[LexiAndNikkisMom]

My dad took Oreo (my parents' dog) to the vet on Friday for an annual shot. For some reason it was not with or regualar vet. My dad mentioned that Oreo had been couching and hacking so much lately that she makes herself through up. Oreo will be 14 in January and has done the hacking and coughing for an long as I can remember. She does it maybe once every month or two. The through up is not as common but has happened in the past. We always thought this was because she ate some grass when she was outside. The vet said that hacking, coughing and throughing up are signs of a heart murmur and that the hacking and coughing are probably due to difficulty breathing.

The vet also found a large lump on her side that he said was a tumor. He was suprised that we had not noticed it. He also said Oreo has lost 15 pounds since May. I had noticed she looked a little skinnier but I only see her once a month or so. I thought that I was wrong. Oh, and she also needs her teeth cleaned because she has a lot of tartar build up.

My mom is not sure what they are going to do. Oreo is so old that she might not survive the surgery or even the teeth cleaning. I told her to call Oreo's regular vet and ask to meet with her to discuss the options.

Oreo also has arthitus. She loosing her sight or hearing.

 

[Maxismom]

Originally posted by Lexi's Mom@Nov 8 2004, 04:11 PM
My dad took Oreo (my parents' dog) to the vet on Friday for an annual shot.  For some reason it was not with or regualar vet.  My dad mentioned that Oreo had been couching and hacking so much lately that she makes herself through up.  Oreo will be 14 in January and has done the hacking and coughing for an long as I can remember.  She does it maybe once every month or two.  The through up is not as common but has happened in the past.  We always thought this was because she ate some grass when she was outside.  The vet said that hacking, coughing and throughing up are signs of a heart murmur and that the hacking and coughing are probably due to difficulty breathing. 

The vet also found a large lump on her side that he said was a tumor.  He was suprised that we had not noticed it.  He also said Oreo has lost 15 pounds since May.  I had noticed she looked a little skinnier but I only see her once a month or so.  I thought that I was wrong.  Oh, and she also needs her teeth cleaned because she has a lot of tartar build up.

My mom is not sure what they are going to do.  Oreo is so old that she might not survive the surgery or even the teeth cleaning.  I told her to call Oreo's regular vet and ask to meet with her to discuss the options. 

Oreo also has arthitus.  She loosing her sight or hearing.
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how sad i would speak to her regular vet before any decisons r made
what breed is oreo

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

Here are some pictures of Oreo:
Oreo's Dogster Page

I have more in my online photo album (see link in my signature).

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

Originally posted by Maxismom@Nov 8 2004, 03:17 PM
how sad i would speak to her regular vet before any decisons r made
what breed is oreo
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Oreo is a black lab mix. We got her at the pound. Not sure what else is in the mix. Her mom looked like Spud McKenzy (sp?) and her sister was just plain white.

 

[Brinkley & Neyland's Mom]

Originally posted by Lexi's Mom@Nov 8 2004, 04:11 PM
My dad took Oreo (my parents' dog) to the vet on Friday for an annual shot.  For some reason it was not with or regualar vet.  My dad mentioned that Oreo had been couching and hacking so much lately that she makes herself through up.  Oreo will be 14 in January and has done the hacking and coughing for an long as I can remember.  She does it maybe once every month or two.  The through up is not as common but has happened in the past.  We always thought this was because she ate some grass when she was outside.  The vet said that hacking, coughing and throughing up are signs of a heart murmur and that the hacking and coughing are probably due to difficulty breathing. 

The vet also found a large lump on her side that he said was a tumor.  He was suprised that we had not noticed it.  He also said Oreo has lost 15 pounds since May.  I had noticed she looked a little skinnier but I only see her once a month or so.  I thought that I was wrong.  Oh, and she also needs her teeth cleaned because she has a lot of tartar build up.

My mom is not sure what they are going to do.  Oreo is so old that she might not survive the surgery or even the teeth cleaning.  I told her to call Oreo's regular vet and ask to meet with her to discuss the options. 

Oreo also has arthitus.  She loosing her sight or hearing.
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I know they must feel awful! When my Sandi cat got so sick, I knew she was losing some weight, but I felt awful when the vet told me how much she had lost! I felt like such a bad mommy...but my other cats were so big and fat, and she was a smaller, more dainty cat anyway-that I didn't realize how bad she had gotten weight wise. That is an awful feeling.

We are thinking about you all and sending you lots of Brinkley love...

Let us know how it goes!

 

[ButterCloudandNoriko]

Awwww. I'm so sorry to hear. Much love for you guys!

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

Thanks, guys.

Oreo is getting older so I knew that eventually we might have to make some hard decisions but we were just shocked to find out about the heart murmur and the tumor. The vet showed my dad and then my dad showed my mom. She said it is pretty big.

I forgot to mention that my mom said Oreo has not been eating much for the past 5 days. The only thing she will eat consitently is treats.

I told my mom to try some boiled chicken or anything with gravy. She had some leftover beefstew and was going to heated that up and mixed in some of the dry dog food. Oreo licked up the gravy but didn't touch the meet, doog food or vegatables.

 

[Toby's Mom]

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

Thanks, Nichole. I just emailed your reply to my mom. Hopefully she will be able to talk to the vet about it.

Oreo has already been through so much. About 6 or 7 years ago she got really sick. She stopped eating for 2-3 weeks. There were 5 people in the house and no one was really assigned the job of feeding the dog. When ever the dish was low we would fill it up. So it took us a little while to figure out she wasn't eating. The vet we were going to would only let us feed her boiled hamburger and boiled rice. Problem was she wouldn't eat it. After another week of being in and out of the vets office and on and off IVs the vet said that we had 2 options. We could either but Oreo to sleep or they could do exploritory surgery. We asked them if they knew what they would be looking for and they said no. We decided to go for a 2nd opinion and the vet told us she was really hurt. Excuse me, YOU WANT TO PUT MY DOG TO SLEEP!!!

It was a Friday when we did this and our current vet worked us in. Right away she thought Oreo had Addison's disease. Problem was the test results would not be in until Mon/Tues and by then Oreo would probably be dead. So she started Oreo on the meds anyway because it wouldn't hurt her if she didn't have Addison's. The vet told us to get food into Oreo. It didn't matter what it was as long as she would eat it. PB, cheese, beef, chicken, bread, etc. Anything. She also gave us some liquid stuff that we had to had to "shoot" into Oreo's mouth using a large syringe. She also called us Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Turned out Oreo did not have Addison's but for some reason the meds worked though. She started to eat and within a couple of weeks she was back to normal. The vet or someone from her office called my mom every week for a month to make sure Oreo was doing ok.

 

[mylittlebella]

I'm so sorry to hear about Oreo. Please keep us posted and I'll be thinking of you!

 

[kodie]

this sounds tooooooooooo familar...

I went through a similar situation in Feb of this year. Our older dog Scooter had a tumor too.. his was in his nose... so when it got even larger it became a big lump over his eye... it was so upsetting to see. Scooter's symptoms of his tumor was sneezing A LOT, with snot flying out of his nose and sometimes with blood in it. We took him to the doctor when the blood would come out and the vet said its allegeries... (this was before the tumor enlarged big enough to be seen).. The tumor was tested and it was cancerous... Is Oreo's cancerous? Scooter also lost weight... and he kept losing it.. Oreo and your family will be in Kodie and my thoughts... We both still miss Scooter so much

Its really hard...

 

[Caesar's Mommie]

Awww, it must be so sad for you guys seeing Oreo go through everything.

Our thoughts are with you guys and oreo.

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

Originally posted by Kodie@Nov 8 2004, 07:40 PM
Is Oreo's cancerous?  Scooter also lost weight... and he kept losing it..  Oreo and your family will be in Kodie and my thoughts...  We both still miss Scooter so much 

  Its really hard...
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Right now we don't know if it is cancer or not. They said that they could do a biopsy or there is some geriatric blood test they can do. My mom is thinking of the having them do the blood test but it is pretty expenisive. She left a message at the vet's yesterday for the vet to call her back and let her know what she recommends.

My mom said that Oreo has started to eat again.

 

[Caesar's Mommie]

Originally posted by Lexi's Mom@Nov 9 2004, 08:19 AM
My mom said that Oreo has started to eat again. 

 

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GREAT!!

 

[kodie]

Originally posted by Lexi's Mom@Nov 9 2004, 09:19 AM
Right now we don't know if it is cancer or not.  They said that they could do a biopsy or there is some geriatric blood test they can do.  My mom is thinking of the having them do the blood test but it is pretty expenisive.  She left a message at the vet's yesterday for the vet to call her back and let her know what she recommends.

My mom said that Oreo has started to eat again. 

 

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They only did a biopsy on Scooter's tumor while they seduated him. If you said Oreo wont make surgery then the blood test is the only way. Let me know how everything goes! My heart goes out to you. I know this is not conforting in the least bit but you said Oreo is 14yrs old? Scooter didnt even make it that far... he was only 10

I dunno if your willing to do any operations but since the tumor is on his side... maybe they could remove it! They couldnt remove Scooters... it was too far up in his nose cavity. Kodie and I send our love!

 

[LexiAndNikkisMom]

This is going to sound bad but my parents are worried about spending $1000 on surgery only to have Oreo not make it or only give her a few extra weeks. Right now she isn't in pain but she has a hard time going up and down the stairs because of her arthitus. She is also having a hard time seeing. I think she can only see a few feet in front of her. When I was leaving last weekend I tried to call her over to me and she couldn't hear me or see me. I was less then 10 feet away! I had to go over to her. When I got close enough to her that she could see me she got excited.

Another concern my parents are having is that they don't really have the money to spend on a lot of test and treatments. My brother is getting married in 8 months, so we have a lot of expenses coming up.

 

[nataliecmu]

Oh, so sorry to hear about that. I hope everything works out. Keep us posted.

 

[Toby's Mom]

 

[ButterCloudandNoriko]

Originally posted by Lexi's Mom@Nov 9 2004, 08:51 AM
This is going to sound bad but my parents are worried about spending $1000 on surgery only to have Oreo not make it or only give her a few extra weeks.  Right now she isn't in pain but she has a hard time going up and down the stairs because of her arthitus.  She is also having a hard time seeing.  I think she can only see a few feet in front of her.  When I was leaving last weekend I tried to call her over to me and she couldn't hear me or see me.  I was less then 10 feet away!  I had to go over to her.  When I got close enough to her that she could see me she got excited.

Another concern my parents are having is that they don't really have the money to spend on a lot of test and treatments.  My brother is getting married in 8 months, so we have a lot of expenses coming up.
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I'm sure the vet will give you the best advice as possible to help figure out what they should do. Take care. MANY

and XOXOXOXO's to Oreo.

 

[mylittlebella]

I totally understand about the money thing. It's just so expensive and some times it's not even worth it. So sorry to hear this but we're all with you and your family.