DocsDoctor

I wonder if dressing it with manuka honey might help? It's very good for encouraging granulation. Check with your vet, obviously, but maybe do some research on your own account first. Here's a link which I just pulled up via google, relating to using it for sorting out 'proud flesh' on a horse:. http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/November-2012/Jump-starting-The-Healing-With-Manuka-Honey/

from another Brit! Photos you upload here do need to be posted somewhere else on the internet already, that permits links. Not necessarily photobucket. Guidance here: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/121707-how-to-post-a-picture/ I look forward to seeing pix of your Magnificent Seven in due course!

I am so sorry for your loss Run fast and free, dear Misty!

Welcome home, handsome Calvin!

I am very sorry for your loss It sounds as if she had a wonderful life with you. Run fast and free, Molly She was born on the same day as my dear Doc, whom I had to have put to sleep back in April when his poor old body wore out on him.

No car. At home - saline, sudocrem, a syringe for flushing out dirt, cotton wool, dressings, vetwrap. Cornflour in case a nail gets quicked. Clean cotton rags - I always have a supply of these, they are useful for so many clean-up jobs around the house. The odd old sock, t-shirt, etc, already customised to prevent a dog getting at a wound. Think I have some left-over rubber 'pawz' still too. No antibiotic ointment - antibiotics are prescription-only in the UK.

I would take him to the vet's and get him checked over. Hopefully he is healthy, but if nothing else it will be useful to have them pop him on the scales and that will give you a baseline to work from. Has been wormed? If he has worms he won't get the full goodness from his food so unless you know he's been wormed recently I would either worm him myself/ask the vet to do a faecal test. Feeding amounts - go by the weight he should be, not the weight he is now. I would certainly be feeding him three times a day, maybe even more - smaller meals at more frequent intervals are easier to digest and absorb. Extra protein should be the easiest kind of food for him to metabolise. My old boy Doc had a tendency to be too skinny and my vet always advised adding a bit of raw minced meat to his kibble if he looked too ribby - preferably economy grade beef, as that's a bit fatty, or lamb for the same reason. Other good additions are a bit of poached chicken, off the bone but with its broth, a couple of scrambled eggs, oily fish - tinned sardines are very popular here or raw green tripe. If he has a delicate tum take things gently, one new thing at a time will let you see if it is easy for him to digest.

It is not just that the liquid veterinary form is easier to measure out - according to my old vet it is also more easily absorbed into their systems, and 'gentler on their organs' as my old vet put it, i.e. less likely to damage liver, kidneys etc. So in your shoes I would be switching to that - especially as she has reacted badly to the tablets before.

My recommendation remains the same - see below. I used to add a bit of raw minced human grade beef mince to Doc's regular meals, in similar circumstances and at the vet's suggestion. The cheaper grade, so with a higher fat content. It worked well for us. Lamb mince (again fatty), raw green tripe and cottage cheese would be other 'add-ins' you could try. With eggs, scrambled ones seem easier to digest - raw ones gave Doc horrible wind.

Good news indeed!

A lure pole? Greyhounds are usually very enthusiastic about these, the only thing is that using one indoors could mean a lot of stuff gets knocked over! But if he is enthusiastic, encouraging him to play with it in the garden could be a way of helping him overcome his fear of being out there. I have not seen them for sale in the UK, but here is a page about them which includes instructions on how to make one. For a greyhound I would tie a fluffy toy to the end, and I would wave it around in the air as well as dragging it along the ground: http://notesfromadogwalker.com/2012/04/24/flirt-pole/

Lots of good thoughts coming your way! Three pounds doesn't sound too bad to me, fingers crossed it will just be the ageing process. And as my vet always says to me, 'you know your dog best, and what is normal for him'. If you want to try getting the weight back on, extra protein is apparently the easiest thing for them to metabolise - my old chap loved a bit of beef mince, or a tin of sardines, or a couple of scrambled eggs.

I was thinking again about my reply yesterday, and realised that I forgot to ask you what size the cup was! I assumed you were working off the standard US cup size, a volume measurement also used for human food (e.g. in American cake recipes). That is really quite small - one US cup = 250g butter, or 150g flour.

Off the top of my head it sounds considerably less than I feed Ken - but then I don't know what your dogs weigh, or what you are feeding them. So - do you know how much they weigh? How does it compare to their racing weight? (Which you should be able to find on this website:http://www.greyhound-data.com if you don't already know it.) Ken weighs about the same as when he raced, other dogs may put a few pounds on after retirement. What does the dog food packaging say? There should be a feeding guide, the suggested amount may not suit every dog of the same weight - metabolisms vary, as if with humans - but it is a starting point at least. NB supermarket dry dog food is not usually great quality, and will contain a lot of grain fillers, which will all come out the other end in due course, possibly accounting for the overnight poos ... Are you in the UK? If so this is a useful site for checking dog foods - and includes recommended feeding amounts:http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ Ken is on this one: http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0323/autarky-adult-chicken Finally, how do they look? Skinnies? Fatties? Condition guide here:http://www.purina.co.uk/content/docs/downloadable-pdfs/bodycondsytempdf.pdf That is not specifically for greyhounds, who will usually look somewhat underweight to the average dog owner's eyes. Usual recommendation here is that you should be able to see the last two or three ribs, and a hint of pinbone (on top of the hips), but it will vary a bit according to their build. If you would like to post some photos of your dogs from the side, and above, I dare say folk on here will be happy to comment on their condition.

What a very handsome boy he was - and what a happy life he had with you. Run free now, Mirage, knowing how well you were loved And Ken and I send many condolences to you as you grieve for him :f_white

Maybe if you could catch some pee in a container when she goes outside, and then put that on the shower floor, the smell would help encourage her to pee in there? Good luck, it sounds like a workable scheme if you can get past that first hurdle!

Poor chap, hope he is feeling better! Yes I too when I saw the photo thought it looked like the exit hole of some parasite like a jigger, though those are an African problem. Don't look at the photos on the link unless you are feeling strong!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunga_penetrans

Yes, to encourage you I can say that I have successfully worked through separation anxiety with two 'only greyhounds' in succession, and that in each case the problem cleared up more or less overnight after about three months. Doc, my first dog, suffered quite badly - when I went out he would howl, chew stuff, and sometimes bring down curtains. But after three months the penny dropped that 1) I always came back and 2) it was a good opportunity to spend time on the chaise longue - out of bounds when I was around. Ken, my new chap, seemed more comfortable with being left on his own from the outset. He didn't howl - he is a very quiet dog in any case, rarely barking - but did chew random items, especially initially, and pee - just a dribble marking the same spot in the corner of the fireplace. But here's been here three months and again, the problem seems to have cleared up just this week. Partly it is just a question of time and familiarisation, I am sure, but other things that helped were making sure they had had a good walk before I left, and if possible a meal too, so that they had were ready to sleep. Also a special treat (cream cheese smeared into one of those prickly rubber bones) just as I go. They are all individuals, though, so different things may help. E.g. Doc liked me leaving the radio on, Ken doesn't! And Doc had the run of the house, but I've been closing off the upstairs for Ken as too much choice seemed to freak him out a bit - though we can revisit that now he seems more comfortable.

I am in the UK too, and have switched from Frontline to Advocate, on the advice of the vet and our greyhound rescue. Frontline as you say no longer seems totally effective and on the plus side Advocate also deals with lungworm, which is a growing risk at least here in the SE - I'd suggest checking with your vet re conditions where you are. Unfortunately the Advocate is prescription only - but my vet was happy to write me a prescription for the whole 12 months, so I could buy it more cheaply online.

Ah, you've just prompted me to check my Ken's pedigree and sure enough, Larkhill Jo is his maternal great-grandfather . When I adopted him three months ago I put up a little post saying 'welcome home Boomtown Ken' on the greyhound-data forum and had a lovely response from his breeder, wishing us lots of good times together and saying that Ken's mum always throws pups with lovely placid people-loving temperaments. I've just bought and read your book and have very much enjoyed it. Lots of good advice there, which I will be using to work on Ken's recall - which will probably take some time as at the moment he still finds squirrels in particular so exciting. Meanwhile we both enjoyed me finding his 'mommy spot'!

A life well lived, but I'm sorry all the same that he couldn't stay with you for longer . Run free sweet boy, knowing how well you were loved.

I'd work on deterring the cats from coming into your garden - especially Orange Cat, who by the sound of it is trying to incorporate your garden into his regular territory. Turning a hose or water pistol on the cat is effective, if you get the chance. There are also motion-triggered deterrents which you can leave set up in the garden. Some spray water, but more often they emit a high-pitched beep which you can't hear but the cat hates. A friend who was plagued by neighbours' cats coming and pooing in her garden tried one of those and found it worked well, provided she remembered to change the batteries. Of course your greyhound might hate the sound too! My lovely neighbours here have a cat and I have always warned them that if she comes into my garden it is at her peril as both Ken, and Doc before him, have a keen prey drive. (She will pass through but is canny about checking first that the coast is clear.) I was interested to note that in the 2 months or so after Doc died and before Ken came home I began to see many more cats and indeed squirrels in the garden. Word must have got around the neighbourhood grapevine that 'it's safe to go in, no greyhound on patrol any more!'. Now that Ken has arrived they have all cleared off again, or at most are to be seen running across the trellis at the far end of the garden. Still he looks for them every time he goes outside - he takes his Garden Monitor duties seriously!

Here in the UK the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons state that a vet must write you a prescription, if asked and if he has seen the animal recently, but that he may make a 'reasonable charge' for it. Mine charges £12, which seems fair enough and still usually means a considerable saving for buying long-term meds online. They have explained me that they can't buy these in for the practice as cheaply as I can buy them for myself: the online pharmacies buy much bigger quantities, so can negotiate discounts directly with the manufacturers.

This is something I would research for myself, but also be prepared to take my vet's advice on. In fact it came up at Ken's first healthcheck - I had planned to continue using Effipro (a fibropronil treatment) which I had got in for Doc, and would use on an 'at need' basis. However, when I adopted Ken the greyhound rescue had asked me to use Advocate instead, because of the growing risk here from lungworm. The vet confirmed that it is indeed a growing problem, so we switched. Ken is a healthy young dog, but our vet is lovely and would I know would have been prepared to talk through and/or research further any concerns I might have raised if he had been Diana and I was worrying about potential side-effects, etc. All vets should be like this IMHO .

Perhaps the noise of the airconditioning unit running disturbs him? If he's happy and comfortable at the other end of the apartment, let him be - as smurfette says it's all part of him settling in and feeling more confident. As he gets to know the ropes he feels safe enough to begin to relax without keeping an eye on you all the time to see what's going to happen next. Ken has been here seven weeks today and it's a delight to watch his increasing confidence about picking and choosing a comfy spot that doesn't need to be next to me. About half an hour I panicked because I couldn't find him - he'd gone into my bedroom for a nap on the rug in the sunshine. Sounds as if you have good arrangements in place for leaving him on his own, and that he's coping well , so that I'm sure that your nerves will diminish just with time and experience. Something else to consider is whether you can find a neighbour/friend/ dogwalker who could also step in and give him a break in an emergency. I know there are 2 of you, but that might be reassuring to have just as a backup. I am lucky in that both sets of neighbours have keys and would be happy to go in and give Ken a break if I get stuck somewhere on public transport or whatever.