Meet Heidi. The sweetest, kindest, gentlest dog I have ever had the pleasure of sharing my life with. After years of persuasion the OH agreed that Meg, our collie x spaniel, could have a buddy. In November 2008, Heidi came into our home & tiptoed into everyone’s heart. We knew that she had cancer & it was made clear to us by the rescue http://www.greenacresanimalrescue.co.uk/index.htm that the prognosis was not good; she had a large, hard mass on her throat & a growth on one of her mammary glands the size of an egg. Greenacres were wonderful, having Heidi’s best interests at heart & wanted somewhere for her to see her last days out. Blood tests indicated that the liver was involved (i.e. secondaries).
We were referred to a wonderful holistic vet, Barbara Jones of Oakwood Vets, Oswestry http://www.vetholistic.co.uk/ for homeopathic & herbal treatment as operating had been ruled out & chemo was out of the question (why add toxic drugs to an already weakened animal?). You will pardon me for being a little evangelical, but Barbara is a marvel. Quiet & unassuming, very knowledgeable & SO caring; our various crises have been handled calmly & appropriately. I will continue to be effusive later!
We had already put Heidi onto as natural a diet as she could handle & Barbara selected a variety of herbs & supplements to support her battered immune system. At 12 years old, we have no idea how long she’s been “lumpy”. The principle being worked on is that the immune system is designed to heal the body; boost this system & let it tackle the cancer in the best way it can, without the side-effects, without the attendant worry & is it true that your dog is radioactive whilst being treated with chemo? Someone once said, “You’ve got to be healthy to get well.”
Over Christmas she lost most of her fur. Her heart rate was generally around 160 & breathing was about 60 per minute. Her preferred place to sleep – on the cold floor tiles (they really aren’t our choice!) or on her cool bed, her eyes were bulgy, she was restless & easily disturbed, but although she was eating over 1.5 lbs of veg (cooked & raw) & 1lb of cooked chicken A DAY she struggled to maintain her weight at 12.5 kg.
Blood tests revealed her TSH was off the scale – she was hyperthyroid. This condition is generally diagnosed in cats, but I wonder how many dogs have this condition but it remains undiagnosed as its rarity means it’s not being looked for? Further homeopathic remedies were added to her regime & it took a couple of months to find the appropriate dosage for Heidi but we saw a significant reduction in her heart “episodes”. We began to query whether the growth on her neck was a goitre rather than cancer.
After discussion with Barbara, she agreed that an operation could be beneficial & it was booked for Thursday 12th March (we were offered Friday 13th, but although I’m not massively superstitious, I decided to go for the Thursday).
Earlier this year I contacted a group of my friends to form “Team Heidi” who could be called on at times of need to send her their love, healing, prayers or would light a candle & offer up a blessing or communicate with her -whatever they felt comfortable with. The groups strength has made such a difference to Heidi & I have known that on the days I have little to offer that they were there. Only two of the team has met Heidi but everyone has given freely. We have also received many, many e-mails from wonderful “customers” (it seems inappropriate to call you this now, hence the comas) who have added love, healing & prayers to help this little collie get through a big operation. I have replied to as many as I could, but please accept my apology if you haven’t heard back from me yet.
With all this wonderful energy surrounding Heidi, Chris, Meg, the veterinary team & me, she had her op on Thursday. It turned out to be more complicated than first thought as the tumour had wrapped itself around the larynx & had calcified in the centre. It was about the size of a satsuma. Barbara took as much as she dared, removing some of the invaded muscle, some small bones either side of the larynx & scraped what she could away from the larynx itself. I believe if she’d known what was involved she may not have tackled it, but because the hardened part was pressing on the larynx, with hindsight we can say that it was absolutely the right thing to do.
Evangelising alert – not only is Barbara wonderful, but she has the best team of vet nurses you could ever wish to assemble. The dream team maybe? Some of them have been on TTouch workshops & heard me waxing lyrical about the effectiveness of earwork, especially post-operatively & I believe it was Heather who left Heidi’s ears out from the bandaging so I could work on them while she was recovering. When I took the dressing off later there wasn’t a single strand of fur in the tape – how’s that for attention to detail?
Maria von Trapp at Christmas?