DocsDoctor

Where are you? Here in the UK I can certainly buy it online and find the cheapest site is usually http://www.vet-medic.com/default.aspx. It's also possible just to buy it over the counter in Boots and some other chemists - that's usually more expensive than online, but cheaper than the vet's. edited link

My sympathies on your loss. He looks such a darling in his photos. Run free, sweetie!

I would suggest giving physiotherapy, and/or hydrotherapy a try, if you can. Doc (who will be eleven in August) has been having both for the last month, after compressing a disc in his spine - with some associated neurological damage affecting his right hind leg. Both really do seem to be helping - at his worst he was moving like Raxley in your video, now he is almost back to his old self (leg still a bit wobbly on corners and needs the muscle building up). He'll need to stay on meloxidyl permanently the vet tells me but his dose of tramadol has already been halved and hopefully we can stop that altogether soon. We go to our vet's for the hydrotherapy - she has a water treadmill - and the physio is done here at home by a nice vet physio who also volunteers at our greyhound rescue. So massage and manipulation can be done with him lying on his own bed, she also brings a portable laser machine. She has given us a regime of little exercises to do here at home each day too - only takes a few minutes and again really seems to be helping.

Every morning, with doggy toothpaste and a softish human toothbrush, for about a minute. Seems to be working for us - the vet was pleased with the condition of his teeth last week when she checked!

done

I sympathise with Bella about the whooping and hollering. There is an all-breeds doggy daycare place next to our local park, it's well run by a couple of nice girls but whenever we walk past and hear all the dogs clamouring with excitement I always think 'gosh, Doc would hate to spend the day there' - and he's a big confident boy! Contacting a local greyhound group for ideas for the future sounds a good way to go. I am lucky - Doc came from one which has its own kennels, and keeps a few available for holiday boarders. If you can find a similar greyhounds-only setup that might actually be a good alternative to home boarding. These dogs do appreciate the company of their own kind and although it may look a bit spartan compared to home he slots back quite happily into kennel life and routines - and I have the reassurance of knowing he's in expert hands, and that the (modest) fee I pay goes to benefit the rescue.

Doc's having home visits at the moment from a physio, for a compressed disc space in his spine which seems also to have given him problems with his right hip - his x-rays certainly show a bit of arthritis in the area of the disc. She's a qualified vet (and human) physio who has lots of experience with greyhounds as she volunteers at our rescue. Anyway she has a portable laser unit which she used on him during her first visit last week. This was after she'd massaged and manipulated him, with him lying on his bed. She said it would help speed up the healing process. You need to protect your eyes, so we wore goggles and I put a scarf on him as a blindfold (could just have used my hand) and she used it a few times in the problem areas. It beeped each time you use it but he seemed quite unfazed by it. He was certainly helped by her treatment - our vet was very pleased with the improvement to the feel of his back, and to his gait - but how much of that is down to the laser, as opposed to her skilled hands, I wouldn't care to say! My suspicion is that the laser on its own wouldn't do much, but that if you have the chance to try it for free and Darcy doesn't object, why not? Doc's got another home visit booked in for this week and we have some physio exercises we do every day meanwhile. He is clearly a lot more comfortable - always wanting a wild game with his teddy bear!

For manuka honey, the higher the UMF rating the better - 10 is the minimum worth bothering with. As someone else said, if you are lucky enough to be able to buy a good-quality local honey that would be an alternative - as I understand it, the thinking behind that is that honey from local flowers will stimulate the immune responses appropriate to that particular environment.

Usually I just clean small cuts with cooled boiled water with a bit of salt dissolved in it. I find they heal faster if they are then left exposed to the air - so long as they're not somewhere that can be licked, that is! If they are stubborn about healing, try dressing them with manuka honey.

Doc shows absolutely no inclination to roll in stinky things, but does like to roll around on his back in his bed or on the carpet when he's feeling playful. I'm glad it's that way round!

Just what I was going to suggest for the OP.

Yes, good idea. I also think if you leave them there for just a short stay first that will prove helpful for them. The kennel will become a familiar place, and they will remember that it's somewhere you come and pick them up from! Doc regularly goes back to the greyhound rescue he came from, as they offer holiday kennelling. The first time it was just overnight - I had a family wedding to go to - and I was there first thing the next morning, worrying that he might think he'd been abandoned! But although very excited to see me again, and come home, he always settles back into the kennel routine quite happily. It's great for me too, as I have the reassurance of knowing that he's in expert and loving hands. Having a dog that is 'kennelable' is also useful backup for emergencies. I live on my own, and I will go so far as to say that rescue's holiday kennelling facility was an important factor in my choosing to adopt from them. I do urge anyone who says they can't bear the thought of leaving their dogs for so much as a single night to consider how they would all would cope if there was really no alternative! Last summer I had a health scare (a questionable mammogram that turned out to be nothing, thank goodness) and it was certainly reassuring to know that if I did have to have an op, Doc would be able to go down to the kennels and would cope just fine... I don't think dogs perceive the passing of time in the same way as we do, particularly if they are living in one place and according to a regular routine. So I don't see the length of the stay as problematic in itself, especially if you have prepared them with a shorter preliminary stay.

Doc is ten and a half. When he started developing some first twinges of arthritis last year I got him a bioflow collar - I was a bit sceptical, but my vet said 'can't harm and some dogs it does seem to help'. It does seem to have helped for him - along with a daily dose of a jointcare supplement containing glucosamin, chondroitin and msm (a liquid one, as apparently those are more easily absorbed) and a light daily massage.

As these are males it would probably help to import something upright that they can 'mark'. I do remember I am sure reading on this forum that in American training kennels they keep traffic cones in the turnout pens for this purpose... could you maybe get hold of a traffic cone?!? You can also buy plastic marking sticks, impregnated with some kind of smelly stuff, from pet shops. Have to say I tried one of these for Doc and he wasn't interested, probably because it was a few months after adoption and he had already found his own pee-spots in the garden, so I passed it on to someone with a new puppy to housetrain. For the pooping, it might help to bring in a poop done elsewhere and leave it in the area for a while to help them get the message, in the way that people do with puppies that have been brought up using those indoor training pads. Good luck!

Distracting with treats sounds good. Turning sharply round and walking her in the other direction when she starts to react is also good, but I can see this may not always be possible if you are meeting them in the environs of your apartment. But it will help if you can be proactive on her behalf - I bet at the moment you are getting anxious too and she will sense that! If you can see/hear the little dogs starting to kick off, put Gracie behind/beside you as you walk past so they are not in her face, and that will help BOTH your confidence. Part of the problem as you say is that she's not used to little fluffy dogs - if the owners of these ones won't help out, can you find somewhere else where she can meet some nice ones under controlled conditions and realise that they are 'real dogs' too? E.g. a mixed-breed dog obedience class with a good trainer? I found this a great help with Doc who came to me fresh from kennels. We had particular problems with puppies - their squirmy movements looked all too like prey - so she let him sit in on a puppy class too, and even sniff the smallest, whitest and fluffiest specimen! No more problems after that... Relax, persevere, and hopefully Gracie will end up like Doc who now just ignores the little pests. It is a great satisfaction to me as we walk past them and their owners to say loudly 'Just ignore that rude little dog... GOOD BOY!' .

I would never leave a dog without water, except for some special medical reason. Here in the UK RSPCA advice is that a dog should have 'constant access to clean drinking water'. I believe it's one of the things their inspectors check on when investigating reports of animal cruelty, under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act.

I think keeping cat and greyhound completely separate is the safest option, and that the polite thing to do would be to talk directly to the sister, in advance of your visit, to see whether she would be able/ happy to arrange this.

Yup, she's showing you what a happy girl she is - excited to wake up and find herself starting on a new day with you in her forever home... Doc knows he's not supposed to run in from next door and greet me until the alarm clock goes off, but even after six years of retirement he still sometimes just can't wait and has to start squeaking with excitement!

I'd certainly give it a go - probably with just a small quantity to begin with to see how it suits their tums. It's more or less what I do myself, I agree it makes life more interesting for the dog and I think it is probably better for their stomachs to get a range of stuff to cope with too. Doc mostly has tinned dog food as a topper for his kibble, little bits of frozen veg (usually broccoli or spinach) and left over soup and stew if suitable go down well too. Once or twice a week instead of the tins he gets some chopped-up pigs' or beef liver or pigs' kidney from the supermarket instead (not lambs' liver that is very expensive here, and not chicken livers which seem too rich, the one time I tried them we had very messy poops afterwards). Other times it will be green tripe (unfit for humans, but I can get it in minced and frozen blocks from the pet shop). With white tripe, bear in mind that it has been cleaned and bleached for human consumption so has less nutritional value than the green. Breakfast is a couple of raw chicken wings (cheapest cut available here). Have never tried fresh pigs' ears but don't see why they shouldn't go down well - I know some people have reservations about the fatty content of the preserved ones (which Doc loves), but isn't that largely sprayed on during the preservation process? Ham hocks - again, no experience, but I don't see why not. Hopefully the raw feeders will chip in with more information. Just this minute Doc is enjoying a very exotic treat, a goat's foot from our local halal butcher - see my earlier thread enquiring about the safety of this here. It seems to be going down very well!

Great - thank you!

That's good to know, thank you - and I've checked and the lungworms aren't an issue, he would have to eat the snails himself to get infected lungworm information So thanks all and yes we'll give it a go !

The legs are sold at a halal butcher's, so mostly catering for our local Muslim community. I think goat is also used in some traditional Caribbean dishes. I've eaten kid/goat meat myself, in North Africa - good flavour, if not too old and stringy. These legs I should think are intended for boiling up for stock/stew, as there is not much meat on them! Daisydoodle, that's a good point about the lungworm - thank you, I will check that out. Anyone got any advice on the 'weightbearing' aspect?

Doc dearly loves to gnaw on a bone, and I'm all in favour as it's good for his teeth, but they're not easy to get hold of round here - none at the supermarket, or at most of the local butchers' either. Our local halal butcher does, however, stock goats' legs. Very inexpensive (3 for £1!) and rather gruesome-looking, but I'm sure he'd love to try one - can anyone tell me whether they'd be safe for him? I hesitated about buying one, because of it being a weight-bearing bone - or is that only a problem with larger, heavier, animals like cows? Many thanks. His main diet includes some raw, by the way - chicken wings for breakfast and other things like offal and beef mince with his dinner when I can buy them inexpensively - and his teeth are pretty good!

I don't use a crate, and I don't think you'll find many other retired greyhound owners here in the UK who do. I gather that racing greyhounds in the US live in crates, which makes it understandable that they would find them a safe haven when they retire and move into a domestic setting. However, British racing greyhounds haven't had that experience - they live in kennels, usually in dog/bitch pairs I understand. Am glad about this as a suitably-sized crate would have been a hard thing to find space for! (I think our British homes are usually smaller than yours.) Ugly to look at, too. That said the use of crates does seem to be on the increase here, for smaller dogs and for training puppies. I can see their merits as a safe haven/ safe transit accommodation for a dog, that's fine but I do worry that they are open to abuse and that some people will shut dogs up in them for long hours, just to keep them out of the way. A dog is not a 'cage pet'!

That's greyt! Congratulations! Well done Sonny! If the barking becomes a problem, a solution I've heard recommended is to teach the dog to 'speak' (bark on command), so you can also ask it to be silent. Don't ask me how you do that, though - not a problem I've had to deal with here.