when I was going through your experience w/my Puddy, I took a couple of days off from PT b/c I felt overwhelmed and although my friends were only trying to help, so much info just added to that feeling, especially when nothing seemed to work anyhow.
Yes Mary, that how I feel now - overwhelmed. There is not enough hours in my day to do all the reading necessary to make a good judgement call.

I have an appointment on Saturday at 4pm to take Max into another vet who comes highly recommended by a very good friend of mine. I did speak to him on the phone and explained the situation and his opinion is that Max should not be getting Metacam at all. Apparently it damages the kidneys. Well, I did some research a while ago and found that Metacam damages the liver but nothing was said about the kidneys. This second vet thinks Max would be better off on a liquid pain killer called Tramadol. Anyone had a pet on this med? If so, what was your experience with this? Did it help? I know that my own vet mentioned Tramadol before and from what I've read about it, the most common side effects are upset stomach, constipation and sometimes siezures so I opted not to give this to Max. Right now he's constipated enough without added something else to plug him up.

I'm going to take Max's latest blood test results with me and hopefully this new vet won't have to take more tests. Max's savings account has been replenished so cost is really not a concern right now. All I want is a second opinion. Oh and the good news is that this new vet charges less for a consultation fee. - only $29.00.

Thank you all again for listening to me. This is really tearing me up inside.