can see, she's into contortion to make sure she suns all sides of herself evenly. When she is done baking herself her fur feels like it could be 100 degrees. What is it about these black and sunning themselves until they cook?