Molly, 13 yr, shih tzu - lhasa aspo - Molly has passed

Good report on Molly's behavior...barking for her ice cube is an excellent sign that she is feeling good and not too bothered by anything. You have to use this type of thing as a gauge to how they're doing since these dogs are not working much on their English. :D Whenever I am wondering if Trixie is okay I either ask her about a toy or mention the word "bag" (as in-tear one up!) and gauge her reaction...if she pops up with interest I know she's pretty much okay..and then I usually have to play or get the bag and make good on my offer.

Has Molly had any rice to firm up the poops? Usually does the trick for us. Hope on the morning walk things will be back to normal. ;)

Barbara

I am glad Molly's poop is better I hope today it is perfect. She sounds like she is acting well which my vet told me pertaining to Snuggles, how they act are sometimes more important. Praying your little girl continues to improve.

I gave her the Fromm's grain free last night, because I kept suspecting the food and the filler grains in it, even though the vet told me a couple years ago that she didn't think so, and this morning, the most perfect small solid poop immaginable!!! YIPPEEE!

So there you have it. This morning I mixed the Fromm's with a bit of her SO, and this evening we'll try Just Fromm's but a different protein, because all I have is the sample packages right now, and I'll see if my independent pet store has any Fromm canned that I can use with molly for tomorrow morning.

I'm calling the vet to confirm what kind of stones she has had and crystals and we'll take it from there.

Right now I am happy. She had Tons of energy on this mornings walk too. She usually does but if she has a gastro upset, she tends to slow down off and on during the walk and then with the diarrhea for the last two days she go from spot to spot, straining to get all the liquid out. (sorry if that is TMI) today though, none of that, she was pulling me, had her solid poop and then was running down the sidewalk, pulling me along to the next tree to check her mail.

Maybe this isn't the long term answer, but then again, maybe it is, who knows.

hugs all
Sharlene and molly muffin

Sharlene:
I am glad Molly's poop is better. Does she seem to be feeling right? Did you give her the chicken and rice? I know you are in the same boat as me that is why I lean heavily on you for guidance. My thoughts are exactlynthe same as yours. I will wait and see what the next three month ultra sound brings. My vet said he is jot even sure that this thing has changed because it could just be her error on where the probe was. Her tumor is larger than Molly's. It is supposedly 1.35 x
3.23 and was 2.92 I believe. My vet said she may just be scaring you in to this, and maybe not?? Does anyone on here know what the likelihood is of an adrenal tumor rupturing? I think the same as all of you have said,nwhich is the greater risk?? To me the greater risk at this point is surgery. If it begins to grow the rupture may be the greater risk. I did ask her that question, and also if she felt Tipper was in good enough shape to make it thru this operation. She conveniently left those answers out. I think Molly is a little younger, and does not have the health issues Tipper does. I am not sure they could even get a tube in her throat, without more damage to an already bad trachea?? Also I read that it is not only the number of operations the surgeon has done like this, it is how often and how recently they have done this. She also left out the question about how many of these operations the surgeon has done, and what were the consequences, how many dogs did not survive it? She never answered that. When people do not answer things, that is very telling to me. In would ask the surgeon all this anyway, but how do you know what they tell you is true?? They are building an addition on this hospital and have to fund it somehow. That is precisely why I do not like privately owned hospitals, and prefer teaching schools. This is just wearing on me. I am going to talk these things over with Glynda in the next few days, and get her take on all this. I feel for you Sharlene as this is not a good place to be between a rock and a hard place!! Blessings
Patti

She feels fine. No I didn't give her the chicken and rice since the Fromms seemed to do the trick. It is one of the grain free ones, this one is called Beef Frittata Veg, looking at the top 26 ingredients, not one of them is a grain. It made a big difference.

Yes that one is a bit bigger than molly's tumor. I wish I knew the answers for you Patti. :(

I do understand the trachea issue and the heart mummer is a concern too. It's all so bloody hard isn't it.

hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

Fromms is made near my home in the next town, Mequon. We go past the plant often. I hope it continues to help her. I remember reading about stones in Whole dog Journal but there was another site that talked about foods if you did not want to do prescription, I wonder if it was Dogaware?

Happy almost Friday!

Hey Sharlene, I'm so glad it looks as though Molly has decided to drop the diarrhea baton (and hopefully she won't be passing it on to anybody else ;))...:)

Since you are in the midst of deciding on a new food for her, though, I do want to mention one thing. Just like so many otherwise excellent grain-free products, I just looked at the detailed analysis for the Fromm's sample you gave her, and it is verging on being a high fat food. On their website, if you click on the detailed analysis (it is different from the guaranteed analysis) you will see the profile on a dry matter basis, and this particular food is almost 20% fat.

Here's a quote from Mary Straus' Dogaware article about lowfat diets that explains the fat breakdown more thoroughly:

Quote:

---

As a general rule, veterinarians consider diets with less than 10 percent fat on a dry matter basis (less than 17 percent of calories from fat) to be low fat, while diets with 10 to 15 percent fat (17 to 23 percent of calories) are considered moderate fat. Foods with more than 20 percent fat are considered high-fat. A few dogs may need a very low-fat diet, especially if they have hyperlipidemia, or if they react to foods with higher levels of fat.

---

I didn't check the detailed analysis for any of the wet foods, so the fat content may differ. But I just wanted to give you the heads-up that if you are wanting to limit Molly's fat intake, unfortunately fat content may be an issue with many grain-free foods. It may not be an issue for her, but I do want to mention this in case it is. I have spent hours poring over nutritional profiles trying to find an acceptable food for Peg given her history of allergies and pancreatitis. :o

Marianne

Thanks Marianne, you're right. I need to find one that is a lower fat content. I have several samples, so I'll check each one out to see what might work best. I like the ingredients over all, so we'll see, but a pancreatic attack is not something any of us need to deal with!

Thanks for catching that, I didn't think to look even!!!!

huggers
Sharlene and molly muffin

www.dogfoodadvisor.com has all the dry matter fat (and other such info) already computed for most dog foods.

A procedure we've used in rescue for dogs that have small stones is to do a hydropulsion (I believe that's the name) - they basically force water into the bladder and flush it out a few times, washing the stones out. Less invasive than outright surgery... but, still something that needs to be given a good deal of thought.

Tobey had bladder stones and crystals, but I opted to have the stones removed rather than try shrinking them on the SO diet. I really think the only things that make the SO diet 'successful' is the salt content, which encourages drinking water (to flush out the bladder), and the low protein content. The lower protein is because crystals form into stones when they are present in conjunction with a UTI (usually). The lower protein is supposed to limit the ammonia with which struvite stones are formed (along with magnesium and phosphates).

I used to rely a great deal on both dogfoodadvisor.com and dogfoodanalysis.com. However, both sites now continue to carry reviews that are out-of-date and do not reflect more recent formula changes. In the case of dogfoodanalysis, I don't think there are any reviews that are more recent than 2010, and most are even older. And with dogfoodadvisor.com, another problem is that they tend to provide analysis for only one food for each manufacturer, stating that this is "representative." In many cases, this is really inaccurate because there can be huge differences in the profiles of different foods offered under the same brandname.

This has been very disappointing to me, because as I say, I used to rely on these websites quite a bit. I guess the explosion in size of the petfood industry must be largely to blame. It would be impossible for any single site to provide current and comprehensive reviews of all available foods. So these sites may still be useful as far as researching specific product lines in which an owner is interested. But once having selected a label of interest, I strongly encourage people to go directly to the website to examine the current list of ingredients and the nutrient profile. "Guaranteed analysis" is usually always offered. But if you can find a "Nutritional analysis" or "Detailed analysis" in addition, that usually offers even a more accurate portrait of the actual food content. The Guaranteed Analysis gives "minimums" and "maximums," but the more detailed analyses give a more accurate picture of the true and consistent profile of that particular food formulation.

Marianne