Day 10 – Phantom Pain

Posted on February 17, 2011 by bellona

The vet appointment had some good and bad news today.  First with the bad…  Bellona’s vet Dr. C thinks she has Phantom Pain.  That leaves me feeling helpless and not sure what to do.  We got refills on her Rimadyl and Tramadol.  So far tonight she’s doing good.  Dr. C  says that her incision looks great.  They also did an ultrasound to rule out any other complications.

Now on for the good news…  Another preliminary test from the leg shows that the muscles and tissue from the leg came back negative for cancer.  Hopefully we’ll get the final report soon to find out if her leg had Osteosarcoma or something else to weaken the bone enough for a clean break.

One more slice of good news from our home – We tried to see if Bellona would attempt to go upstairs to our room.  I’m proud to report Bellona safely made it upstairs and to the comfy dog bed.  I think this will be the first night of restful sleep in a very long time.  I don’t want to talk bad about the couch but I’m glad to be in my own bed.

Keeping warm

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Day 9 – Pain control

Posted on February 16, 2011 by bellona

Sleepy Girl

Last night Bellona had a rough night. We thought her pain level had diminished. Bellona was breathing hard even though we had given her Tramadol.

The past couple of days Bellona hasn’t been up and walking around much besides going potty, eating or drinking. When she was more medicated Bellona felt more up to walking around.  Tonight Bellona’s incision seems more red than before and she got one of her stitches undone. If it isn’t one thing it’s another, right?

We left a message for our vet and emailed her a picture of the incision and the stitch that came loose. Bellona has been licking the incision site for a couple of days now and I’m pretty sure she undid the knot.

The knot untangler

Dr. C called us back and asked us to bring Bellona in to the clinic in the morning. I can’t express how grateful we are to have a caring vet that gives us her cell phone number and responds to us after hours.

More news to come tomorrow after Bellona’s appointment. As for now little miss knot untangler is sleeping soundly.

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Day 8

Posted on February 15, 2011 by bellona

Bellona is still doing great! I can’t believe how good she doing and adapting for her missing limb. Last night Big B tolerated her pain better so we skipped giving her Tramadol last night and this morning. I think she has 1 dose of Rimadyl left so we’ll see if her pain level changes this afternoon.

The downfall will be if Bellona wants to push her activity level further. So far Bellona has been pretty mellow but the better she feels the more reckless she’ll probably get.

We had a quiet Valentine’s yesterday. I bought Bellona some shoes to help with traction (we’ll see if she’ll tolerate having than put on) and both Caesar & Bellona got plush Lobsters. I’ll get some pictures tonight.

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Day 6 – Lymph Nodes clear

Posted on February 13, 2011 by bellona

We received good news at Bellona’s vet visit today.  We’re still waiting on her bone biopsy results from CSU but… the lymph nodes came back clear!  It’s good to hear there was no cancer in the lymph nodes recovered from the amputation.  Big B’s whole leg was sent for testing.  It makes you think twice when you see something in a UPS or FedEx box now doesn’t it?

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Day 6 – Baby Steps

Posted on February 13, 2011 by bellona

 

Baby steps blanket

After Bellona’s vet appointment we took her for a drive. We made it to my In-Law’s house and they had a present for Big B.

Bellona got a pink blanket with baby shoes. The fabric is called baby steps. It’s such a fitting phrase for Big B. She has made baby steps of improvement each day. Bellona says thank you for the blanket!

Sleepy Girl

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Day 6 – Lazy Sunday

Posted on February 13, 2011 by bellona

While waiting to take Big B to her vet appointment I took some pictures of her. Her incision looks so much better and most of the brusing is gone. More updates after Bellona’s vet check up.

Why did you wake me?

Sloppy drinker

Incision - Day 6

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Day 6 – Ampawtee

Posted on February 13, 2011 by bellona

Today is the 6th day and Bellona is still doing good.  We have a follow up vet appointment with Dr. C today.  More news to come after the appointment.  I doubt they have the test results back from the biopsy of the bone but anything is possible. 

Right now Bellona is chilling on the couch.  That’s her normal napping spot even before her surgery.

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Day 5 – Wysong Epigen

Posted on February 12, 2011 by bellona

I’m a big fan of Canidae but we chose to try Bellona on Wysong Epigen to cut down on carbs.  http://www.wysong.net/products/epigen.php  Why on earth Wysong Epigen?  This dry dog food (which can be fed to dogs, cats an other small animals) contains the lowest amount of carbs, 589 kcal per cup and it’s almost as low in carbs as canned food.  So far so good on Epigen for Bellona.  I don’t want to preach about food too much but I wanted to let you know there are options besides Evo if you don’t want to go with canned food or a raw diet.

Seriously if you would have asked me a year ago if we’d every feed our pets Wysong I would have said, “NO WAY!”  I’m proven wrong again and I’m glad I was wrong.  Epigen is still slow in the market – probably due to cost.  If you want to try it for your pet, go to your local independent pet supply store  (not a “Big Box” chain store) in your area to see if they can special order it for you.  They might not have it on the shelf but typically stores order weekly from their distributors.  If you don’t want to go that route, you can order it directly from Wysong instead.

Caesar will continue to eat Canidae.  He doesn’t need a low-carb diet and I recently got a bag of Canidae PureSea which is their grain-free Salmon kibble.

**I don’t receive compensation or free products from any company to speak about pet food or supplies.  I’m just a dog mom that cares about my fur-babies.**

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Day 5 – Essiac

Posted on February 12, 2011 by bellona

My husband has been doing some Cancer research and we’ve been learning more about Essiac.  http://essiacinfo.org/index.html  I haven’t read the book yet for more detailed information.  Other Tripawd pups have also used this recipe to eliminate cancer.  The combination of Essiac is know (but not clinically tested) to fight off many diseases.

Bellona is 87 lbs and would require 8-10 capsules per day.  The costs associated to keep Bellona well adds up fast.  Especially when Chemo treatment is likely and strongly advised.  After we use up the commerically made capsules we’ll make them ourselves as others have done too.

Essiac consists of these 4 ingredients:

  • Burdock Root
  • Slippery Elm Inner Bark
  • Sheep Sorrel
  • Indian Rhubarb Root

At this point we’ll try just about anything to keep Bellona happy and healthy. 

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Day 5 – Couch Potato

Posted on February 12, 2011 by bellona

Bellona has been sleeping on the couch most of the morning.  Who would have thought that getting on the couch would be celebrated? It’s the most dangerous thing she’s done in over a week.  

We’re really happy Bellona has made improvements each day.  Bellona even barked when FedEx knocked on the door this morning.  Although she didn’t get off the couch, Bellona sent Caesar on the reconnaissance mission to check it out.  All was well and the FedEx man delivered something for Bellona.  Gotta love Amazon – they have Essiac supplements in stock.  Please see the next post for more information on Essiac.

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