[Dailydrool] surgeries at any age

[Dayna]

My husband's dog (I call Nikki, notabasset, my husband's dog because he was
there before I was) had a 9 # cancerous growth on his spleen this past
winter. Nikki is 14 YO. We couldn't figure out why he was off his food. I
even started cooking for him; ground venison, rice and mixed vegetables.
Would not eat. The vet treated with several varieties of antibiotics before
he and we decided to do an x-ray. The x-ray found a large mass so we
traveled a little over an hour away for an ultrasound. That's when we found
the growth. We talked long and hard about surgery because of his age. The
vet told us that even with an extra year, it would be worth it. We went
ahead and had the growth and spleen removed. It's now 8 months later and
he's still eating, still doing well, except for horrible arthritis. He can
no longer climb stairs and it takes quite a while to get up, but he still
has quality of life. We spent about $1500 between all the antibiotics,
x-ray, ultrasound, surgery, etc., and I wouldn't change a thing because he's
still with us. He now lives with my MIL because she has a ramp and seems to
be happy. I would give my eye teeth to get rid of the soreness from the
arthritis, but I'm so very happy we did it. Not every situation is the same,
but anything that DOES promote quality of life is worth it. I put myself in
the dog's shoes (paws?) and ask if it would be worth it to me. I'm
devastated that Nikki can't live with us, but I'm ecstatic that he's still
with us. 

On another note, someone mentioned a few drools ago about Metamucil for
prevention of stool consumption (how's that keeping it not so gross). I
would REALLY like to find out more about that. I've tried every other thing
on the market to no avail. My 2 foster failures act like it's some kind of
delicacy from my other 2 adult dogs. With 6 dogs here, I can't be picking up
6 stools at once so every once in a while, I miss 1 and when I see it, I'm
so nauseated. When LaBelle came here to live, she brought the habit with her
and then passed it on to Bubba. At least I'd never seen him do it before
her. Thank goodness no one has since picked it up. My questions are, does
Metamucil contain any wheat products and is there any chance it can
precipitate bloat. Pierre, my senior, senior, is going on 13 and Elke, my
notabasset is going on 10. Both would be candidates for bloats since every
d@#m dog in my house is overweight no matter what or how much I feed them
and I'm unable to walk them. 

Thanks for letting me voice my opinion and to ask for help.

Dayna
Mom to: Pierre (see, even my poop smells AND tastes like roses), Elke (yeah,
right, and I'm Jennifer Aniston), LaBelle and Bubba (but Mom, it tastes
sooooo good), Griswold (you people are weird) and foster Lily (duh, which
way did he go, George)

mailto: Dayna.Whitehead at comcast.net

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way
its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi