Comments for Tales of a Minnesota Geek

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Pete

Pete — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:28:23 +0000

Karen,

I’m so sorry to hear about your dog. I don’t have any knowledge of the chemotherapy — I’ve not put my dog through it. After talking it over with my vet, we decided together that it wasn’t a good choice. It would make him very sick and probably only buy us a few extra weeks of time and most of that, he would be sick. I would rather that he lived a shorter life, but not be sick for much of it than have him live a longer life, but be miserable during most of it.

We chose to simply have our dog’s toe amputated and do no further cancer treatment. He recovered very quickly from the surgery and the pain of the tumor in his toe was gone. He was a much happier dog after his cancerous toe was gone. We had six more glorious weeks with him where he was happy and healthy. Ultimately, after six weeks, he died of something completely unrelated to his cancer. His last six weeks with us were good ones though. His last day on Earth was spent playing frisbee, swimming, and chasing the other dogs.

My thoughts and prayers are with you in this tough time.

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Karen Berning

Karen Berning — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:13:28 +0000

My dogs name is Jake. He is an 8 yr odl standard poodle. He is the love of my life. I just found out April 30th that the lump taken off his right paw was melanoma. The now want to take the toe off which I know has to happen. In fact it is being take off tomorrow May 7th. They then want to start chemo for 5 weeks. The vet said it would make him sick and there no quarantee that the chemo would kill the cancer. I am asking for any help from those that experienced this. I do not want my beloved pet to suffer if it is all for nothing and he could enjoy his last days in not so much misery. He is a loving dog and as of now seems very happy. I know when they take the toe off his will be in pain, but he has had other problems that he bounces right back. It is the chemo that scares me. Please give me your comments on this if you have any knowledge of chemo or your pet has went through it. Thank you so much. Karen Berning

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Janet

Janet — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:11:42 +0000

My doberman, Fausto..had one toe removed..osteo sarcoma..and now his other inner toe on the same foot is going to be removed tomorrow..we discovered we have arsenic in our water..I feed him fresh meat and chicken and very high end food..I checked with the breeder .. she has had cancer in her line but not this type which makes me wonder about the water..it is very upsetting because we love him like a child..he is such a sweet guy..hate to see him in pain.

Janet Hannsz

Comment on Joy Gets Pneumonia by Gary H-S

Gary H-S — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:11:53 +0000

So sorry to read of this situation, Pete, I’ll light a few candles. The other day, our little guy got into a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and required emergency medical care. Thankfully, he’s on the mend … Here’s hoping the same for Joy.

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Pete

Pete — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:02:15 +0000

Lorraine,

Best of luck to you and Maybel. Emmet survived his surgery just fine and he never missed his cancerous toe. In fact, he was running and playing again within a week of the surgery.

Sadly, his life ended just a few short weeks later of a medical condition that was unrelated to his cancer – but I’m still glad we had the surgery done.

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Lorraine Hutchings

Lorraine Hutchings — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:58:07 +0000

Maybel is a 12.5 year old GSD who has now been diagnosed with cancer in her toe on her front left leg. We were advised that this was a nail bed infection and had been given antibiotics, which took some of the swelling down, but after three days of finishing these tablets I noticed that she had been licking her foot making it very sore.

I took her back to the vets who took did a biopsy and after a week the results came back positive. She is having this toe amputated Friday 5th Nov 09 and I am so worried. I hope that when they have done this op that she is clear but in my heart I know this has gone somewhere else, so I will take very good care of my baby.

Fingers crossed that we have all got this cancer at bay and in time, and we all can sewe our dogs grow old or older GOOD LUCK EVERYONE

Comment on links for 2009-08-10 by Charles Edge

Charles Edge — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:32:12 +0000

Glad you like the comic!

Comment on St. Croix Horse and Carriage Sleigh Festival by Pat B

Pat B — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:17:52 +0000

Do you know if they are having a 2009 Sleigh Festival? If so, what is the date? Thanks!

Comment on Who knew? Cancer of the Toe in Dogs by Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:00:11 +0000

Our dog Sandy (a Welsh Terrier) just had a malignant melanoma removed from his right front leg Monday (10/13). Sandy is only 7. We noticed the growth fairly quickly so we are hoping we caught it early. We are having his chest x-rayed today and blood samples. We’ll take it to an oncologist Wednesday. We’ll see what the prognosis is.
We agree with you that radical treatment to prolong life for a few months would not be in the best interests of the dog. If it has not spread we will probably do the radiation to try to make sure it is contained if he could live (healthy and happy) for a few more years.
Good luck to Emmet. Our pets are family, it is extremely difficult.

Comment on When is the last time you backed up your stuff? by Brian

Brian — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:56:31 +0000

I hear you on this one Pete. Backing up is almost part of my religion now. I think I’m almost at the point of overkill, but stories like yours remind me you can never backup too much!

I’ll look for you online soon…I’d love to hook up sometime so you can meet Cam. And we gotta do our “Five Favorites” podcast series soon dude! Also got job news.

Brian