I was going to update all their threads but figured this would be easier :-P

Opi I have updated - she is hypothyroid :-)  Might not explain the wobbly episode but it does explain the slight aggression to dogs (which is the polar opposite of her normal character), the generall 'offness' and the odd patch of slightly thinned hair on her tail that I noticed the other week - and the few extra kgs that I just haven't been able to shift.  When the vets are back in Saturday she'll be going on Soloxine.

Tia - well.  Sort of good and bad, for Tia.  Good news - no abdominal cancer!  Also no heart failure, which the vet suspected when her abdomen started to swell a bit and she was breathing quite heavily.  With that suspect we had to do the ultrasound in the end, but as she tolerates Lawrence better than any other vet and he's the ultrasound man, we got away with doing it conscious :-)  Neutral news - steroid-induced Cushings is the most likely culprit of the swelling and heavy breathing, following her going onto the cortisone.  Bad news - no idea now what's causing the abdominal pain :-( Suspicion is some nerve root inflammation under her spine, I am wondering if there's a bone cancer going on there too as the weight loss/appetite still fit with that.  So back to pain management.  Possible bad news - attempts to reduce the steroids aren't going brilliantly.  I've gotten her down to 2 pills a day from 3, yesterday she went on to 2 every other day as per his instructions - so had yesterday off and she was sore all day, ended up back on the tramadol (with the steroids I'd been able to stop that altogether).  Going to see tomorrow if it was a one-off or if we'll just have to try a low daily dose.

Remy - yahoo!!  Got his thyroid results (him being the one of the odd problem - non-conversion of T4 to T3, very unusual in a dog) - his levels are smack in the middle of the ranges, Dr D is happy with him :-) And even better for him - clinically he's still not there, I've been thinking he could do with more T3 again but was worried his levels would be too high, but as he's in the middle we still have plenty of room for an increase :-D

And Saffi with her arthritis - not so good :-( A few weeks back she twisted her "good" leg (I say "good" because she has arthritis in that hip but up til now it's not been a problem), and that seems to have triggered the arthritis to get worse - just like she did with her back left knee.  So we've had to abandon the NSAIDs (having tried all of them) and put her on PLT - she's lost weight but has slowed right down since doing her hip, she needs to be moving more or short of starving her, we're never going to win the weight battle (still got at least 4.5kg to go, ideally a wee bit more).

Phew.  I think that's everyone!!

Goodness, you really have been having a tough time.
Here's hoping all goes to plan and you can get them stable.
Have you looked at an enzyme supplement for Saffie ? I'd never heard of it for inflammation/arthritis until I was looking for supplements to help Spud. This stuff [url=][http://www.synergy-health.co.uk/supplements/wobenzym.html?fr=GAW*2009_Wobenzyme*WobezymN*UK_Wobenzym_Suppliers-wobenzyme*&gclid=CL28o7rlna4CFQ8gfAodqFoWIA/url] was mentioned to help reduce the growth of tumours but it's also used to reduce inflammation including arthritis.

Yep, tis the House of Broken Dogs at the moment - and those are just the main ones.  We also have Paige starting with arthritis I think in the toe she dislocated (on turmeric, fine); Raine with a cut to a pad; River with stiffness (just overdid it one day last week).  The only dog with no problems is Linc lol!

Enzymes - I've had a quick look generally - I'd like to get Remy and Opi on it to help their thyroids, and everyone for it generally, but only found one that looks any good (not the one you've linked to).  I'd love to put them on Nzymes but it's not sold in the UK anymore :-(  I shall have a look, ta :-)

That enzyme was recommended by a oncology vet, there was another one he suggested but it wasn't available in the UK.

Therapeutic enzymes
Enzymes have therapeutic potential although limited approval in the United States. L-asparaginase is probably the
most valuable therapeutic modality for the treatment of lymphoma and leukemia in animals and people.83 Oral
enzyme preparations are used for the treatment of chronic pancreatic insufficiency and disaccharidase deficiency.
Several enzyme preparations are available in Europe for oral adjuvant treatment of cancer and other diseases. Of
those, Wobenzyme and Musal, contain a similar mixture of enzymes. Recent studies report efficacy for the treatment
of cancer patients, the mechanism of which is not precisely known. One hypothesis is that these enzymes eliminate
pathogenic immune complexes. Therefore, enzymes may indeed be of value for the adjuvant treatment of cancer.

Another update, and glad I dug this out as I'd forgotten about the enzymes!  I do know that bromelain (from pineapples) works well as an anti-inflammatory, I'm starting Saffi on that tomorrow.

Opi got her meds after quite the verbal battle with the vet - he didn't want to put her on anything as he felt something else was causing it, and wanted to do full investigations.  Given her symptoms I told him I wanted to at least trial her on soloxine, and if that didn't have any effect then fine, we'd investigate.  He reluctantly agreed, then tried to fob me off with half the dose recommended by Hemopet, but I refused - if we were doing it, we were doing it properly.  Four weeks later she was back with not much improvement - but still reluctantly on my part as for thyroxine, 4 weeks is nothing to allow it to build up to a decent level for healing.  As I expected, full bloods showed everything absolutely peachy, so the vet was happy then to keep her on the soloxine - idea being that even if it still is something else, that would at least support her thyroid.

She is now 99% her normal self, just a bit of nerves here and there which is improving :-)

Saffi came back from twisting her hip and is losing weight again, verrrrrrrrry slowly but it is going; however her arthritis is again getting worse :-( she's been very ploddy this last week.  So there's the bromelain tomorrow, and she's getting a bigger dose of turmeric on her meals too.  And hydrotherapy again soon.

Tia is also worse :-(  This morning her back foot knuckled as she walked, she didn't notice and did a full weight step on it.  That leg was stiff too, and she's just gone outside looking very stiff in the back end indeed.  She's still on the steroids at the 2-every-other-day dose but I can't up them, tried once and not only didn't it help, but she started going into steroid-induced Cushings again.  So looking at tramadol again - weakness aside she's hurting herself all the time now twisting her gammy front leg or knocking into the others (NB this was not related to the lower dose of steroid after all, it's just progression of her problems).  She still enjoys her walks though, she's not making this easy for me :-(  She also had her first proper bum end collapse a few days back - not good, she did manage to get up in the end but the first time she can't will be the last time she can't.  I want to pre-empt that if I can so she doesn't go through it but of course that's almost impossible to do without being able to see the future!

Now Remy... well.  That was a battle too.  With the numbers (note: just the numbers, ignoring his ongoing symptoms) just right, neither my vet nor Dr D wanted to change anything.  In the end I had to tell my vet that no matter what, Remy would be coming off the soloxine and the T3 would be going up.  She could help by prescribing a lower dose of the soloxine to do it gradually or I'd just break the few tablets he had left and do it that way.  She prescribed the lower dose.  I had hoped to avoid having to do that, I don't like putting anyone in a position like that but I had to do what was best for him :-(

On the FIRST DAY of the lower dose - half - he improved, keeping up with me and the others at the end of the walk for the first time in a few years.  I've since upped the T3 a little, not much, and he continues to improve :-)  his cold intolerance is much better and he's playing with other dogs a little again.  He'll be going up a little again tomorrow and I'll leave it at that for a while and monitor him.  However he's now thrown a spanner in the works and started ever so slightly limping on his right front - old shoulder injury - so off to the chiropractor for him soon.

As for everyone else... Raine needs to see the chiro too, Paige went on thursday after hurting her back when she degloved a claw and Raine came with to meet Christine and just be checked over.  Being such a nervy girl about handling I wanted to be sure she actually needs it before having it done and yes, she does - sore spots on neck and back, and one section of her spine is slightly rotated.  One wrist also has less flexion than the other (another claw-related injury, she snagged a dew last year).

Oh Lord Nikita poor you and yours.

I am so thankful for my healthy dogs, and that those I have lost went quickly with no long term illness/infirmity.  I pray it continues this way for mine.

Positive thoughts for improvements and comfort for them all.

Nikita, what a time you're all having. Our two seem to go from one problem to the next and at times it gets a little consuming but with seven if I'm counting correctly, my heart goes out to you. May things improve for you all.

8 ;-)

That said, 7 will be accurate soon.  This update is not so happy - Tia will be making her final journey on Thursday morning :-(

She's still fairly happy but she's getting exhausted very quickly on walks now (within 10 minutes usually), and her back feet will start knculing a lot more soon.  Likewise I think she'll start to have more rear end collapses.

On both walks today she's had a moment when she's looked at me and just looked so obviously fed up, she wants to run and charge about and her body just can't keep up anymore :-( So we've got 6 days of visiting different places for her little pootles.  We've just been to the local fishing lake, she had a mad minute coming out of the car leaping around and laid in the lake, enjoyed herself thoroughly and is now crackered!

It's maybe sooner than many people would consider but I know Tia, to go through collapses and so on would be utterly distressing for her but tbh, just her getting so tired on walks now is enough.  They are her #1 favourite thing, and I want them to stay that way.  She's not going to reach the point of walks being unpleasant, she has always lived for them :-)

ETA: just so it's not all doom and gloom - Paige's claw is healing nicely and her back's fine now, Rai is fine too as her sore spots etc aren't too bad and can wait til I can get down there again.  And Remy's perked up a bit again since his last dose increase :-)

I do seem to gather wonky dogs but at the moment, things are pretty stable apart from Tia!

I am so sorry to hear about Tia. I have followed her story since she came back from your brothers. At least she had a year or two being cared for properly and loved.

Nikita.
Never could count!
So sorry but a generous large hearted decision to make, may you both enjoy the next few days.
Take care & will be thinking of you.

So sorry,Niki,to hear about Tia,how awful for you :-(
But as lilyowen said at least she has had proper care and not wanted for anything since she has lived with you .
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