Hey Kathy - here is something that may take your ? away from autoimmune: is the failure of an organism to recognize its own constituent parts as self, which results in an immune response against its own cells and tissues. Any disease that results from such an aberrant immune response is termed an autoimmune disease. Prominent examples include Coeliac disease, diabetes mellitus type 1 (IDDM), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren's syndrome, Churg-Strauss Syndrome, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). See List of autoimmune diseases. I know that that's a lot multi-syllabic words, but basically, it is the body attacking itself, due to the inborn lack of ability to recognize it's own DNA. It is sorta like you kill your son when he comes in your home, cause you don't recognize him. Very sad, very scary. Hope you know I don't think you'd do that, but it is the best way I can explain how Be-Be's own body is attacking itself. ((((Hugs and purrs)))))) Nancy, Midnight, Nicademus, Sylvester and Ozzie!!!

Scoobyruby, a year ago I could have written your post. We were facing a similar decision for my 9 year old greyhound, Voldemort, so I completely understand that your heart is breaking. Voldemort will have been a tripod for a year the first week in August. It has been a wonderful year and I am so glad we had the chance to enjoy it with him. We opted not to do the chemotherapy because statistically it would only extend his life a few months and he would have the treatments and nausea to deal with. He went to bed fine and woke up the next morning with a significant limp which didn't go away. After discussing the options we took him home, tentatively planning to keep him comfortable with pain meds. However, two days later, he and his greyhound pal Blitzen took off on a full-out run as greyhounds love to do. When I caught up with them, they were standing shoulder-to-shoulder and Voldemort wasn't putting any weight on his rear leg. Turns out he had a broken leg and it could not be repaired and the next day we brought home our tripod. After a few days of recovery, he essentially returned, pain free, to his normal activity. It is amazing how well a three legged dog can get around. Often, when people first meet him, it is a few minutes before they even realize he is missing a leg. He was X-rayed for something unrelated and I asked them to do his lungs while he was on the table. Sure enough, he has metastases to his lungs, but for now he is symptom free. He doesn't handle slippery floors very well. A few times he has fallen and couldn't get up without help, so now he is afraid of them and avoids them. Almost our entire downstairs is hardwood floors and hard surface floors in the kitchen. He stops at the door to the kitchen. We also have inexpensive runners from Home Depot crisscrossing the floors. I felt that you needed to hear a positive experience with amputation. As humans, we have to get over a psychological resistance to the whole idea, because it is so much more significant in two legged animals. A dog probably doesn't care if he has three legs as long as he has his human/animal pack around him, regular meals, a soft bed, tummy rubs, etc. I am grateful that we have had this year to love him and spoil him and we will continue to as long as he is enjoying life.

I hesitated a couple of days before posting this, because it's a little bit of a wet blanket (not much, though). One of my dogs had itching problems that we were first told were seasonal. They started out fairly minor but got worse and lasted for longer each year, till she was scratching all the time, all year. Nothing helped but prednisone shots, and even those didn't last long. She was miserable, and none of the vets we took her to knew what was causing it. This went on for about ten years. We finally found out about the terrible trinity of dog allergens: wheat, corn, and soy. We removed all of those from her diet, and within two months the itching stopped completely. I mention this because I used to make all sorts of treats using wheat flour (also cornmeal), which is what the standard recipes call for. If you simply tweak them and use rye flour instead of wheat, the treats will be just as good (maybe not to people, but the dogs never seem to mind!), and you won't risk creating allergic symptoms, like itching, hair loss, hot spots, dull coat, etc. Not all dogs have a bad reaction, but if yours does, it's a very easy fix.

Our 70 pound 6 y/o chocolate lab/husky mix is fed raw. Mostly chicken parts and beef meaty bones, like soup bones with some other bones like marrow for gnawing. We'll give him a breast, or a couple of thighs or about 4 drumsticks or wings if it's chicken. We just kind of eyeball it and go with what feels right. He also helps with table scraps and I'll give him a spoon of coconut oil a couple times a week... LOVES that. His teeth are gorgeous, no tartar at all. Beautiful choppers on that boy! One thing we read that seemed to make sense was that wild dogs don't get to eat everyday, they feast when they have a kill and then may go for days without eating again. Anyway, the thought was that a fast one day a week was good for them. Gotta say that Rummy (dog) is not a big fan of this idea, lol. Here he is fwiw: