Diamond Dogs

Osteosarcoma in dogs primarily affects more prominent breeds, has no known actual cause, and in most each case of this killer of diseases, your dog will face amputation. It is also very aggressive and may disseminate allround your dog’s body if it is not treated. However, even once it is treated, your dog in most cases will only live another 10 to 12 months. Left untreated, they will normally die within 2 to 3 months as it is that wicked.

What is it?

Osteosarcoma has another name that may be much more intimate to most owners; bone cancer. Although this form of cancer only accounts in roughly five percent of all canine tumors, it accounts for when it comes to 90 percent of all malignancies that implicate the bones of your dog. It is approximated that almost fifty thousands dogs a year world wide will contract this form of cancer.

Although osteosarcoma in dogs primarily affects big breeds, it may and has affected both mid size and littler breeds, but it is not very common. It affects males and females equally, and normally attacks dogs after six years of age. However, it may affect dogs as young as two years old in a good deal of cases.

This wicked form of cancer will commonly start out in the bones of the limbs of your dog which is referred to as the appendicular skeleton. However, though most less common, it may likewise start out in your dogs spine, pelvis, or even their skull. It is a very aggressive cancer and has only one proven form of treatment; amputation that is ordinarily accompanied with chemotherapy.

Causes:

Osteosarcoma in dogs to date has no known actual cause but there are assorted theories of what may be the cause. It is believed that since it mainly affects breeds that are fifty pounds or larger, it may have something to do with rapid early growth. As your dog starts to grow and mature, there is a lot of increased weight and strength that is being employed to their bones. It likewise seems to appear a lot mote often at the web site of a fracture that was medically repaired.

The most mutual method of repairing fractures in your dogs bones is with metal plates or pins, and it is a theory, but only a theory, that chronic aggravation may be affiliated with the development of this cancer. There are also a heap of suggestions that radiation exposure may likewise trigger this wicked form of cancer. Although none of these has yet to be verified, there is one certainty in regards to osteosarcoma; it will cause your dog to become lame.

Symptoms:

Osteosarcoma in dogs does have various symptoms, but by far and away the earliest and most predominant of the sensations or changes is your dog all of a sudden getting lame in the affected limb. Once this occurs, your dog will naturally become very reluctant to exercise plainly because they may no longer have the capacity to exercise normally. But there are also other sensations or changes that you may watch for with this killer.

Your dog may likewise get started to experience pain in any of their bones and may, as a result of this, commence to break bones with even the slightest of traumatic experiences. Outside of the lameness, this is the single greatest indicator you will see that will suggest your dog has this killer. Once this does occur, your dog will ordinarily commence coughing.

Coughing is the sheer worst sound that you will ever listen from your dog and unless they have eaten or drank too quickly, it is your introductory glimpse that something is badly wrong. If your dog starts to limp, breaks bones for in a literal sense no reason, and than starts coughing; you now will have numerous very difficult conclusions to make.

Treatments:

Osteosarcoma in dogs in most each case has only one form of effective treatment, surgery to remove the tumor en bloc. This means that all of the bone that is affected as well as the surrounding tissues will have to be removed. Since this cancer is most mutual in your dogs bones that affect their limbs, it will result in the amputation of your dogs affected limb.

This will undoubtedly be, other than having to put your dog down, the most difficult decision you will ever make in regards to your dog. But there is something very indispensable to consider in this decision; the pain your dog is in. Osteosarcoma is exceedingly painful and the amputation will without delay remove most all of the pain your dog is suffering.

However, you will also have to keep in mind that it is only palliative, which means it is pain relieving, and will not heighten in any way the long term survival length of your dog. As difficult as the thought of amputation is, most dogs do remarking well with only three legs. Compared to the amount of pain they are suffering, any pain or inconvenience that they encounter is minimal when equated to the extraordinary pain they are experiencing.

There is likewise another form of treatment that will have to given to your dog; chemotherapy. Osteosarcoma is highly metastatic by nature and the amputation alone will not prolong your dogs survival. Chemotherapy is ofttimes used once your dog has healed exclusively and the drugs involved will be given by intravenous injections in their legs. However, there are assorted forms of this treatment available and it is best to consult with your veterinarian of which choice you want to make.

There are also other forms of treatment that you may have to use. If your dog has existent conditions that will disqualify them from amputation, radiation therapy may be used. However, it is highly specialized, very expensive, and is not available everywhere. If you determine not to choose either of these options, your dog may be given both narcotic and non-narcotic drugs that will make them more comfortable in their final days.

The intermediate life expectancy with amputation is normally when it comes to a year in most dogs. Without the surgery and the chemotherapy, your dog will have regarding two months to spend with you before this killer takes them.

Summary:

Osteosarcoma in dogs is fundamentally a death warrant, but if you determine to have it treated, you may still have when it comes to another year with your dog. This last year may be gut wrenching for you because of the amputation, but at least your dog will be for the most part pain free and may survive outstandingly well with only three legs. If you may afford it or have insurance to cover it, you may still take delight in your loyal friend for assorted more months.

Diamond Dogs

Star quarterback Neil Garvin is the jealousy of other students in his Nevada high school-and is closely as cruel to them as his abusive father is to him. Then one night on a dark, detached road outside of town, a random act of violence takes a life. Nothing, Neil swears, could ever be worse…until his father, the local sheriff, takes control and masterminds a cover-up. Emotionally deadened and wrestling with the mystery of his mother’s disappearance years ago, Neil must in some way find his way out of his prison of fear…and discover the one thing that may genuinely set him free.

Drinking beer is what high school jocks do, and for Neil, it also drives away the anger he feels at his father, at his life, and at the fact that his mother left them when Neil was a baby. Neil blames his distant and abusive father for driving her away. A charming man to those who don’t know him, Neil’s father spends his leisure time drinking Midori and listening to Neil Diamond, after whom he has named his son. (The scene where Neil’s father takes him to Las Vegas for a Neil Diamond concert is a unforgettable one in a book filled with great scenes.)

Driving home from Fred’s house in his father’s car, Neil hits and kills a boy who is walking home from the party. Drunk and disoriented, Neil stuffs the body in the trunk, drives home, and passes out. When the body disappears from the trunk, Neil knows his father has found the body and concealed it, even though not a word in regards to this passes amongst them. Since Neil’s father is the sheriff of the town, he is called in by the dead boy’s family to find their missing son.

The investigation is seen through Neil’s eyes as he squirms through his father’s seeming disability to find any clues in regards to the missing boy and his own growing closeness to the boy’s family, peculiarly his sister, who see Neil and his father as friends and allies. He also watches as his father battles with the FBI (the dead boy’s uncle is an agent) over jurisdiction of the case.

While it is difficult to feel sorry for Neil as the net tardily closes around him, and his fear of being caught turns to self-loathing, the reader knows incisively what happened and feels like a participant. It is an uncomfortable sentiment for the reader and a difficult mood for the author to maintain, but Alan Watt manages to pull it off without a hitch. –Otto Penzler

From Publishers WeeklyHighly readable, if at long last unconvincing, Watt’s debut novel is the story of a bitter family bequest and a traumatic reckoning, as Watt explores the reasons an abusive father might danger everything to cover up a crime committed by his damaged, evenly cruel teenage son. Inebriated after a party with his high school football team, Neil Garvin, 17, first-string quarterback and “the best arm in Nevada,” in an unintentional manner kills a classmate, Ian Curtis. Neil’s father, the sheriff of their little town near Las Vegas, covers up for his son. Ian’s parents report the boy missing, and more than 300 students join in a search led by Neil’s father. Mrs. Curtis asks her brother, an FBI agent, to help, and as the FBI tightens the net, Neil and his father ought to face galore truths in regards to their family. Watt, who is also a stand-up comic, has a knack for deploying well-timed plot points to disclose indispensable information. The book starts off with faithful characterizations of the sad, angry father and son, and the dialog amongst them is appropriately savage, but there are key moments in the story that don’t ring true. The most unconvincing scene occurs at the narrative’s dramatic apex, when Neil finally, and improbably, discovers the dark mystery of why his mother left home when he was three. At the same time, the reasons for Neil’s hellish childhood become melodramatically clear. Still, there are sure delights in this novel, including incisive scenes that capture the petty cruelties and poignant betrayals of adolescents. The author also gives bright voice to a reputation type that has become a staple in modern American fiction: a man unmoored by divorce and filled with festering anger and alienation. Watt takes the archetype a step further, delineating how the father’s desperate conduct affects his son, and how this pair find an uneasy peace in breaking the chain of lies and violence. 5-city author tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From BooklistHis mother walked out when he was three. His abusive father, the local sheriff in a little town outside of Las Vegas, has a violent temper when he drinks too much. Blaming his father for driving his mother away, 17-year-old Neil Garvin dreams she will come back and rescue him. In the meantime, he takes his own aggressions out on the football field, where he is the high school’s first-string quarterback, and by being a bully. After a binge-drinking session at a party, Neil barbarically assaults a couple of freshmen and, later, playing chicken by driving without lights, he hits and kills one of the boys he had bullied. Unasked, Neil’s father covers up for him as the FBI closes in. The father-son kinship is the crux of this impressive initial novel, and Neil’s voice is totally authentic as he pours out his darkest fears. A potent story with a powerful conclusion. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Most helpful client reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Enthralling Story from Page 1 on……………………….
By Joseph J. Hanssen
Diamond Dogs is a terrifi work of fiction you can’t put down from the moment you read the basi page. Alan Watt has written an exciting, non-stop story centering around a hit and run accident and it is subsequent cover-up. A wondrous suspenseful tale of a mixed-up but loving kinship amid father and son.

High School quarterback Neil Garvin, a much-worshipped high school football star narrates the story. It’s thru his eyes that the whole story enfolds, and you speedily realize that teenagers today are much more mature than we give them credit for. It’s over the course of the next three days following the accident that Neil’s life is wholly changed when his father, the sheriff, helps cover-up the accident. We become a participant in the events that follow, whether we like it or not, and we get drawn into the complexities of small-town life, and father and son bonding.

Whether it takes you a few hours, a day, or 2 days, this is a book you won’t forget. A very promising debut novel from this author. An easy read that will keep you very entertained. Bravo!!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
POWERFUL AND ORIGINAL!
By Christian
“Diamond Dogs” refers to those elite who possess the talent and charisma to rise above the pack…and Alan Watt has captured utterly the double-edged sword that such talent becomes, in particular when you’re 17-year-old Neil Garvin. His young life changes dramatically one fateful night as he drives home drunkenly from a friends party, and he strikes and kills a fellow student in his father’s car. Not even his sheriff father may save him from the personal hell which he endures when he makes a series of bad choices. Although the story ends in triumphant redemption, this victory is bittersweet for both Neil and his tormented father. Both have abandonment issues that color their each decision, and by the final page, each deals with those in cataclysmic ways…resulting in one of the most powerfully triumphant stories to grace a page. Watt has captured Neil’s tortured soul in an initial voice, and aptly portrays the effects of two men’s selections that go horribly faulty on a family that is already deteriorating beyond repair. Far from being depressing, “Diamond Dogs” is hopeful and poetic. A highly commended read!

Also commended as associate books: “Good Times, Bad Times”–James Kirkwood

“A Separate Peace”–John Knowles

“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys”–Chris Fuhrman

6 of 7 humans found the following review helpful.
Terrific teenage first-person narrator
By David M. Scott
Powerfully written, deep but approachable, Diamond Dogs is a outstanding read. The book’s best quality is the first-person narrator. Seventeen-year-old Neil tells us the story in his own voice, but not similar to other first-person teenage narrators, Alan Watt captures the thoughts, actions, fears and emotions of a young person exceedingly well. In so a good deal of other books the narrator seems like a kid written by an adult, either too wise or to naïve for his (or her) supposed years. As Neil tells us his story, Watt deftly moves from action to thoughts, from detail of the crime to the results of the action within the walls of his school, at home and in Neil’s private world. Terrific teenage first-person narrative of a multi-layered story makes Diamond Dogs an essential book.

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