Lily Update

We picked her up Wed eve. Poor Lils has been in the wars, lots of bald patches and stitches as well as having had internal biopsies and scans. Now we have to wait until biopsies are back to find out whether the skin tumours are sarcoma, or benign. Her behaviour though was impeccable, she was confident and allowed other people to handle her and the vet introduced her to his daughter who now wants a greyhound of her own. She was s excited to be home and have all her home comforts and it reminded us of how good life is for her here even if she does sometimes act a bit princessy!

The other strange thing is that the vet started to explain that her urine test showed an inability to be able to concentrate the urine.....and I had deja vu.
I had been told the exact same thing, and in fact after some hideous tests I was diagnosed with Cranial Diabetes Inspidus which is a very rare problem with kidneys not concentrating urine and losing water, and being thirsty as well as peeing ALL the time and even incontinent (sorry to go into the pants region here).

Now DI, is so very rare, so what is the chances of Lily and I having the exact same thing? It is not a transferable condition.

This means that as well as me having to get up to pee throughout the night and getting thirsty and drinking, Lily is doing the same thing. She needs to pee about twice once at around 2-3am and another around 4am and then again at around 5.30 am. So I trudge down the stairs, totally shattered and let Lily out go myself have a couple of hours kip and then up to do it again....It is so tiring I am starting to feel ill....wait a minute, I am feeling ill already! I do hope that we can sort Lily out and perhaps give her some replacement hormone further down the line.

And I really hope that Lils doesn't have a nasty skin problem. She is so cute lying there with her A K Creations custom made pyjamas; red with little sheep on.

Lily

Lily is a white dog, in that she has a lot of white fur which is quite thin in paces over her skin. This has caused us a bit of worry and so we have used sunscreen to help stop the sun's rays doing harm to her skin. As you may know, white animals are particularly prone to skin cancers.



A while back, Lily had a mole/scab that kept bleeding on her flank and we pointed it out to the vet who said it looked like a mole which had been caught and we should keep an eye on it. We did and it never healed, you can see here it looks like it has a bruised ring around it.

Last week just as a routine we took her to have it checked out because it worried us. The vet said we were right to be concerned, and he wanted to take it off as soon as possible and have it biopsied. From its appearance and behaviour, he diagnosed it as either a hemangioma or a hemangioma sarcoma, the first word meaning a benign blood/skin tumour and the second word meaning a malignant one. Both look the same and it is 50%/50% as to which one of these Lily has. The nasty kind if left untreated can spread to liver, lungs and kidneys and can be very aggressive.

Of course we are hoping like mad that it turns out to be a plain hemangioma
Both look absolutely identical though, little blisters that can burst and bleed and have a reddish or purplish appearance.

If your own greyhound gets one of these, don't panic they seem to be fairly common but do get it checked out like we are.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

Tilly

Poor Tilly had an injury, and needed a leg removed right up to the shoulder. Julie, her rescuer was really worried about her balance. However, I can report that Tilly has recovered from her amputation and is flying around so fast, she isn't allowed out in the garden with other dogs in case she knocks her wound. This is just proof that a 3 legged hound can be just as good as a 4 legged one and one less leg is not a reason to put them to sleep.

As far as I know Tilly is still up for adoption, so anyone in the UK who wants a three legged hound contact me as an enquiry.

My Hounds really are gorgeous!

Lily's confidence is growing and growing and she has even started to give male strangers a little investigative sniff, rather than backing off and trying to escape. However, she is still cautious, but that is what makes her such a well behaved girl and we can let her off the lead and she comes back when called. She doesn't wander far, especially not from her favourite person in the world....(not me! Her Daddy!!)

I noticed in these pics though, that she has grown into a proper woman and is not so much of a puppy to look at, although she is still pupp-like in her behaviour.



We took the hounds away twice to our favourite cottage in Devon. We also went to the beach at Kessingland in Suffolk (above) for my birthday, then went and had tea and sandwiches at Southwold and had a stroll along the seafront by the beach huts.

It was an unusually warm and sunny day, the first bit of 'summer', on 27th september but sadly it didn't last.



Now I have to get all sad about being a year older AND the winter coming on. It is always the same if your birthday is in September. I have moved as well from being in the early part of a decade agewise, to the middle, and can be called middle aged now.

Fostering a greyhound.....

Essex Greyhound rescue have a dog called Morgan who needs to be fostered for about 3 mths. I don't have the full information but please do contact me if you are based in the UK, in the South East or don't mind driving to Essex.

You can email me erssiemajor@yahoo.co.uk for more details.

Minky and Spook

UPDATE: MINKY AND SPOOK HAVE FOUND NEW HOMES...HOOORAY
GOOD LUCK KITTIES IN YOUR NEW LIFE.......YOU WILL BE MISSED BUT I AM SURE YOU WON'T MISS THEM OR WANT FOR ANYTHING

I know, they aren't greyhounds!! However Minky and Spook are desperate for a new home. Their owner is leaving the country and the cats were supposed to go to a family member who has let them down at the last minute. Her heart is nearly breaking with worry about what happens to the cats, and she can't leave the country til they are settled. She really does not want them to go to a shelter or charity. So, if you can give 2 kitties a home, pop over to her blog

Our Holidays

We have just been on our holidays. We went to Devon again to our favourite farm cottage. As promised, the farmers were able to give us one of their fallow fields which was a meadow right at the top of their land with gorgeous views over the valley.


It was completely enclosed and we are excited to announce that the greys were let off for a proper run. For a while now, Lily being nervous has been in her favour when let off the lead because she doesn't want to stray far from her favourite person (Daddy) and she gets a regular run but poor old Dizzy could not be trusted. We let him off just once, and he bolted so we were restricted to using enclosed fields.


Steve did some good work with him. He was allowed off the lead in the enclosed field and then we just ignored him. First of all Dizzy stood looking confused, then had a short sprint followed by a little rest where he had to lie down in the field. We used whistles and biccies to get him back, but he showed only mild interest in both. Over the course of the week, we became more and more confident as he was let off and just walked beside us LIKE A NORMAL DOG!!


We can't tell you how exciting that is. Since then, he has walked off the lead in the middle of our park, for a very short burst, and he does not show the urge to bolt but we will continue with caution. It was so lovely to see the dogs running together. Lily wanted to chase and have fun and kept nipping his snout like every other bitch and Dizzy just wanted to run on his own. Their legs move so fast, you can see the power but not appreciate the beauty of it until you see the still frames.

Dizzy looks like a kangaroo though, and we are on the verge of renaming him Skippy, the bush Dog-a- Roo. See how at certain points though, the dogs actually mirror each other's movements. You can see them studying each other then falling into synch by the side of each other. Beautiful! If only we had a field here at home.