A Farewell to Fletcher

Well, it’s as we feared. Our sweet Fletch lost his fight with cancer. We had to put him to sleep yesterday afternoon. The cancer came back faster and stronger, and he went from symptom-free fifteen days ago to completely gone. The oncologist let us be in the room with him during the end, and he just drifted off to sleep, with me cradling his head and Marissa holding his paw. It’s for the best, I know, but it was so hard to say goodbye to my little pal. I really hoped we had had more time, that he would have been able to see another Halloween, and be in another family Christmas card with the silly dog-pun, but it wasn’t to be. I cherish the time I had with him, and wouldn’t trade a second of it. The pain of loss is still fresh, but I look forward to the time when the memory makes me smile instead of tear up. He truly was this man’s best friend, and he will be sorely missed.

Last night, our other greyhound, Addie, really stepped it up around the Denehy house. She can tell something is wrong, and she misses her brother, but she was extra sweet and attentive to Marissa and me during a pretty rough night. We took her to the Clifton Park by our house to enjoy the beautiful fall afternoon, and she was a perfect lady. She ran through the leaves with me on her leash, discovered ducks for the first time with Marissa (they sounded just like her toys), and was super tolerant of all the hugs we subjected her to. We let her sleep on the bed and she spent the entire night curled up right at our feet, where Fletch used to sleep when we first got him (we had to shoo him off the bed when he would steal the covers – he was kind of a jerk like that sometimes). It was really unexpected, and it helped make the pain of losing him just a little bit less intense.

To everyone who gave to help us pay for his treatment, or sent us your well wishes and advice, we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We didn’t have long with Fletch on three legs, but I would do it all over again if I could. Those two extra months with my special little guy were something I will treasure always, and we had some great times until the end. I hope someday we can repay your kindness. Truly, truly thank you.

-Sam

New Developments

It's with a heavy heart that I report that Fletch is not doing too well. The last month or so has been great. He's been taking the stairs and even keeping up with his sister while playing in the yard. However, on October 3rd, I took him into the vet for his 2nd chemo treatment and at the time we noticed a small lump around his incision site and it seemed painful to him. The oncologist took some fluid from it which appeared to be a clearer bloody substance. She diagnosed it as a seroma which is a common side effect to extensive surgeries where a lot of tissue is tampered with and/or removed. She recommended that we treat it with warm compresses and continue his pain and anti-inflammatory meds. The seroma got worse as the days went on and about a week later, another seroma began to form a few inches above the first.

Yesterday, Fletch was clearly in a lot of pain. His seromas have grown to the size of baseballs and are very sensitive to the touch. Additionally, Fletcher is having trouble getting up and laying down without jostling them and he often cries out or whines. So last night, Sam took Fletch to the emergency vet. The emergency vet pulled more fluid from them, which this time came out as just blood, which basically means these masses are not seromas as originally thought.It's very likely that Fletch's cancer has metastasized in his soft tissues and that is what is causing his pain and swelling.

The oncologist is out until Tuesday so we're going back in to see her. At this time, we don't know what this means. We can't really do anything but keep him comfortable until Tuesday.

We'll keep you all updated via the blog as we know more, but for the time being, please keep Fletch in your thoughts.

Fletch is Famous!

Just a short update: Fletch was recently on the news! We didn't get to see it because I suspect some intern forgot to email us to tell us about it. Our local morning news show on KSDK has a segment around 6:20 in the morning called "Sammy's Stars". I don't know who Sammy is or the origins of the segment, but basically, it's a short segment where they highlight a local pet. They usually give his name, his age, his interests, and why his owner feels he's a star. I submitted Fletch for consideration right after we found out about the osteo in a hope of bringing awareness to Fletch's situation and bringing people to the blog to read his story. They featured Fletch on September 5th. The link below takes you to the KSDK site.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=336391

On another note: Fletch gets his sutures out today! As long as there's no infection or nothing abnormal, he'll likely also get his first round of chemo! Please keep Fletch in your thoughts today. Though he has gotten a lot better, he's not out of the woods yet.

Again, we appreciate all your kind thoughts and words. We couldn't have gotten through this without the support of our amazing friends and family!

New Improvements!

Fletch and dad out in the backyard for the first time since the surgery!

We’ve had a couple of milestones the last few days.

First and foremost, Addie got to come home on Sunday after three days in ICU at the vet hospital. She is as wiggly as ever and is doing really well. We have to give her some medication to help protect her stomach for another 10 days, but after that, she should be good as new with no lasting issues. The vet said that her kidney functions wear normal and all her blood levels were where they needed to be. She even suspected that Addie ate the pills closer to when Sam and I got home in the evening, rather than closer to when we left for work that morning, so she’s confident that we caught it quick enough and got it all flushed out of her system.

As for Fletch, he conquered the back stairs for the first time! We’ve been taking him out on the leash out the front door because there’s really only one step for him to deal with. Over the weekend, he’s shown considerable improvement and mobility on his front leg and we’ve been walking him a little further each day, so on Saturday, Sam decided to see how he’d do going up the stairs in the back (there are about 8 from the ground to the back porch). He conquered them like a champ! It was like he still had all four legs again. The next time we took him out, we decided to let him outside the in back to see if going down the stairs was as easy as going up. Before we even had a chance to kind of coax him and encourage him, he was already down, no problems at all.

We’re very excited about these promising improvements with Fletch. We’re so glad that he’s been able to adapt to this new life in a fairly seamless way.

He goes in on Wednesday to have his sutures out and as long as there is no infection or other cause for concerns, he will likely start chemotherapy that day. From what I read, we can expect a few hours of treatment and monitoring on the first trip. He’ll likely have some fatigue and could get nauseated, but we will be able to get some meds to help with that and it shouldn’t affect him too bad. We’re very anxious to start this next level of treatment so that Fletcher can get that much closer to being happy and healthy.

Stay tuned for an update on Wednesday after the vet visit!

More bad news...

Addie after we first got her

So it’s been an especially exhausting and challenging month. With Fletcher being diagnosed, Sam and I have put a majority of our energy into making sure that he’s comfortable and that his pain is well managed. He’s been doing a lot better and we’re so thankful to all of you for your continued thoughts and support.

On Labor Day, we got a very unwelcome surprise when a neighbor stopped by to let us know that my car had been broken into overnight. The thief broke out the entire back passenger window and caused some damage to the frame. Luckily, the only thing they got away with was an AT&T router that had been mailed to us in error. AT&T had no record they’d sent it to us and asked that we just drop it off at a UPS Store to send it back, so I had it in my car to drop off when I got a chance. I never got the chance. So we’re lucky in that no further damage was caused and nothing of more value was stolen, but unfortunately, we have to have the car in the shop a few days to have that fixed.

As if our luck couldn’t get any worse, yesterday, we came home from work to Fletcher’s pill bottles all on the floor, one of which was completely chewed through and all the pills missing. The medication is called Rimadyl, which is a mild pain reliever and anti-inflammatory. Our regular vet had given us a large bottle when Fletch was first diagnosed because, if we’d decided to take the “keep him comfortable” route of treatment instead of the amputation, he would have needed quite a bit of the Rimadyl. We’d gone through a fair amount of the bottle, but Fletch’s dosage was half of a pill every twelve hours. We estimated that 15 or so pills were missing.

Normally, we’d been keeping the pills on a high shelf near the kitchen and the areas were blocked off from the dogs during the day. Yesterday, Sam and I were running late for work, so after giving Fletch his morning medication, we just put the pills in the middle of the dining room table out of reach. A few months back, Addie started chewing up things, including the TV remotes, so we’d gotten into the habit of putting the remotes in the center of the dining room table out of reach and we didn’t have any more problems with it. It would never have crossed our minds that the pills would be reached in the center of the table. Addie would have had to have jumped onto the table to get close to them and she still would have had to use some pretty impressive and persistent reaching tactics to be able to get a hold of the pill bottle. So you can imagine our shock when we realized what she had done. We immediately called the vet we’d been taking Fletch to as they also have a 24 hour emergency clinic. They said that the Rimadyl would start to cause kidney failure, but we likely wouldn’t notice symptoms until the 2^nd or 3^rd day, but that they could start treatment on Addie that would limit the effects of the medication on her system and save her life.

We were at the vet in half an hour. Addie will have to stay hospitalized for about 3 days with constant fluids through an IV and be given activated charcoal and other medications all while they monitor her kidney levels and functions. The treatment will set us back another $1000 or so, but without it, Addie would have died from kidney failure.

Please keep our little greyhound family in your thoughts. It’s been an incredibly rough month and I’m not sure how much more bad luck Sam and I can take. The good news is that if bad luck comes in threes, then we should be done, but we’re still not buying a lottery ticket any time soon.

Doing A Little Better Everyday!

The past couple of days have been challenging. On top of having to keep track of Fletch's cocktail of medication, we've also been dealing with some of the side effects of those medications. For the most part, the pills just kind of drug him and make him groggy, but there's always a period a few hours after taking them where Fletch gets very restless. He's up, he's down, he's up, he's down, he's wandering aimlessly, he's whining for no apparent reason, he stares off into the distance, he stumbles and falls over, and worst of all, he sometimes has trouble with holding his bladder. Luckily, we've been able to hang out with him a lot more over this long weekend and take him out a lot more. 

But every day gets better and better. The first day we brought him home was a nightmare. We didn't know what to do when he whined, we didn't know what to expect as far as side effects and we didn't know how to handle how odd he was acting. The next day, we got a little better at reading him and learned a little bit more about his needs. It's been a steady learning experience for us and we've been able to see how much better Fletch feels every day, so that's been really reassuring. 

Today, Fletch is walking pretty good. He's even doing pretty well on the hardwood floors. As you can see from the picture, things are slowly getting back to normal. Addie is still hogging the chair even though we keep telling Fletch he can't get into the chair quite yet. We still have to keep him confined to the living/dining room, but he's mastering the area pretty well. We're hopeful that in a few more days, he'll be less shaky and be able to walk a little bit further. He's even managing the two stairs that lead from the front porch to the yard pretty well without assistance. 

It's been tough and a little aggravating, but we're getting there. Fletch goes in for his first consultation for chemo on the 12th, so we'll keep you all posted about that as well.

Finally, the sincerest thank you to everyone who has donated money for Fletcher's treatment. It's really helped out a lot and we don't know what we would do without all the kind and thoughtful people around us. 

Fletch hanging out with dad!

Bringing Fletch Home

Well, we got to bring Fletch home yesterday. The drainage was all normal and he was walking a little better. Sam and I had a consultation with a vet tech before we took him home. They armed us with Rimadyl (anti-imflammatory), a half tablet to be taken every 12 hours with food; Tramadol (pain killer), 1 tablet to be taken every 8 hours; Cephalexin (antibiotic), 1 tablet to be taken every 8 hours until they're gone; Acepromazine (tranquilizer), 1/2 tablet to be taken up to 3 times a day to help him mellow out and rest, UNLESS he's already taken a Tramadol, in which case, we can only give him a 1/4 tablet; and aminocaproic acid (to help with clotting), 1 mL to be given every 8 hours for the next 5 days.

So we have our work cut out for us. Luckily, with the long, rainy weekend ahead, we'll be able to stay on top of this.

Last night, Sam and I decided it would be best to sleep downstairs with Fletch. He's been feeling very attention deprived and he takes comfort knowing we're close. So we gathered all three of his massive dog beds together, grabbed pillows and comforters and made an entire spread in the living room floor. Fletch is still getting used to only having the one leg in front, so he's taken a few nosedives when he loses his balance, so we're definitely glad we had all the soft blankets and pillows around so he doesn't hurt himself.

I ended up sleeping on a dog bed last night...they're surprisingly comfortable! However, it was not a perfect restful night. We tranquilized Fletch so that he could sleep easily and be less restless. That worked out really well at first. Around 2:30AM, Fletch bolted awake and started to whine. I was able to get him to lay down again, but he was not still. Every couple of seconds he would adjust his head or flop into another position or rub his wet nose up my cheek. So for the next two hours, I laid awake, just scratching his neck, which was the only thing that kept him calm. That's when Sam woke up. I told him it was his turn, which he was okay with, but I was finally able to get another hour or so of sleep before we had to get up for work.

Today has been much of the same as last night. Fletch is still pretty restless and wanting attention. We're working on keeping him laying down and resting, but he'd rather be on his feet and following us all over the house, which has made things a little frustrating, but we know it's just a few more days of this and he'll start feeling a lot better. The only concerns we've had today is that his urine is a little brown. I called the vet who talked with the surgeon and they think that since he's eating and drinking, it's probably just his system still flushing out and breaking down all the extra blood from the extensive bruising. If it starts to get better by tomorrow, we'll leave it. If it gets worse or stays the same, we'll take him back to make sure his blood levels are okay.

I think that's all for now. I'll try to update again tomorrow or the next day!

Day One: Recovery

Hey everyone! We got a call this morning with an update on Fletch. He did well overnight and was up and walking around a little and eating some. However, he had some drainage at his incision this morning and the vet wants to monitor that, so they decided to keep him another night, but they did say we could go see him today! 

Based on the call from the vet tech, we were expecting Fletch to walk into the visiting room to see us, but when we arrived, they told us that he'd been very anxious, whiny, and restless in the afternoon and he needed his rest, so they sedated him prior to our arrival and the techs had to carry him into the room. 

Needless to say, this made me a quite emotional; mostly because I was a little shocked as I was expecting to see him up and around as opposed to laying so helpless on a blanket. But he had his eyes open and it was clear that he knew who we were. 

As you can see from the picture, they have him wrapped up pretty tight around the incision. What the picture doesn't show is how bruised he is all up and down his body. Obviously, with this sort of trauma, there's going to be bruising and swelling and we're told greyhounds bruise especially bad. His chest, stomach, and groin area are a deep reddish-purple and he's got the same color bruising down his legs and especially around the spot where they had the IV. This is all normal and just like any bruise, will go away with time. The whole front right side of his body was shaved, but the hair will grow back. 

We had a nice visit of hugs and kisses and soothing talk. We went prepared with a few chicken treats--made by his great aunts Donna and Rhonda--and some bread, but he wasn't able to eat anything while were there, but Sam got the bread bag out of his pocket at one point and Fletch's eyes and ears darted up toward the sound, so that was really comforting to see. Basically, the drugs are making him groggy, but we definitely saw a few characteristics of his personality shine through. 

We'll get another update tomorrow morning and will hopefully be able to take him home in the evening. 
As always, we'll keep you all posted as Fletch works toward recovery and the start of chemotherapy in a few weeks.

Out of Surgery!!

Hey all, just a quick update. Fletch's surgery was today and all went well. The surgeon just called and said that Fletcher did well and once getting in there, he still felt we were going about this the right way. The surgeon said they were utilizing aminocaproic acid to help Fletch clot and everything looks good there as well. They are going to keep him overnight in a sort of puppy coma. He's not under anesthesia anymore, but he's not really awake either, just heavily sedated to give his body time to heal without interruption. 

We'll get a call tomorrow to go over how he's doing and hopefully discuss discharging him so we can bring him home tomorrow evening! We're so excited to see our boy! Addie is excited too! She's been a little whiny tonight, missing her big brother.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts. The amazing support we've received is more than we could have ever hoped for. It's truly appreciated from the bottom of our hearts!

-Marissa and Sam

Pre-Surgery Message from Sam

Hello all! This is Sam, Fletch’s dad, doing an update on the Save Fletcher blog!

 

First, I just wanted to thank everyone for their support through this whole ordeal, the outpouring of messages on facebook and re-posting of our blog has really kept Marissa and I strong for our little trooper. And several generous donations have already helped us toward paying his crazy vet bills – for everyone who has given to help us save our hound, you have my sincerest thanks. You are truly wonderful people and I hope we can repay your kindness one day.

 

I thought I’d share a fun moment from the last few days. Fletch is a weird little guy, and likes nothing more than the “treat” of a slice of bread. Every time I have made a sandwich over the last two years, Fletcher would sprint into the kitchen and lie down, expectantly waiting for his favorite treat. One time he actually stole the peanut butter sandwich from right out of my hand when I wasn’t paying attention, but it was so funny I couldn’t even get mad at him (even when he spit it out a few seconds later – he doesn’t like peanut butter)!

 

Well, he’s not feeling the best with his bad leg and all, but last night I was moving the bread in the fridge, and he must’ve heard the bag crinkling or something. Because he popped up from his dog bed in the living room and hopped all the way to the kitchen, just like he used to. It was great to see him still so excited about his favorite treat. He’s still our little guy!

 

Fletcher’s surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning, we’ll keep you posted with how he does.

Fletcher's History

Fletcher's amputation appointment is set for this Tuesday, the 28th. We'll be dropping him off in the early morning, he'll have surgery sometime that day and will have to stay overnight, but he should be able to come home by the following afternoon. We know this is going to take away the pain he's feeling.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share some bits about Fletcher's life before we got him. He hasn't always had the greatest of owners and it's amazing to us that he's as good a dog as he is. 

Fletch was born on the track, but to an unregistered litter. Since the trackmasters are interested in pedigree and documentation and winning lineage, they were not interested in Fletcher, so he was given up as a pup for a fair price to a man who turned out to be an animal hoarder. He was kept in a wooden kennel that was too small for him. He tried to chew through it, which is why his front teeth are jagged and broken to this day. About a year or so later, the cops apparently came to bust the man for animal hoarding and it's our understanding that the man committed suicide right there in front of the cops...and Fletch. 

From there, he was given to a foster group and shuffled around to foster families. A few months later, he was adopted by a guy who probably took decent care of him. He might even be the one responsible for teaching Fletch to lay down on command and jump up in anticipation when he hears a bread bag being opened, hoping he'll be tossed a piece. However, the guy eventually got a girlfriend who was not Fletch's biggest fan. One day, the girlfriend decided that in an effort to portray that he needed to chose between her and Fletch, she chose for him and dropped Fletch off at the Humane Society. And the guy never came back to claim him. Being a full blood greyhound, the Humane Society knew that the rescue groups would want to be notified as they hold a sort of jurisdiction over this breed. He was picked up by Rescued Racers and one of the ladies active in the group is the one who actually gave him the name Fletch. She said he just looked like a Fletch. We're unsure what he was called prior to this. 

We know he went to another guy who had to give him up because his fiance was allergic and he went to another family who had small children and his size compared to the kids made the wife nervous, so he's been shuffled around quite a bit. But not anymore.

When Sam and I decided to adopt a grey, we had been searching Rescued Racers website when we came across the bio for Fletch. He seemed like the perfect dog, so we set up an appointment to go meet him and his foster dad. We hung out with Fletch for about an hour and by that point, our minds were made up and we started the adoption process as soon as we got home. Fletch was delivered to us the following weekend and it's been an on-going love affair ever since. Our world has revolved around him and I don't know that any decision we've made in the last two years hasn't involved him in some way. Even our decision to buy a house (he would get anxious with the constant coming and going of other tenants in the apartment building) and get another dog (he seemed lonely during our 8 hours at work) had a lot to do with Fletcher's well-being and comfort.

And we're not stopping yet. Fletch is an amazing animal who has somehow managed to keep a fantastic spirit and personality throughout his life even though he's witnessed and lived through some horrific and saddening experiences. He's worth it all. We love him so much!

P.S. Did I also mention that Fletch is Team Edward??

Background

About three weeks ago, our 9 year old greyhound (Fletcher) started to exhibit a slight limp, favoring his right front leg. We felt around on it and he didn’t give any indication that it hurt anywhere on the leg or on his pads, so we assumed he just tweaked it or sprained it a little while running around the yard with his 3 ½ year old greyhound sister, Addie. At the time,  Sam and I were heading out of town to attend a wedding for a week and we left Fletch with friends. They said that he seemed to get better the first few days, but by the end of the week, he was limping pretty bad and actually dragging the leg; putting no weight on it. We took him to the vet that night.

 

The vet took x-rays, but between three vets at the clinic, they could not find any reason he would be limping. Not even arthritis. They prescribed Rimadyl to help with inflammation and gave us a two week supply, stating that they’d ruled out anything serious and it was probably just a little muscle inflammation and he’d bounce back. He never did. With the Rimadyl, he did start to put a little more weight on the leg, but he was not really showing any true signs of improvement. We were 3 days shy of finishing the supply of Rimadyl when we decided to take him to the vet again. We had heard that if it was a muscle or ligament issue, a cortisone shot might be beneficial to aid in the healing process, so we wanted to discuss that option with the vet. On that visit, the vet agreed that that might be an appropriate next step, but she wanted to be absolutely sure all the Rimadyl was out of Fletch’s system first, so we set up an appointment for a few days later. When we went in, they decided to do another x-ray as Fletch seemed to be less comfortable off the Rimadyl and there was an increase in swelling around his shoulder. When they took the x-ray again, they noticed the bone was starting to be eaten away and diagnosed our Fletcher with osteosarcoma. 

We’re obviously devastated. To keep Fletcher alive, the best option is to amputate his entire right front leg and to start a regimen of chemotherapy. The expenses involved are of great concern. We’re both recent college graduates, planning a wedding/honeymoon, and have monthly expenses on our home, cars, etc, but we're trying to do all we can for our little guy!

 

Sam and I truly appreciate you taking the time to read this blog and all the well wishes we've received so far. We are going to add a PayPal button to the site so that anyone willing and able to help us out with the expenses of Fletcher's amputation and treatment can do so. Our address is also at the bottom if you'd rather send a check. Every little bit helps and it's going to a more than worthy cause. Anything we receive will go directly to Fletch's treatment and recovery. In the event that we receive above and beyond what is needed for his care, 100% of the surplus will be donated to Rescued Racers, the rescue group that we got Fletcher from.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please keep Fletcher in your thoughts!

Love,

Sam, Marissa, Fletcher, and Addie

Fletcher's Address:

6206 Hoffman Ave

Saint Louis, MO 63139