Tomorrow is the last day for the contest I entered Daisy in-Please go vote for her!! Here’s the link again:
http://www.clubequestrian.com/photos/view/1/justa_daisy_mae/648.aspx
This is our last chance-the contest is REALLY close!!
Thanks for all the votes!!!
Here’s some pictures from Dana’s party this weekend-I didn’t get too many, but these were pretty cute.
Such a cute family 
Blowing out the candles
The mare is back! We worked again tonight for about 20 minutes. More walking and trotting-she was her usual crabby self, attacking the other horses in the arena. She was actually worse than usual that way. She was really going for them and I had to hold her back-I even had to give her a good whap with the whip two times!! She literally went to kick at George! Bad bad girl…. She learned her lesson quickly, though, and she didn’t try it again after we had our little discussion. Still made crabby face, but no more trying to swing the butt around to prep for a kick. She can really be a handful when she gets like that. It’s kind of ok with me, though, because when she’s like that, she has a lot more get up and go-I didn’t have to prod her forward quite so much, and she had a lot of expression in her trot. We cantered very briefly-only about 3/4 of the ring. That was right at the end and she was SO good that I hopped off right away. She actually had her head down, she felt more round than usual, and her takeoff was a lot nicer than her usual push into it. I was pretty happy with her. When I get off her right away after she’s done something really good, she seems all surprised at first-then she gets all proud of herself. I tell her what a wonderful girl she is over and over and she just eats it up.
I finally got to ride Daisy like a real horse again today! We still didn’t attempt to canter, but she did a lot of trot work and looked great. She actually had a small lesson-it only lasted about 15 minutes, but she was going fine-a little resistant to get back to work, but she was going good. We’ll shoot for another lesson tomorrow or Tuesday to catch back up hopefully. We can start off slow and just do 15 minutes here and there, but we’ll work back up to where we were.
Jakey on the other hand is just doing ok. He started throwing up last night and is still doing it this morning-I can tell he doesn’t feel good, so I’m wondering if maybe he got into something that we ordered last night for dinner. I got some pretty hot chicken wings and I’m pretty sure he got one of them-the whole thing of course. Both ends are still working, though, if you know what I mean, so I think it’s probably just a bit of an upset tummy. He’ll be happy to take some Tums, I’m sure He needs to go in for an appointment anyway so we can look over that spot that swelled on his front leg and see if there’s anything signifigant in the back leg where the other tumor was removed. I want to discuss chemo options, too. From what I’ve gotten so far, it would be a treatment once a week for 6 or 8 weeks. That’s not too bad. Kristel said it would be paid in sections-usually around 50 to 75 a treatment. We’ll see what she thinks about those tumors, first.
I am going to head over to Kurt and Vanessa’s for Dana’s “birthday” party in a little bit. I have to run and grab something for her first, though-I was thinging a necklace, but Teri and Scott just got her one!! I’ll have to go see what they have at the store for her. Back later with pictures 
I went out early and took care of Daisy Mae, then we went out to Chicago today. I hardly ever go to the city even though I live so close-it’s kind of funny, but I guess I’m just not that much of a “city girl”. I do love Chicago, though-it’s a great place ot visit and hang out. Lots to do! I saw the Bean for the first time, too! We just drove by Millenium Park-we walked past it briefly, too, but I didn’t get in close enough to get a picture. It is very cool the way the skyline reflects off the thing! Interesting idea.
Anyway, it was Vanessa, Kurt, Dana, and I-we went out there because Teri and Scott, my stepmother and brother, were in town for a school field trip. We only got to see them for a short while, but it was nice to see them anyway! Here they are at a hot dog place we stopped at (you can’t visit Chicago without getting a hot dog):
Teri and Scott
Here’s Kurt, Vanessa, and Dana at the same place:
Kurt, Dana, and Vanessa (look at that preg-o belly!)
Isn’t Dana cute??? She looks just like Vanessa
We did the Chicago essentials: Saw the Picasso, Saw the Bean, Stopped for Hot Dogs, and Stopped at Garrett’s Popcorn. If you’re from out of town and you stop by the city, definitely go to Garrett’s. You won’t ever have popcorn like that ever again!!
One icon of Chicago used to be Marshall Fields, but it was bought out by Macy’s, to the discontent of many Chicagoans. I was one of the ones that didn’t like the idea, but oh well. Marshall Fields used to have lots of decorations for Christmas that were extremely popular. They also had Frango Mints and other important Chicago-born things that just helped this place be the city it is. They still have the signs up-I’m pretty sure it’s because Macy’s doesn’t want Chicago to hate it completely. We’re getting used to the idea that Marshall Fields is no more, but it was a little nice to see the big metal signs all over the building as we walked around where it used to be.
One of the old signs
Note the scary looking guy in the right hand side. I didn’t plan him being there-it just sort of happened LOL!!
Anyway, Kurt, Vanessa, and Dana are on their way over for some pizza and a nice evening meeting the pups. We’ll see what Bandit does!!
Oh-one more thing-it’s snowing like nuts here right now-this is Dana’s first snowfall!! She’s going to get about 6 inches tonight. She’s SO excited!! It’s really cool to see her have so much fun out there I’ll post picture’s of Dana’s first snowfall in a little bit
This week was just nuts. Work was super busy-I hardly had any time to do anything at all. It’s funny that when you’re really busy you seem to get less done than when you’re not busy-even though you’re doing more.
Daisy is still off a little. I rode on Thursday briefly and she didn’t feel right. Whe seemsed better at first, but then became more and more upset as we rode so I stopped. She’s got yesterday and today off again and I’m supposed to do a lesson on Sunday. We’ll see how she’s going then.
I finally met Vanessa’s daughter yesterday-Dana flew in from the Phillipines to meet everyone for the first time in 7 1/2 years! I can’t believe it’s been that long since Vanessa has seen her!! I headed over to their house after taking care of my stuff here yesterday and we went out for dinner. She’s just adorable! Very cute kid-well mannered and sweet. She never complained once about anything. For 10 years old, that’s really good!!
After dinner we split up-I stopped by my office to grab something and Kurt and Vanessa went to her father’s house to drop something off. We were going to head to Kristoffs to play some video games and win prizes for Dana, but it was really getting late so we decided we’d do it a different night.
Dana is a lot like Vanessa-she looks and acts very similar. It’s funny how that worked out with them being so far apart for so long! One more thing-Kurt texted me on the way back from the restaurant-it said (almost exactly) “I asked Dana what she thought of you and she said you’re pretty and nice. And she loves your dimples.” LOL!! Too cute
I just wanted to share with you all the destructive power of a bored dog. A quick note-this couch is 11 years old and is considered the “dog couch” in my house. It was salvaged still, and it is still functional. When humans sit on it, they don’t realize that the cushion is disappearing little by little. After this, it might be more noticable:
Bandit Says we need a new couch
He did this while I was out with some friends from Weight Watchers-we all quit at about the same time, and none of us have gained back anything significant as far as I could see! Not bad
One more thing-This is CeeCee-she greets us everyday at the stable with her nose through the bars-thought it was cute
Cee Cee-"Hi from this side of the bars!"
Daisy had her vet appointment today-It was just for shots, but I stopped by to ask Dr. Mann about her lameness and what supplements he recommended. The supplement I give her is one that’s on his list-Cetyl-HA, so that’s good. When I showed her trot to him, it was fine-typical-as soon as the doctor gets there she’s fine. She does need her teeth floated this year, so if she’s still off at the time I make the appointment for that, he said we’d do a lameness evaluation on her at that time. He gave her the shots after that-first took her Coggins (a test they need before they go on showgrounds, for those who don’t know about horse shots and tests) with no problem. Then he went for the butt. First shot was ok-her eyes got wide as he put the needle in and she got this pained look on her face. Once he was done, she was back to normal but she GLARED at him like “Oh you did NOT just do that to me….” Again, he went back with a bigger syringe for the rest of the shots and as he stuck the needle in, her eyes grew to the size of saucers-you could see the whites-and she started doing the Daisy Dance, going from one foot to the other until the shot was all the way in. I took her back to her stall, again, she walked fine, and she got a peppermint for her troubles
Jake has been the same way. Of course, now that I say it, his leg will probably swell right back up, but the front leg hasn’t swelled since that first night. Maybe it was just a bug bite or a little nick from outside. The back leg hasn’t been too bad, either! The swelling is VERY controlled back there now-it stays pretty low. I’ll probably still bring him in to have a quick check over and have Kristel poke at that spot that was swelling earlier, but so far so good!
Well, I am pretty sure I found another tumor on Jake’s front leg. The thing about mast cell tumors (especially in the limbs, from what I’ve been seeing in Jake) is that they can be tricky to pick out. When I first found the one on Jake’s back leg, it swelled up like a balloon then fizzled out to normal looking within a day. When it went back to normal looking, I couldn’t even feel the little ball in there-it was probably BB sized when it was shrunken down to nothing. The swelling comes and goes at will. If you aren’t there to see the swelling in the limb, I could see how it would be hard to find it at all. The ones on the trunk of his body were different. They didn’t swell up at all and they were all pretty much pea sized or a little bigger. They were IN the skin-the skin didn’t move freely over them. This time I let him out to wait for his dinner and as I went to go let him back in to eat, I noticed that his front leg was swollen between his foot and ankle. It was mostly on the inside. It definitely hurt to the touch, too-the other tumors didn’t seem like they hurt him at all, so that’t the only thing that was different about this one. I’m going to bring him to see the vet this week sometime so we can biopsy it and make sure that’s really what it is and not some kind of injury. I was giving him is allergy medication at the same time that I noticed this swelling, so the fact that it disappeared after a few hours makes me think it’s more likely a mast cell tumor than not.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this kind of tumor, here’s some of what I’ve learned over the past few years:
Mast cells are naturally occuring cells in a normal dog (humans have them too and sometimes we get mast cell cancer as well, but it’s not as common as in dogs and cats). As with any cancer, the cells stop behaving normally and begin overproducing and spreading through the body. Mast cells themselves produce histamines, or allergy causing bits that will initiate an itching or swelling response (or both, or neither). When the tumor forms and several of these mast cells are overproducing and overacting, it can cause a lot of swelling. This swelling will go up and down within hours sometimes. One test to do to test to see if a tumor is a mast cell tumor is to “play with it” a little-if messing with it causes the cells to release the histamines that are trapped inside, the swelling will start up. This isn’t really a good indicator because it doesn’t always work, but if you notice this kind of response in your dog, the chances are higher that you’re dealing with a mast cell tumor.
These tumors respond well to treatment-that’s the good news. Typically, they can remove the tumor along with a few centimeters of tissue around the tumor (called the margins). As long as the margins are clean, or free of any mast cells, then you can be pretty sure that the tumor is gone. If the margins are dirty, that means that there are still cancer cells in the area that were not removed. This means the tumor can grow back. The thing about Jake’s leg and the tumor removed back there is that the margins couldn’t be too big-almost certainly not enough to get all the cancer cells in the area. When the biopsy was complete, they knew for sure the margins were dirty, so the tumor was probably going to grow back. The area still swells, too, because there are still mast cells there producing the histamines and the allergic response. When the margins aren’t clean, all is not lost. These tumors also respond to chemotherapy. This is again where my dilemma comes in. To see if it’s worth it to try the chemotherapy, we need to weigh our options. Jake is about 10, so I figure he has a couple more years if he was cancer free. Since he has cancer, without treatment, he has a few months-we’re guessing about 6 months. With treatment, he could protentially live a year or two more if it works. The treatments don’t sound like they would be too hard on him and they sound cheaper than I initially thought at around 500-1000 for a whole session, so I think I’m going to go ahead. If the tumor I found today (that also disappeared today as far as I can tell) is another mast cell tumor, we will definitely go ahead with the chemo. If it isn’t but his back leg is getting worse, we will also go ahead with the chemo. If it isn’t and the back leg seems the same and responding as desired to the anti-inflammatories we’re giving him, we will wait on the chemo until we see something else pop up.
Those are my thoughts on it for now-we’ll see what happens.
Hi everyone-
I entered some pictures of Daisy in a contest on USEF’s members website. Here’s the links to her pictures-The first one is the one I think we have the best chance with, but I figured I’d put a couple in there If you guys click and vote on any of them, I would really appreciate the help to try to win the contest!!
http://www.clubequestrian.com/photos/view/1/justa_daisy_mae/648.aspx
http://www.clubequestrian.com/photos/view/1/a_little_pck_on_the_nose/856.aspx
http://www.clubequestrian.com/photos/view/1/just_daisy/773.aspx
http://www.clubequestrian.com/photos/view/1/little_miss_attitude/772.aspx
Thanks Everyone!!
