Here we go again...
Well Eddie has healed up really nicely and his face looks so handsome with no draining holes. Then he somehow scratched the cornea in one eye and scratched the other eye but not the cornea we have a lot of sand on our property and I think that was the culprit. His eyes were really red. More antibiotics and drops later and he's seems to be on the mend. Hannah on the other hand is going back in Wednesday for more surgery... same spot on her left back foot between the toes, same Mast Cell cancer. We're not sure if it's a reoccurrence or some cells left over from July's surgery. We are doing this surgery and then see what happens. It's been a very difficult decision and right about now I feel like I'm hanging a death sentence over Hannah's head, but we have decided not to do any radiation. The protocol that has been described to us very thoroughly is not something we want to subject a very happy bouncy Hannah through. Or we could take off the two toes. However, she's getting stressed enough out over surgery and we just cannot put her through that. We're trying to keep positive that this time the surgery gets everything. Time will tell. After all this, and losing 5 Berners over the past 20 years, and having our hearts ripped out over what Cathi is going through, and other recent losses, I don't think my heart can take much more. I'm not sure I can ever have another Bernese. Sherry & Rob Hartung [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kitchener Ontario Canada
New Update on Eddie & Hannah
Here's the latest on Eddie and Hannah... Eddie has finally rebounded. After talking to the vet, we figured he was in pain so we put him on some Metacam for a few days and he started to eat. Thursday he started running around the yard like a new born colt. Friday we had him in to the vet for a checkup of his face. The holes in his mouth where his teeth were pulled are healing nicely. His face is healing up really nicely too. There was some oozing initially but that has stopped and dried up. The incision is healing up really well. He gets the stitches out on August 11th. Hannah is running around like nothing ever happened to her. She sure is her Mother's (Zoe) daughter! She's happy, alert and eating, though nothing comes between her and her food. She's being such a good girl getting her "bootie" on whenever she goes outside. Now for the bad news... Hannah's biopsy results have been returned and it's Grade 2 Mast Cell. The pathologist was very surprised to see it between the toes as this is a very rare spot. It's also a spot where it's difficult to get the 3 cm margins that they like to see without amputating the entire foot. They (as in Guelph OVC) are suggesting needle biopsy into the lymph gland and radiation. After a LOT of research, many long hours discussing with the vet, looking at age and history of the line, soul searching, sleepless nights, and Hannah's happiness, we have decided not to pursue radiation. Our focus is to keep Hannah as happy as she currently is for as long as possible without putting a lot of stress on her. We are doing some supplements, immune boosters and are looking at homeopathic treatments. Hannah is one who absolutely hates to be brushed or feet touched (hence why she goes to the groomer). I sat her down the other night and told her she was going to have to cooperate with full body examinations on a very regular basis so we can monitor any lumps and bumps. I hope she understood!!! Sherry & Rob Hartung [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kitchener Ontario Canada
Update on Eddie and Hannah
First, let me thank everyone for their kind emails. It's wonderful to have an extended family out there to count on when you're going through something that makes you feel like you're in it all by yourself! You're really not! Thank you Eddie and Hannah both underwent surgery on Friday. Here's how things went... First, Eddie... When the vet was in there she found that the tooth root bed on the other side of his face was also affected and starting to abcess, so he ended up getting both big upper molars pulled one on each side. She did a beautiful job stitching the holes on his face back together. She said the holes were right down to bone, so she had to pull muscle and tendons back across. He's got 3 layers of stiches. He's not bothering with the stitches at all, but we're having a very hard time getting him to eat. I've tried soaking his food, canned dog food and everything and he's just not interested in eating. He is also having some problems with his back end and walking, so we got him to the chiropractor on Saturday. He's just all bunched up from the surgery and being turned over and over to be worked on. A few more adjustments and he should be fine. Of course, all day yesterday, I was wondering if we did the right thing by putting him through this as he does not seem to be bouncing back and is really depressed. It also doesn't help to know that 2 years ago our previous vet put Eddie under to remove THAT tooth, but decided not too because they could not find any indication that there was a problem, so we wasted a lot of money at that time for nothing. They did not even do x-rays! Had THAT tooth been pulled 2 years ago like they were supposed to we're sure his face would have healed up on it's own long ago. However, Rob reminded me that it's been 2 years this way (and trying to get vets to do SOMETHING) so he may take a bit more time to bounce back. Let's hope so. On Thursday night at 11:20 p.m. we got a call from our new wonderful vet.. she had just gotten the results from the radiologist. He feels that it is a swollen lymph gland and that we should definitely pursue surgery. She wanted to make sure we knew right away as she is fully aware of the MH in this line and wanted to set our minds at rest as quickly as possible. Now that's a dedicated vet and one that I want on our side. We had been looking for a new vet for the last 2 years after ours retired. I'm glad we found her! So Hannah did undergo surgery to have the growth removed from between her toes. It has been sent off for biopsy but we won't know until about Wednesday what we're looking at. The vet did laser surgery and she said everything went very well. Hannah has to keep a bandage on her foot (looks like a golf club!) for one week so the pressure from standing on her foot does not pull the stitches apart. She's being very good at getting it covered before going outside. The vet gave us IV bags to go over the bandage.Those are the greatest thing... really thing and much better than grocery bags. Hannah is running around like nothing even happened to her foot. She's not even limping. She's bounced back really well. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the biopsy results. I'll let you know what we find out... everyone keep their fingers crossed that it's benign. Sherry & Rob Hartung [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kitchener Ontario Canada
Need Your Thoughts to Pull Us Through With Eddie & Hannah
I haven't been able to be on for awhile, but I needed some shoulders and I know the Berner-L'ers are always there to listen. When you have 3 littermates of 6 years old everything all seems to happen at once. They just turned 6 last week. A couple of months ago, people with one of our puppies from this litter lost their pride and joy to AIHA. Now we've got 2 of our guys going through some serious stuff. Some of you may have remembered how Eddie was bitten by a spider over two years ago. We went to a homeopathic vet and she got the spot open and draining. However, it stayed open and draining. We tried everything but could not get it to close up. It was constantly oozing. We went to a third vet (upon recommendation by Griz's chiropractor) and she found that the poison from the spider bite went into his tooth root bed, caused an abcess and ate away at the roots. It had no where to drain, so it went out his face. So, tomorrow Eddie goes in to have his tooth pulled and some facial reconstruction work. Not to be out done by her brother, Hannah has a growth between her toes (found last Saturday). Upon examination by our new wonderful vet, it appears that it could be a malignant tumor, a benign tumor (hoping), or something that has resulted from an internal tumor which has formed the external growth. We did an chest x-ray since we lost her mom, Zoe, to MH and Hannah's half sister, Emma, to SH and found a mass. It does look similar to Zoe's and Emma's, but there is big growth off of it. The x-ray was sent to OVC in Guelph to a radiologist for another opinion. We're trying to be optomistic, but it's so hard when you lose 2 related Berners 2 years apart to histiocytosis. It's 2 years since losing Emma. Hannah is tentatively going in to have the growth removed tomorrow along with Eddie's surgery. We're going to need to get 2nd and 3rd jobs to pay for these guys! We will have results from the radiologist before she is operated on. If the mass inside is cancer, then we have to determine whether we operate or not. If it's MH we know there is not much time left (we lost Emma 4 days from diagnosis). Our new vet is well versed with Berners and doesn't want us to waste our money if we're going to lose Hannah soon anyway. Hannah has always been the healthy one of the family so this was such a surprise. She's had absolutely no typical symptoms of MH (she eats like a horse), so it's really difficult to try to determine how much time she has. The only thing we've noticed is the last week or so she's been very calm... we just chalked it up to FINALLY maturing. So, keep us in your thoughts tomorrow we may have 2 dogs going through surgery. I'm sure I'm not going to get much done at work waiting for results. Important lesson... never keep littermates... all the bad stuff happens at the same time. Sherry & Rob Hartung [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kitchener Ontario Canada
