Hi alll,

Well, a whole night last night with no panting! Lots of snoring, twitching and deep sighs - which is all exactly how he sued to sleep and we hadn't noticed he'd not been doing it until he started again last night.

He's so much better this morning, he seems much more like his old self. Alert, keen for a walk and a sparkle in his eyes. We had a walk outside, then a drive, then we went to the beach! He was awesome, had a little walk from the car to the water and dipped his toes in. He was so excited. He's now fast asleep at home again. He's getting so strong already and we're only 13 days post op.

Hopefully this is the start of normality somewhat.

We actually stopped the Tramadol about 4 days ago, we didn't think he was in pain and neither did the vet. We thought the drugs may be doing mroe harm than good. After a lot of reading, I am convinced the panting issues have been withdrawal symptoms from the Fentynal patches. He had patches for about 11 days all up, from what I've read in humans withdrawal from that drug can be terrible, causing anxiety, sleeplessness and panic attacks. It makes sense as the panting episodes were becoming shorter and less frequent.

We had a lovely morning with him this morning and feel like things are looking up a bit for him again.

Here he is with me o the beach this morning, loving it....

Hi all,

So, we had our first round of chemo yesterday afternoon. All seemed to go well. No adverse effects as yet, but Dr Laura said if he gets sicks it'll usually be 3 to 4 days later.

We also got onto the drug trial for the Auranofin so hopefully that will help his prognosis. There's only 45 dogs going on the trial, so it's great news that we got on.

In other news though, they picked up a heart murmur yesterday. They thought they heard one last time, but then couldn't find it again. Dr Laura found it again this time, and every time she went looking, so she's pretty sure it's a murmur. No idea what this means just yet, so we've scheduled a heart ultrasound to co-inside with the next round of chemo in 3 weeks time. Poor guy just can't catch a break at the moment.

Will keep you updated.

Cheers.

Hi Sally, yes, Laura was the only vet to ever detect the m potential murmur and she couldn't find it again, so put it down to an anomaly.

She found it straight away this time though, and said it is very localized which is probably why it's never been picked up before. She knows where to listen for it now though, so we'll see what the ultrasound says. He may have had it his whole life, and as you say, he's never shown any symptoms.

The boots are working fab, they make such a difference for his confidence in getting around. The traction socks should arrive soon, hoping they will be just as good, that way we can leave them on and not worry about his paws cooking!

I'll grab some more pics soon.

Cheers.