The Patient

Thanks so much to all of you who've been sending kind wishes and loving thoughts to Vinnie. I've been giving sporadic updates in reply to comments, but I thought I'd use todays's blip to let all of his friends know what the story is and how he's getting on.

(This is, by the way, the first time I've posted pictures taken on my phone - and I'm as inept with the phone camera as I am with most of the other features of the <expletive deleted> device, so thanks to Victoria for taking them!)

We noticed a few weeks ago that Vinnie was getting less mobile. At first we put it down to old age, but then we noticed he was favouring one of his hind legs. When it got worse and we took him to the vets, they x-rayed him and found a cancerous tumour in his femur.

The choices came down to amputation (x-rays and ultrasound scans showed no trace of the cancer having spread elsewhere in his body), or just keeping him comfortable as long as possible with palliative care. In the week after the x-ray, we saw him more or less give up on the offending leg - he would hardly touch the ground with that foot - and as he was effectively getting around on three legs (and making a pretty good job of it), we decided on amputation.

He went in on Tuesday. The vet was very pleased with how the operation went and all seemed to be going well, but a couple of hours later they saw his wound was bleeding and rushed him back into theatre. 

The second time around, the vet spent ages checking all the the blood vessels were tied off. Later, though, Vinnie developed heavy bruising, implying internal bleeding under the skin. Along with that, his blood tests began to show worrying signs.

Over the last few days, we've been very lucky to have such caring and devoted people looking after him. As well as the wonderful attention and affection he's been getting from the nurses, the vet who performed the operation sat up all night researching possible causes of the decline we were seeing. He tracked it down to two rare and little-known factors specific to greyhounds and related dogs, one or both of which might be at play. For one, although a veterinary drug is available in the US, there's not one here. The vet found an equivalent human drug we could use, but was concerned it might have harmful effects on dogs. This is where having a daughter in the pharmaceutical business came in handy - Alys looked into it, and was able to confirm that the drug had in fact been through a toxicology trial on dogs, and was perfectly safe. For the other possible cause, he's been receiving infusions of plasma, which we've had couriered in from the pet blood bank.

It's been touch and go for the last few days, but today we've seen the first encouraging signs. He's been more perky, he walked a few steps (managing the three-legged approach) without needing to be supported, and he's shown a good appetite. And for the first time, his blood results showed an upward trend, suggesting his system may be starting to recover.

We're trying not to get too optimistic. He's an old boy, he's been through major surgery and serious post-op complications, and he's certainly not out of the woods yet. We'll carry on with the treatment and hope for the best. He's comfortable, he's not in pain or distress, and we know he couldn't be in better hands.