Better Than Pam Mixture that works wonderfully-- 1/2 c solid shortening 1/2 c vegetable oil 1/2 c flour Beat first two ingredients till fluffy like marshmallow whip. Beat in flour. Store in a sealed container at room temperature. If it separates, stir again.

Hi guys, thanks for asking!!! As you know she had her surgery on Good Friday. She was coming along great and enjoying eating solid food. This lasted for about a week. They noticed that her urine in her catheter was cloudy and had some stuff in it, so it seems that her organs are Communicating again, and her bladder might have developed a leak. They promptly hooked her back on iv....feeding her through the tube. The test is that if her urine runs clear, then she was definitely getting solids from food in her UI tract. We were hoping it would run cloudy, but it's clearish again. They did a scope on her bladder and she does have a hole in it again. They are keeping her on iv's to see if it does heal on it's own with time. If not, they'll do surgery and yank the damned thing out. I almost wish they'd do it anyway, instead of waiting. She was so much better and stronger when she was eating. I was so excited and happy after Easter weekend. One thing that Wally and I have noticed is she has nausea all the time (they put gravol in her iv). When she was eating, she didn't have that. The doctor was in to see her last nite. He cut a bunch of snips of stuff when she had her surgery and the initial results showed that they were all benign. However, last nite, he said the pathologists are still combing the tests, and they did find a small, minute slow-growing cancer. He said it's nothing to be alarmed about at all. So, she's back to where she was prior to having surgery, hooked up to iv's and getting up out of bed daily to do a little bit of shuffling with a walker and 2 nurses. Nothing major, not even around the room. She hasn't walked for so long, that she's terrified of falling. She literally has terror in her eyes when the bed rails come down and she has to stand. I keep reassuring her that the nurses and physio nurses are there to help her and won't let her fall. She keeps telling herself that, she just has to tell her legs that. She's planning Father's Day (for us). Tells me where things are, and don't forget to....... etc etc. So she'll have the menu planned and everything organized from her hospital bed, well in advance. lol She really does thank you for your wishes and good thoughts. I keep telling her that you are asking about her and of course she has the cards that you sent.

I just got home. They did a chest x-ray and were hoping to be able to take the ventilation/suction tube out of her throat. They decided to keep it in another day. She picked up a bug, that's supposedly not hurtful to her, but contagious to the other patients, so she's in isolation. We have to gown up to see her. She wants to talk so bad and, is very thirsty. She put a sponge swab in her mouth for her to suck on. She doesn't stay awake long at all, but that's ok, she needs her rest. We don't know for sure how her kidneys are going to be affected. They're pumping her with lots of fluids still and now she's puffy. I believe all our collective prayers are working. Thank you so much for being here, my friends.

Aww, I'm so sorry to learn that after just having lost Bud, you now find out that Elliott is very sick. About 20 years ago, my cousins were in a similar financial scenario with their dog, who had leukemia. So they took him to U. of Guelph Veterinary School to see if a more affordable option for treatment was available. They accepted her dog for treatment from students in Vet School and he got chemotherapy at a reduced cost, than they had been quoted, by any Vet clinics. I have no idea if U of Guelph still offers such an option, but perhaps you could check it out. Their dog went into remission and lived until he was 18, so they certainly felt that the treatment cost given them was well worth it for so many more years with their beloved pet. But they were told he had a good chance of recovery with chemotherapy, so it made the decision to treat him easier than if his life would have been prolonged for only a short time. I know that often people who can't afford to pay for their pet's medical treatment, feel forced to surrender their beloved pet to a Rescue centre or Humane Society. If the pet can be treated, it usually will be, so it's healthy for adoption. But I think that surrendering a pet is considered permanent, to avoid people scamming the system just to avoid paying the treatment cost, then returning to adopt their pet back out afterward. I can't find anything about this online, but can anyone confirm if this is correct? This is such a sad Catch-22 for people whose only reason for surrendering their pet is a prohibitive treatment cost, but they didn't just want to watch their pet's health deteriorate. Perhaps the centre fears if the pet fell ill again, it would just be re-surrendered again anyway. I hope that if whatever you are able to do, if assistance from the Go Fund Me, is not enough to pay for the treatment, that you will know it was the best you were able to do, and that you are giving Elliott the most love and comfort possible!! We're all thinking of you.