DocsDoctor

Check with the adoption centre whether he comes with a 'trousseau' - I know our local greyhound rescue provides a homing kit with tag and walking collars, winter coat, food bowl etc. They also send you home with a bag of the food they use to help prevent tummy upsets. Yes a nice thick double duvet makes a good bed - folded into four there is still lots of room for the greyhound to stretch out, and the covers are easy to launder too. Don't forget to get in a toy or so! Squeaky fluffy toys are usually the most popular with greyhounds. Though he may not want to play until he settles in.

Message of hope here. I went through this with my old greyhound Doc, when he got arthritic and the vet said he shouldn't do the stairs any more. (Mine like yours are very steep and narrow.) I was worried about it but on the vet's advice I made up the most comfortable bed ever downstairs, settled him down in it with a kiss and a delicious treat, and went upstairs, blocking the stairs off with a chair for a few nights or so. My bedroom door however stayed open so we could hear each other moving about. As she promised, he settled down and after about a week he had given up even trying to do the stairs - I actually think it was a relief to him not to have to struggle with them any longer. Personally despite my great for Fiveroooers and Batmom I would not despair yet, partly because if you are feeling bad about the situation he will be picking up on that. Also because it sounds to me as if he is actually sleeping through quite happily until 4.00-4.30? That's when it gets light right now and I suspect therefore that he wakes, can't yet understand where he is and panics. That will encourage him to want a loo break at that point too. How about trying to make the room where he sleeps darker so he sleeps longer? And leaving your door upstairs open so he can hear that you are there? Maybe moving the bed might help with that too? And if it is not the dawn light maybe there is some regular noise at that point which wakes him? So - personally I would persevere a bit longer with trying to make this his 'new normal'. Of course going down and reassuring him and giving him a loo break if he does wake and panic again! Good luck to you and Blue with sorting it out. Oldies are precious and we want to see their every remaining moment happy, I know.

Here in the UK I find a child's toothbrush works well, better than the dog toothbrush I used to use. It has softer bristles than an adult's and a nice small head. Family multi-packs from the supermarket are inexpensive and include different designs for different siblings. Ken is currently on the pink and yellow bunny one - not very manly!

Larry looks as if he's already well at home! from Ken and me here in London.

I do find it easier to use a pill gun, mine's a soft syringe-type one which works well even without water but can't hold huge pills, or tiny ones for that matter. For those I resort to my fingers, and give a treat afterwards.

Let her sleep in your room. Far from creating separation anxiety, it will encourage her to bond with you and so make future training easier. But do work on leaving on her own at other times - you will find a host of threads on here if you search 'alone training,' really it's all about building up the time she's left incrementally, and making it a positive experience. For my Ken and Doc before him that was all about giving them a special food treat as I went out!

I can't advise on the Adequen, having no experience of that, but - would she benefit from exercises you can do to strengthen/ maintain her muscles? After my old boy, Doc, developed a wobbly back end he benefited from regular visits from an animal physiotherapist. She massaged and manipulated him but she also gave me exercises to do with him every day between times. Check with your vet but they were simple to do, and definitely helpful. E.g. one was for me to pick up a back paw and place it on the ground, but knuckles down, for him to right (this is also a test used by vets to ascertain nerve sensation). We repeated a few times for each back paw. Gentle walks uphill were also good to keep the back end working.

Thank you - I have made a note of that in case of need. Carrots are something that are always readily available here in the UK, unlike the canned pumpkin that gets recommended in the US. Plain, rather over-cooked white rice (ie boiled up just with water, for 20-30 minutes rather than the usual 13) is another thing that that I have found works well for both human and dog diarrhoea.

I am so sorry - what a shock! A and a for you, as you grieve for your sometimes exasperating, always much loved boy. Run free, Paddy Mayhem. What a shame that you had to leave us so soon.

Yes, it does sound like a corn to me. We had a similar problem here when my vet thought Ken had arthritis and we got him all set up for x-rays before realising he had a corn! To be fair it was a pretty small one and hard for either of us to spot. As John F says Noel Fitzgerald (the TV supervet) diagnosed one by rubbing the pad with toothpaste which showed up the different texture of the corn very clearly. If you live anywhere near Uxbridge in North London there is a vet called Daniel Doherty who specialises in greyhounds and has developed a patent method of soaking then removing corns so that they do not recur. http://www.myvet24-7.co.uk/about-us/ Our vet cut Ken's out for him, it did show a tendency to recur but has now more or less disappeared with regular filing and applications of vaseline by me.

:yay

What a lovely boy - I am so sorry for your loss Run free, Patch

I personally would put them in overnight, just for the one night, so they have a yummy meal or two there and a chance to settle into the routine. That's what I did with my first greyhound (by chance - there was a family wedding I HAD to go to) and then with the second it was it was over a weekend. I use the holiday kennelling at our greyhound rescue, which is greyt, but was initially worried they might think they were being returned! Actually in both cases all went well, they were excited to see me again but had also enjoyed being back with the other greyhounds. On subsequent visits they trotted in very happily. Can your two be kennelled together? That would help. My old boy Doc preferred to be kennelled on his own so was allowed to take along a favourite toy to sleep with. Ken on the other hand likes to cuddle up with a temporary greyhound girlfriend! .

I'm guessing you're in the UK like me, Lizzie? I've not heard of Gain before but if it's one of those foods specifically for racers I'd not worry about changing to something else. They can be cheap - like working dog food you don't pay VAT - but contain a lot of cereals meaning much poo. And I think in racing kennels they are usually fed combined with a homemade stew of meat and veg in fact. Ken does well on 'Pet Greyhound' which was developed for the Retired Greyhound Trust: https://www.dodsonandhorrellpetfood.co.uk/dog-food/greyhound-food/pet-greyhound I've also in the past successfully fed my old greyhound Gusto and Autarky, two working dog foods from the same manufacturer. Autarky gets better reviews, Gusto is the economy version but actually suited him better - he stayed on it for years, but it didn't suit Ken. Different dogs have different digestions so be prepared to experiment a bit! As they are used to having their food wet I do always add water to dry food, and a bit of something else - usually Butchers' Tripe (the original tripe loaf recipe). If you want to put some weight on Biffo (great name!) try adding some mince -.green tripe from a pet shop or some beef or lamb mince - cheap and fatty is fine. Raw eggs and little tins of sardines are other popular additions here!

For a long-lasting treat you could try stuffing some of his food into a rubber Kong, sealed with something soft like cream cheese, which will last even longer if you freeze it for a while in your deep freeze. That said I always use just a bit of the cream cheese, initially smeared inside a Kong but these days just inside a cream cheese tub which is easier to wash up. Avoid things which might be a choking hazard like raw bones and pigs ears, those are best given when you're around to supervise. Yes I'd definitely get him a few toys, it sounds as if he'd appreciate them! Squeaky fluffy ones are usually the biggest hit, he may well have come across soft toys before during training. My old guy had such a thing for teddy bears that I'm sure he'd been trained using those. Greyhounds are not usually big on retrieving but will enjoy flinging toys about/ having them flung for them. Neither of mine have been chewers, so even kids' toys from the charity shop are OK and last a long time - Ken's biggest favourite at the moment is a child's penguin from Age Concern. He also loves a shark, a dog toy made just as a furry skin which you stick a plastic bottle inside. Re the shoes and trainers - is he trying to chew them, or just taking them to his bed? It's not unusual for them to make collections in their beds initially, especially of things that smell of you (so clothes, TV remotes etc too). Again, everything's new to him and he's trying to work out what's what. It will probably stop as he settles in but meanwhile if there's a problem saying 'uh-uh' and swopping the shoe for a toy should help.

Hi and welcome to Greytalk! Is he new to domestic life, i.e. has he come straight to you from kennels? If so he won't have experienced being on his own before and this is often the hardest thing for these guys to adjust to. As he's only been with you five days your house and your routines are all still very new to him and he's feeling stressed. Loose poos are again very commonly a sign of stress in newly adopted hounds. It may also be that whatever food he's on (the same one as at the kennels?) is contributing to the problem. But I'd keep him on it for the time being for the sake of continuity - you can always try something else once he's settled in. If you can reconsider letting him sleep in your room at nights, I would. He's never slept on his own before and he's worried! If he can see and hear you, he will probably sleep through - and if not, unless you are a very heavy sleeper, you will hear him moving and be able to whisk him downstairs and outside for a loo break. Having him in with you will help build the bond between you, and it doesn't have to be forever - as he gains in confidence you can move the bed elsewhere. My dog slept in my room with me for a couple of weeks, but then we moved the bed into the back bedroom/study where there is more room. Re being left home alone, again this is something new for him. See this RGT leaflet for advice:https://www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk/assets/000/001/287/Anxiety_PDF_original.pdf The thing which which helped both my current dog and my old one most was being given a special food treat - preferably something that takes a bit of time to eat - just as I went out, so this became an occasion to look forward to, rather than fear. My old chap also liked to have a radio left on for him, tuned to a talk station. Other people have I know found Adaptil plug-ins helpful. I will add, eight hours is quite a big ask. Could someone let him out for a loo break at least, in the middle of the day? I wouldn't leave my own dog for more than four-five hours - the usual recommendation from rescues here in the UK - though I know quite a few US adopters do work fulltime. But I think usually they work up to this, starting with shorter times. Good luck - and we'd love to see pictures of your chap and here more about him if you'd like to post about him in the introductions bit of the forum.

Oops, sorry - yes it's a completely different thing, I realise now. So ignore what I posted above!

Here in the UK at any rate flu vaccine is given as a quick spray up the nose, rather than an injection. I think it's only needed every 2 years. I do ask to have it done if needed at the same time as annual immunisations, as my dog goes back to the greyhound rescue for holiday kennelling sometimes. We've never experienced an adverse reaction. My vet also recommended that my old chap have it, even when he was no longer being kennelled, saying that while canine flu is not likely to prove much of a problem for a young, healthy dog it can be dangerous to an older or weaker one.

You are doing the right thing and I am sure many of us will be thinking of you on Friday. When I had my old chap Doc put to sleep (not for osteo) the vet came here too, in the afternoon. Before that he had enjoyed the favourite things he could still enjoy - breakfast with sardines, a tripe stick, a couple of very wobbly little walks round the block, a nap on the lawn in the sunshine, being cuddled and sung too and told he was the best boy in the world. His passing was very peaceful. I opted not to have his ashes returned to me, creating instead a 'memory box' which contains his collar, his paw print in clay (made while he was still alive), a little bag of fur from his brush and various other mementos.

They are called Epsom salts here too . They actually originated in the town of Epsom in Surrey - also the home of the Derby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom

It's not a problem I've had to deal with thank goodness, but I belong to the Dogs Trust and see that they offer some free downloads - advice and also recorded sound files you can use to help with desensitisation: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/dog-behaviour-health/sound-therapy-for-pets If there's nothing that fits the bill I think other charities eg RSPCA, PDSA probably have similar offerings - it's such a widespread problem these days.

I do think you need to rule out a urine infection. The peeing in the bed in particular suggests she has one. I'm a bit surprised the vet didn't run a test for this before prescribing the antibiotics! Ken had a similar problem and my vet wouldn't prescribe anything until we'd run the test, so that he knew what bug it was he was targeting (a strain of cloistrum difficile I think) and so prescribe the right antibiotic. In the end it turned out to be so well-established that we had to run a second course of another stronger antibiotic to get rid of it. So if things haven't improved when she has finishes these pills I would definitely request the urine test. If she does have an infection, you will need another after she's finished the antibiotic to make sure the bug's gone. The laboratories usually want samples taken by the vet in clinical conditions rather than caught by yourself, which adds a bit to the expense, but it's something you really need to do because an infection will be so uncomfortable for her, not to mention that if neglected you run the risk of it affecting her kidneys. My feeling is that this sounds like a bit of both things - she has a urine infection, and the discomfort of that is adding to her anxiety when you go out. So work on her alone training too, meanwhile, though with Ken sorting out the infection sorted out the wees in the house too. My greyhound rescue's manager told me that it is far from unusual for ex-racers to come home with a low-level urine infection, picked up in kennels but only becoming evident when they go to their new homes and have the stress of adapting to a new life. Good luck and I hope the three of you can get this sorted out soon. It is miserable having to deal with all the clearing up, I know.

I am so sorry for your loss. That was a beautiful tribute you wrote for Lukas. He must have been a very special boy. Run free, Luka!

Placing an upturned stool on the chaise longue before going out worked for me. But these days I am kinder and fling an old bedspread over it so Ken can get comfy up there instead!

Rather than saying 'no' you can deal with this by teaching her 'gently!' That was what I had to do with my old dog Doc - he was not nearly as bad as your girl, but all the same we couldnt risk him brushing people with his teeth when he took a treat as a Pets As Therapy dog. You can do this by keeping the treat closed up in your hand (you could wear gloves!) and only opening it up when she stops pestering. This video by Kikopup is an excellent clear guide, though unlike her I didn't use a clicker:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRT6r6d79OU