Archive for January, 2010
Introducing…the Swiss Lick Swissies Canine Cancer Fund!
Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | Canine Cancer, Gryffindor, Swiss Lick Swissies Canine Cancer Fund | 1 Comment
Since losing Gryffin to cancer four weeks ago, we’ve felt as if we need to do something more to help with the fight against cancer.
Dan and I are already involved in with a few charities that fund cancer research for humans. I’ve even participated in a couple events for canine cancer. Well, now it’s personal, so we need to take the next step.
Along came the Swiss Lick Swissies Canine Cancer Fund. It’s not an official organization. We don’t have a 501(c)3 designation. If this gets big enough, I will get one. Right now, we are fundraising for organizations the DO have their 501(c)3, like the National Canine Cancer Foundation (NCCF).
The NCCF is an organization that helps fund the important research grants that will eventually (hopefully) find a cure. Or at least get us closer to a cure. Here is their Mission statement, copied directly from their website.
The National Canine Cancer Foundation is a nationwide, contribution funded, 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to eliminating Cancer as a major health issue in dogs by funding grants directly to Cancer researchers who are working to save lives, find cures, better treatments and accurate, cost effective diagnostic methods in dealing with canine Cancer.
The purpose of the Foundation’s Research Grant Program is to encourage and provide grant support for basic, pre-clinical and clinical research in high impact and innovative cancer research, which is intended to develop innovative approaches to a cure, treatment, diagnosis or prevention of cancers in dogs. The program fosters collaboration between basic and clinical scientists with the intent of enhancing the transfer of basic research findings to clinical usefulness.
So, as of Friday night, we have a store on Zazzle with a few cool shirts for you to purchase!
I hope to add a few more shirts in the next week or so, and maybe some other products. The store may move to another location if I can find good products for lower prices, but I’ll let you know when that happens.
Please consider buying a Swiss Lick Canine Cancer Fund shirt. I’m sure it would make Gryffin happy!
Husky Heroes!
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | Random Stuff | No Comments
If you’re in the Chicago area and looking for something to do this weekend, head on over to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle to see the Husky Heroes!
Weekend of activities includes the “Dogsled Spectacular” featuring Siberian huskies in dogsledding and skijoring demonstrations (11 a.m.-4 p.m.). In “Meet the Huskies,” Adopt a Husky will be onsite with huskies available for adoption. (11 a.m.-4 p.m.) In “Husky Legacy,” learn about the Husky’s role in Alaskan history and see the film “The Last Great Race.” Complimentary tickets are available at the Visitor Center one hour prior to show. Shows are at noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m.
This is a human-only event…you must leave your dogs at home.
Gryffin’s back on the couch!
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | Gryffindor | No Comments
I got home last night to a surprise that I need to share…
A few friends had a wonderful Fetch & Throws blanket made with my favorite picture of Gryffin. I know your first question is likely how could I possibly pick a favorite picture of Gryffin because he was such a photogenic dog. All pictures of him are wonderful. But this one is definitely it.
So, while Indy and Beowulf were outside, I opened the box, put the blanket out, sat on it, and had a quick cry. (It was a happy cry. More of a “what wonderful friends I have” cry.)
Then I let the dogs back in and the silly Swissy stuff started. Indy was barooing like crazy, so for a moment I thought someone was at the door. Then I realized she was barking at the new addition to the couch.
Still going…
Beowulf was not amused with the loud dog.
And she’s still talking back.
She calmed down a bit, so I thought I’d try to get her on the couch. I don’t think she’s ever been up there. But it didn’t work. This is as close as we got.
So thank you again, my wonderful friends. You know who you are. I will always remember this.
Sorry, I’ve been a slacker
Monday, January 25th, 2010 | Beowulf, Indigo, Random Stuff | No Comments
I know there haven’t been many posts lately. I could say I’ve been trying to leave the posts about charity stuff up front longer. I could say I’ve been super busy. I think the truth of it is my heart hasn’t quite been in it since we lost Gryffin. But I’m working on it.
To further illustrate my slacker-ness, I’m going to post pictures from our play date two weekends ago. I can’t deprive you of cute pictures, right?
Basja and her human were in town, so we had a get together. I’m enjoying these more than normal (and I’ve always enjoyed them) because since we let Gryffin go, we’ve had to provide more exercise and mental stimulation for Indy. Gryffin did a lot of this for us in the past. So having a few dog friends over (Basja the Dane, Reggie the Saint, and Vasey the Swissy) is good in many ways.
Disclaimer: We had really crappy light. I edited these pictures best I could, but I can’t fix everything!
Here’s Vasey, checking out the scenery.
Basja prowling.
Then the games started.
And they kept going.
Basja likes to catch snow.
I had a really great airborne shot of her, but someone decided to step in front of me while I was shooting. So part of the shot is blocked. Sad.
More running around like crazy dogs.
You’ll notice that Reggie is not usually in the running around pictures.
And of course, we have to make Basja look for squirrels.
And one more shot of the pretty girl because I love her.
That’s it for now. I’ll do my best to try to be interesting this week.
Hounds for Haiti
Thursday, January 21st, 2010 | Random Stuff | No Comments
I know, I know. Another fundraising request. I seem to be full of them lately, right? And I haven’t even mentioned one of them yet…
I was poking around on another Swissy blog yesterday and found a link to another blog that looked fun. So I dug in. I noticed this neat little Hounds for Haiti logo/link on the side and I was very curious. So I did more poking around.
This blogger, Dr. V, with help from readers, friends, and likely other bloggers, has put together an auction though eBay’s Giving Works that will benefit the Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts.
I know that funds are tight for a lot of people. I am one of them. But please look at the items available and see if there is something that you just can’t live without. You never know…you might find that perfect birthday/Valentines/just because present for that special person/dog/cat in your life. Or maybe you can just buy something for yourself. It’s guilt free! You’ll be doing a good deed and helping out people in need. Hey, that rhymed!
Thanks for looking, everyone!
Osteosarcoma Fundraiser!
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 | Canine Cancer | No Comments
I was poking around on Monday trying to come up with some ideas for my own fundraiser (meaning keep watching, I hope to have something relatively soon). I was thinking about approaching 2 Hounds Design to do something with me, when I happened upon something they already have going…
2 Hounds has had a custom collar for several years now with a percentage of the proceeds going to Hope for Hounds. Each year’s collar is unique, as custom ribbons are created specifically for this cause. There will be another new collar available in late February or early March.
Hope for Hounds is a charity that works to raise awareness of Osteosarcoma in Greyhounds. Now, our old friend Abby was a Pyr, not a Greyhound, but in my mind, raising funds for Greyhounds will help Pyrs, Swissies, Beagles…the list goes on and on. And a breakthrough in Osteosarcoma research might trigger breakthroughs in other areas, both canine and human.
So when thinking about purchasing a new collar for your dog, please consider this collar. You may be helping to save the life of a future companion and best friend.
Spay and Gastropexy Review
Monday, January 18th, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | 3 Comments
I meant to post this months ago! I am so bad…
Without further doo doo, here is the “review” of Vasey’s laparoscopic spay and gastropexy, written by Vasey’s human, David.
In July of 2009, we decided to have our dog, Vasey, spayed. Since she is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and a deep chest breed, she is susceptible to bloat, so we decided to have Gastropexy surgery as well. Bloat is a very awful disorder that causes Gastric Torsion or GDV.
GDV occurs when a dogs’ stomach becomes twisted inside the abdomen, blocking the flow of food and blood to the stomach. Dogs with untreated torsion will die in just a few hours. GDV is the number one cause of death for larger breed dogs. From what I have read, researchers have not found a specific cause or genetic factor that would cause one dog to bloat and not another. Gastropexy is a surgical procedure that tacks the outer lining of the stomach to the abdomen wall. After fully healing the strong bond prevents the stomach from twisting.
While doing my research I have come to believe that this procedure is not 100% effective, a dog can bloat bad enough to break the bond between the stomach and abdomen. However, we decided that since both the gastropexy and spay can be performed at the same time, we would do both.
We take Vasey to Dr. Holly Hayna at the Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. During our annual check up Dr. Hayna discussed our options for the two procedures. Dr. Hayna said they could do both, but would recommend us to talk to Dr. Lisa Mikol-Doering at Westgate Veterinary Center in Bartlett, Illinois. Dr. Hayna said that although it is a little further away Dr. Mikol-Doering is one of the few vets that are licensed to do Laparoscopic Spaying and Gastropexy. A laparoscopic surgery is designed to be gentler and provides a shorter recovery time than the more conventional spay. The procedure uses a combination of a small incision and special instrumentation to reduce the trauma to the internal organs and reduce the post-operative pain and swelling.
After talking with both doctors we decided to give the Laparoscopic surgery a try since the cost was virtually the same. The Laparoscopic surgery was about $500 for each procedure. We were told that we would need to keep her activity to an absolute minimum for 10 days after the surgery until the stitches came out. After 10 days the spay was completely healed, but the gastropexy would take another 2 -3 weeks to heal and we would still need to keep her activity limited.
The two outpatient procedures went very well. She looked so pathetic coming out of the back area all shaved and her cone on her head. I read a t-shirt once that said “All is fun and games until someone ends up in a cone,” I now understand that completely. Vasey had two sets of stitches both about the size of a dime. This is one of the other differences between laparoscopic and traditional surgeries, Dr. Hayna told us that it would be one cut for the two procedures with the traditional surgery and Vasey would have had about a 6 of 7 inch incision that would take longer to heal and have a greater chance for problems or infection.
The first few days were very easy as the medication made her very sleepy. Vasey was very good about leaving her stitches alone so everything healed nicely. In fact, her stitches for the spay healed to well that the skin started to grow around them. When they were removed, the skin was cut open slightly so we needed to put some Neosporin for a few days. After she was done with her medicine and was feeling back to herself, (about 5 days after the surgery) we had a hard time keeping her from running around the house and jumping on and off the furniture trying to get rid of her energy. This did not cause too much of a problem.
She did get a little swelling due to inflammation where the stitches were starting to dissolve in her abdomen. This took about three weeks to finally completely disappear. Dr. Mikol-Doering said that this would probably happen and we should only be concerned if it felt like there was fluid in it or it was irritating Vasey. After that was done all that was left was growing back her coat. As of September, the fur was almost back. In the daylight you can still see a small difference where they shaved her.
I would recommend the laparoscopic surgery to any one that has decided to do the Gastropexy. Dr. Mikol-Doering was a very nice young vet with a modern practice and a very helpful and pleasant staff. My only complaint was that she did not see Vasey when we came in to get the stitches out. The two procedures were not cheap and I thought she should have at least stuck her head in the door to make sure everything was going well. She did, however, call the day after the surgery to make sure everything was going well at home.
The only thing I would change was the day we choose for the surgery. We had a choice between Tuesday and Thursday. We chose Thursday but Tuesday would have been a better choice. That way the stitches could have come out on Friday and Vasey would have only had one weekend of VERY limited activity.
I would also like to say that Dr. Hayna was very nice to offer this option to us. If surgeries go well they can be good money makers for the business. The fact that she would refer us to another practice shows that she truly wants what is best for your pet. She was also nice enough to call us a couple of time to see how everything was going. I would recommend Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, IL to anyone in the area.
I hope this review is helpful to someone and if anyone has any other questions they can reach me through this blog.
Thanks for the review!
Follow Up
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | Gryffindor | No Comments
I thought I should post this for those of you that may be curious and don’t belong to the dog forums where it has been discussed.
It turns out that Gryffin definitely had cancer. More specifically, hemangiosarcoma. The emergency vet opted to biopsy the tumor on his prostate for their own information and decided to share the findings with us.
Hemangiosarcoma is an ugly cancer. According to information found on Wikipedia and a few other sources, it’s a “rare, rapidly growing, highly invasive variety of cancer.” Blood vessels will grow directly into the tumor, and they frequently fill with blood. (Remember Gryffin’s abdominal cavity full of blood? It was a ruptured tumor.) It is more common in dogs than in humans, but I understand there have not been a ton of reported cases with Swissies. Dogs with hemangiosarcoma rarely show any clinical signs until after the tumor has become very large or has ruptured, like Gryffin’s.
To be honest, even if the only tumor in Gryffin’s body had been on the spleen, he probably wouldn’t have survived very long. Average survival with treatent (chemotherapy in comination with other drugs) is 5-7 months. I don’t think I could have put Gryffin through that.
So now you know too.
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