Lucas

Lucas - This dear old chap arrived at Tailends on Sunday 3rd December 2006. He is a large 13 yr old white and black greyhound with various health problems. He has no teeth, limited eyesight and poor hearing but he is a dear old boy who loves his walks and is very happy to be in a loving home after all he has been through in recent weeks. Our dear friend Mark, who helps Northants Greyhound Rescue, kindly drove to Worcester to collect him from the kennels where he was being kept. We were asked to take Lucas by a lady who had been involved in his care since he became homeless. Sadly his elderly owner had become unable to cope with looking after a dog. Lucas had been kept in a flat and was never taken out to relieve himself so the situation was very bad for both dog and owner. Eventually the council became involved and Lucas was put into kennels while the flat was sorted out and his future was decided. Tailends agreed to take Lucas and immediately contacted Mark to see if he could help by bringing him down to us as soon as possible. We were worried as we had been informed that Lucas had slipped on his own urine on the concrete floor of the kennel and sprained his hock just a week previously. He was then put into a crate for his own safety, though it was only big enough for him to stand up and not ideal for him to be contained in for long periods. Lucas was rather unsettled for the first 24 hours but then began to settle down and relax here with his new mum and canine friends. He enjoys his food though he can only eat small amounts at a time. Today (December 5th) I took him to the vet along with a recent urine sample. It was found to contain blood and glucose so it was decided to take some blood for further tests. Hopefully any problems can be resolved with antibiotics or simple treatment. Sadly blood tests showed that Lucas has very advanced kidney failure. I am taking him on Wednesday (13th Dec) for a scan to find out if it just an old age thing or if there is a tumour present. Fingers crossed!!!

Thankfully there was no sign of a tumour and his urine test was much improved. We will continue with the special renal support diet and hope he will be at Tailends for many months to come. We will, of course, continue to monitor the situation with blood tests every few months.

Lucas was fine on the morning of March 8th, eating his breakfast as usual and then going off to lie in a sunny spot in the hall. During the afternoon I became aware that all was not well. He was reluctant to go for his walk and was not interested in eating. His breathing was also laboured so I decided to take him to the vet when Clegg was collected. A blood test was done but it revealed very little. In fact the readings showed that his kidney failure was slightly improved from when he came. During the night he became very ill and I decided to give him a sedative which enabled him to sleep peacefully until morning. I rang the vet and arranged to take him to the hospital for X-rays to find out what was going on in his chest. There were two possibilities - either he had a chest infection which could be dealt with by putting him on a drip and giving him treatment or something nastier was going on. Alison rang me later to advise that his chest was full of fluid and the heart could not even be seen on the X-ray. She had extracted a sample of the fluid and it was full of Leucocytes which indicated that he had a malignant tumour. There was nothing I could do but let her help our dear old chap leave his diseased body. Lucas was only here for three short months but he was the kindest, most gentle greyhound who was very much loved. Farewell my dear old boy - until we meet again. We are so grateful and privileged that we shared some time together when you needed us.