Erlina continues to do well. We have tapered the medications she was on. She has some labwork pending the end of this week and if that is good we will start slowly switching her from her special diet to a regular diet.
She is troubled by leg pain that seems to move from leg to leg - sometimes disappearing for days at a time.
Bill continues to do well, making an uneventful recovery from shoulder replacement surgery. He still has months of rehab and physical therapy ahead.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Erlina - much later
For those of you who wrote asking if something was wrong... yes it was.
Starting about the time of the last post, Erlina was not doing well. She was confused, lost her bite restraint, and became lethargic. A comprehensive workup revealed that a fetal vein that bypasses the liver had not closed shortly after birth as it should. This is called Portal-Systemic Shunt ("PSS"). The usual treatment for this condition is to surgically open the abdomen and chest, open the liver (because the bypass vein is inside the liver) and put a ring on it that slowly closes the vein over a 1 - 2 week period. The surgical mortality is about 50-70%.
Luckily, there is an interventional radiologist (IR)at Michigan State University who does a new procedure, Percutaneous Transjugular Coil Embolization (PTCE). We say "luckily" because there are only 3 places in the US that do this procedure.
Under annesthesia the IR places a catheter into the vena cava (the very large vein that travels from the pelvis to the heart) and guides it (with CT guidance) to the location where the fetal vein joins the vena cava and then places a large stent.
Take a look. The thing that looks like a tubular strainer, is the stent.
After the stent is placed, the IR places small dacron covered coils through the stent into the fetal vein. The IR then places enough coils to partially block the fetal vein. You do not want to place too many coils, because the liver is immature and could not handle the full blood flow immediately.
Here you can see one coil in place and watch the IR place a 2nd coil. The coils are just above the stent. .
Over the succeeding week the coils form blood clots around them when progressively block the fetal vein, allowing enough time for the liver to develop. About 40% of the time this works. Another 40% of the time a second procedure is needed to place more coils. The remaining 20% of the time the dog, while much improved, still has significant liver bypass.
We are now 4 weeks after the procedure. We still don't know yet if it was adequately effective, but she sure is doing well.
Here she is with Rhianon:
Notice how much larger she is than she was in late April.
She is still not as active as she was before everything fell apart, but she is doing much better.
Now it is Bill's turn for surgery, so the Blog will officially be on vacation for awhile because his left arm will be in a sling for 6 weeks and that makes typing difficult.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
but don't expect a reply in less than 6 weeks.
Starting about the time of the last post, Erlina was not doing well. She was confused, lost her bite restraint, and became lethargic. A comprehensive workup revealed that a fetal vein that bypasses the liver had not closed shortly after birth as it should. This is called Portal-Systemic Shunt ("PSS"). The usual treatment for this condition is to surgically open the abdomen and chest, open the liver (because the bypass vein is inside the liver) and put a ring on it that slowly closes the vein over a 1 - 2 week period. The surgical mortality is about 50-70%.
Luckily, there is an interventional radiologist (IR)at Michigan State University who does a new procedure, Percutaneous Transjugular Coil Embolization (PTCE). We say "luckily" because there are only 3 places in the US that do this procedure.
Under annesthesia the IR places a catheter into the vena cava (the very large vein that travels from the pelvis to the heart) and guides it (with CT guidance) to the location where the fetal vein joins the vena cava and then places a large stent.
Take a look. The thing that looks like a tubular strainer, is the stent.
After the stent is placed, the IR places small dacron covered coils through the stent into the fetal vein. The IR then places enough coils to partially block the fetal vein. You do not want to place too many coils, because the liver is immature and could not handle the full blood flow immediately.
Here you can see one coil in place and watch the IR place a 2nd coil. The coils are just above the stent. .
Over the succeeding week the coils form blood clots around them when progressively block the fetal vein, allowing enough time for the liver to develop. About 40% of the time this works. Another 40% of the time a second procedure is needed to place more coils. The remaining 20% of the time the dog, while much improved, still has significant liver bypass.
We are now 4 weeks after the procedure. We still don't know yet if it was adequately effective, but she sure is doing well.
Here she is with Rhianon:
Notice how much larger she is than she was in late April.
She is still not as active as she was before everything fell apart, but she is doing much better.
Now it is Bill's turn for surgery, so the Blog will officially be on vacation for awhile because his left arm will be in a sling for 6 weeks and that makes typing difficult.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
but don't expect a reply in less than 6 weeks.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Ow !
This week was fairly straightforward... sort of.
Erlina accidentally bit her tongue. Her tongue was a bloody mess (literally), but the first indication we had was that she stopped eating and was "fussy." Wolfhounds are generally quite stoic dogs and that was all she showed. We went over her from nose to tail several times and saw the wound on her tongue at last. A quick trip to the vet and she received antibiotics and pain medications for 5 days and all is well again. She again is monstering like little puppies should and chasing the bigger dogs around. Rhianon is in season and is less inclined to play with her. It is more like, "she is a monster, let me out of here."
If you want to comment, please send an email to:william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Erlina and Rhianon
Training:
"S0, you want to play ?"
"What happened ?"
"This is how you play, don't bite too hard."
If you want to comment, please send an email to: william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com, or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Erlina's mommy is in Texas. So Rhianon, the mom of the St. Brigid's litter (2/1/09) volunteers to teach Erlina a few things about bite restraint and being a wolfhound
"S0, you want to play ?"
"What happened ?"
"This is how you play, don't bite too hard."What is remarkable about this is that Rhianon weighs 160 pounds and Erlina weighs 25 pounds. Rhianon dances around her, being very, very careful to not step on her, even when Erlina (who is not the most graceful - being just a puppy) stumbles under her.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Erlina, week 4
Erlina keeps growing and looking cuter.
Oisin thinks her food is terrific and really wants to share with her.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Oisin thinks her food is terrific and really wants to share with her.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Erlina, week 2
It has been so long since we had a singleton puppy that we forgot how much work "just one puppy" is. As she is too small to pay with the adults, and has no littermates to play with, she requires a LOT of time and attention.
Here she is stalking an invisible beast and being stalked by Bidelia, with Rhiona and Saoirse watching.
She is small, but really fast ! We again had to learn the "puppy shuffle," walking without picking up your feel far enough for her to scoot under. But she is cuddly and loving and only sometimes uses her really sharp puppy teeth to grab us.
She seems to have doubled her size and weight in the last week. We really need to get out the scale and see.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Here she is stalking an invisible beast and being stalked by Bidelia, with Rhiona and Saoirse watching.She is small, but really fast ! We again had to learn the "puppy shuffle," walking without picking up your feel far enough for her to scoot under. But she is cuddly and loving and only sometimes uses her really sharp puppy teeth to grab us.
She seems to have doubled her size and weight in the last week. We really need to get out the scale and see.
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Erlina !
Ah ! Puppy Breath
Tenderlands Erlina of Heaven is the newest Hound of Heaven. She is 8 weeks old and weighs 19 pounds.
With much gratitude to Donna and Bob Robinson of Tenerland Farms who bred her.
CH Hounds of Heaven Liam is her Sire and CH Tenderlands Ann-E Of Manasota is her Dam.
Rhianon and Phillie make her acquaintance.
Oisin is just not sure what to make of her.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Tenderlands Erlina of Heaven is the newest Hound of Heaven. She is 8 weeks old and weighs 19 pounds.
With much gratitude to Donna and Bob Robinson of Tenerland Farms who bred her.
CH Hounds of Heaven Liam is her Sire and CH Tenderlands Ann-E Of Manasota is her Dam.
Rhianon and Phillie make her acquaintance.
Oisin is just not sure what to make of her.
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Monday, March 1, 2010
Liam at 9
Here is a picture of Liam, shortly after his 9th birthday.
Nine years old is quite old for an Irish Wolfhound. It is generally reported that the average lifespan of an Irish Wolfhound is 7. We have been fortunate to usually have our hounds live longer.
As he aged, Liam developed a quite characteristic weakness in his rear legs. The harness you see in the picture is so we can (more or less easily) help him stand when he gets info a position with his legs splayed out and so he can go upstairs to Bill's office (more accurately, so his descent can be controlled safely).
A curious side effect of wearing the harness (or perhaps the stair descent) is that his strength of his rear legs has improved to the point that he no longer needs to wear his traction boots. Hmmmm.........
If you want to comment, please send an email to: william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com, or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Nine years old is quite old for an Irish Wolfhound. It is generally reported that the average lifespan of an Irish Wolfhound is 7. We have been fortunate to usually have our hounds live longer.
As he aged, Liam developed a quite characteristic weakness in his rear legs. The harness you see in the picture is so we can (more or less easily) help him stand when he gets info a position with his legs splayed out and so he can go upstairs to Bill's office (more accurately, so his descent can be controlled safely).
A curious side effect of wearing the harness (or perhaps the stair descent) is that his strength of his rear legs has improved to the point that he no longer needs to wear his traction boots. Hmmmm.........
If you want to comment, please send an email to: william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com, or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Birthdays !
Liam and Ciara (the Valentine's Day litter) are 9.
The Presidents' Day litter are 5.
The St. Brigid's litter are 1.
See the Newsletter
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
The Presidents' Day litter are 5.
The St. Brigid's litter are 1.
See the Newsletter
If you want to comment, please send an email to:
william {at} HoundsOfHeaven.com,
or go to our website: www.HoundsOfHeaven.com
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