DocsDoctor
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Posts posted by DocsDoctor
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I am so sorry for your loss. She sounds a very special girl. Run free, dear Sheba! 
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Sending many condolences on your loss; the silence and emptiness hurt for sure.
Run free dear Rook
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I am so very sorry for your loss.
Run - and jump - free, sweet Jeter
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Like others I expect he will get there with time, but meanwhile, do you have a friend/neighbour with a dog who could come round and demonstrate that Stairs Are Easy?
Maybe someone from the rescue could help out with a home visit, with or without another hound - it's a not uncommon problem but obviously also one it would be good to sort out prior to adoption.
Also, what is the lighting on the stairs like? Could improving visibility help?
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How exciting - looking forward to an update, hopefully with photos!
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55 minutes ago, EllenEveBaz said:
What a beautiful place. I wonder what kind of trees were planted -- deciduous? evergreen? mixed?
Virtually all deciduous, Ellen; mostly broadleaved native species, to match the pockets of older surviving woodland on the site. That's what's been planted round the soldiers, though another nearby has been planted up as a community orchard with lots of different fruit trees. You can read more about the plantings here.
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What a handsome boy - he looks well settled in! Welcome!
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Tiger had another nice day out on Friday, helping me lead an extra WI group walk. As it was November it seemed the right time to check out Langley Vale Wood, one of four woods created in 2014 by UK charity the Woodland Trust to mark the centenary of the First World War. This one's just outside London, on the Epsom Downs, and is the biggest, at just under 650 acres. Formerly the site was farmland, and it remains quite remote, with no facilities as yet - not even a carpark. But it is next to Epsom racecourse, home of the original Derby, so I was able to find us a nice circular route from Tattenham Corner, the nearest railway station. That took us through the racecourse as well as the wood, with lovely views of the Downs. The wood's intended primarily as a nature reserve; it's already been planted with 180,00 young trees, but other areas will be left as grassland.
There are also some artworks - here we are inspecting 'The Regiment of Soldiers,' with me holding Tiger on his lead and bossily pointing another soldier out with my other hand. There are twelve of the sandstone soldiers, commemorating Lord Kitchener’s inspection of troops from the 2nd London Division of Kitchener’s New Army nearby on Epsom Downs, in January 2015. They had to wait for him for hours, in a blizzard - some hadn't even been kitted out with their uniforms yet. This one is still in his civvies including a flat cap:
The faces are all deliberately left unfeatured - not individual portraits, but Everymen. Now of course they also recall people wearing masks. We were definitely impressed, though being the Women's Institute we couldn't help feeling that it would also have been nice to have recalled the WWI contribution made by women as nurses, munition workers, etc. Hopefully the Woodland Trust will do that somewhere else on the site in the fullness of time.
We were also very taken with 'Witness' by John Merrill which is made from 35 pieces of English green oak slotted together, and carved beautifully with inscriptions taken from various WWI war poets:
Jutland Wood commemorates the Navy and individual ships that were lost:
Finally, a shot of part of our route back, through some lovely autumnal woods:
In an ideal world Tiger would I am sure want me to include as well photos of *his* two most exciting walk highlights - the first being the young thoroughbreds in training he saw on the racecourse at the beginning of the walk (and who galloped on too fast for any of us to get a photo!), and the second the plate of complimentary 'dog sausages' that the kind waiter at a cafe in Tattenham Corner produced free of charge for him and his lurcher girlfriend at the end of the walk. They were sliced-up left-over human food, and the two dogs were very polite about taking them in turn from me as we sat over our own lunch!
Thanks for looking!
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Do please keep us updated when you know more - fingers crossed that will be soon and that it is will turn out to be something that is easy to treat and cure.
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6 hours ago, enoire said:
Thanks for your responses.
@DocsDoctor if you recall, how was the urine infection diagnosed in the end?
We have been keeping a water diary, and yesterday he set a new record - 5 litres! Today the vet phoned and she confirmed that 5 litres is too much for him to be drinking. Thankfully the vet also ruled out any serious conditions like kidney disease, but she said the blood test results were somewhat ambiguous and wants another urine sample from him to double check. Knowing the vet is thinking that it's probably medical, but also not serious, is a big relief to me. Hopefully we can find out what it is and get him treated so he can go back to his busy schedule of sleeping most of the day.
I'll keep this thread updated, maybe it can be informative to others in the future!
I *think* it was via a second and more expensive test, which involved more prolonged culturing of the sample at a laboratory.
Also seem to remember that the infection didn't respond to the first lot of antibiotics, so we had to have a second course of something different.
The test I mentioned for the urine's specific gravity may also be worthwhile and is something the vet should be able to do easily and cheaply at the practice - you catch a sample from the first pee of the morning, take it in, and it shows how well the dog is currently processing liquid and concentrating its urine.
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I am so sorry for your loss. He was clearly a very special boy, who found his perfect home with you two and Amy. Run free dear Gus
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I would persist with looking for a medical issue. The indoors peeing sounds more like 'peeing because he has to go' than marking, and peeing while relaxed on his bed in particular is just not something a healthy young male dog would normally do.
And that seems to me a lot of water to drink; when my previous greyhound Ken had peeing issues the vet asked me to keep a water diary, it's years ago now but I think he was just within the top-end of the normal range for a dog of 32 kilos at something like 2.2 litres a day.
I would suggest keeping a water diary (sounds as if you may already be doing that) and showing it to the vet, who can check the figures. Also getting a sample, first thing in the morning, for the vet to run a ?gravity test to see how dilute his urine is, if that's not already been done.
May just be an urine infection - these can be hard to spot, and stubborn to cure. That was what it turned out to be for Ken. It will be uncomfortable for him and shouldn't be neglected, because eventually it will impact on his kidneys. There are also more serious possibilities which a blood test will hopefully help rule out - kidney issues, diabetes insipidus.
Sometimes there can be a behavioural element - even with the infection sorted out Ken remained a bit obsessive about tanking down water when he got the chance, probably the vet and I reckoned because at some point as a puppy or subsequently he'd had restricted access to it, maybe even had to compete for it. But I do think something medical is going on right now in your case.
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2 hours ago, palmettobug said:
When I make it back to London, will you be my guide? I got to go up on the Heath when I was there in college, my Mom's friend lived in Kentish Town at the time.
My great grandparents lived right around the corner from Highgate Cemetery. That's another one on my list.
Tiger and I will look forward to it! And yes, you should definitely visit Highgate Cemetery - very grand, if creepy. No dogs permitted, alas: website.
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26 minutes ago, Remolacha said:
What a beautiful walk! And I know I have said this before, but I am so envious of you being able to take your dog places on the train.
Indeed, we are most fortunate. All my greyhounds have always enjoyed it too, because so many people will come up and make a fuss of them. Tiger always gets really excited when he sees me put on my walking boots, and then again when we start heading to the station - knows some kind of special fun expedition is in prospect
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23 minutes ago, EllenEveBaz said:
How beautiful! Just by the name, I've always thought of Hampstead Heath as more naturally country but your walk seems to be in the more manicured parts. I went down the click here rabbit hole and got interested in reading about the mixed race woman who lived in the house in the 1700s.
Now -- the dogs. Yes, can just see Tiger's skinny brindle butt in the picture in front of the house. And the different colors and textures of the picture of Tiger and lurcher are gorgeous. On the left in the Henry Moore statue picture -- is that a different lurcher, or a deerhound with an attempt at a poodle cut?
Yes, the area round Kenwood is essentially a landscape garden, much more manicured; other areas like the woods we walked up through look much wilder, not that different from when Constable painted them back in the C18. Though it is all very carefully preserved and managed, of course. The City of London are good landlords, and Hampstead is a posh rich area whose residents would kick up no end of a stink if anything inappropriate was proposed!
That's actually the same lurcher in the last picture and on the left of the Henry Moore - she's a rescue, had been found abandoned so one can only speculate as to her breeding - maybe Whirrier (Bedlington terrier x whippet, favoured for rabbiting) but she's a bit big. The second lurcher is again a rescue and good about recall so was bombing around offlead most of the time, together with the spaniel. She is visible from behind in the first pic and to the right outside Kenwood House. She too is grey and shaggy, with dark lines around her eyes that look as if they have been applied using kohl - very glamorous!
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I lead walks every month for a local women's group and yesterday eleven of us travelled up on the train to visit Hampstead Heath. We had four dogs along too: Tiger, a spaniel boy, and two pretty shaggy lurcher girls. I've known the Heath since I was a girl; it's owned by the City of London and sits just four miles above the West End, but is huge (800 acres), still very wild in places, and most picturesque. It was a lovely sunny morning, fortunately, and we enjoyed doing a circuit of about four miles, heading up from the bottom past ancient Ken Wood:
There is a statue by Henry Moore at the top, located at a viewpoint looking back down over the Heath, with the trees coming into autumn colour:
Nearby is Kenwood House, which is C18 and contains some fabulous paintings, as well as having a beautiful setting. Yesterday we only walked past the outside, however; Tiger and I are just about visible at the front:
Then back downhill, on the other side of the Heath. Here is one of the ponds below the house. Further down there are some more big natural ponds where you can swim (brrr!); all are fed by springs that rise at the top of the Heath.
A view from Parliament Hill over towards Highgate:
At the bottom we stopped off for coffee at one of the Heath's cafes, then caught another train home. Humans and dogs were all tired but happy; Tiger was hoping to stretch out on the carriage floor, but as the train was crowded he had to settle for leaning on one of his lurcher girlfriends, instead!
How patient she is being! And don't their different coat types look nice together?
Thanks for looking!
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There's some helpful advice + photos here. I have always understood that you want to see/ feel just a hint of hip bone when you run your hand over the dog's back, and the last couple of ribs. Look also for a 'condition line' running across the ribs at low level - it's very visible on the photo of the healthy-weight fawn dog whose photo is top left on the link.
Sounds to me like a bit of portion control is probably in order, going forward! On the other hand, muscle weighs more than fat so if he was sitting around in kennels before you adopted him, and is now getting more walks, he may have been building muscle.
If you are in doubt, ask your vet - in my experience, UK vets are usually pretty good on what a greyhound should look like, having come across plenty in vet school. Mine have always been happy for me to go in and get one weighed in passing and free of charge, and even throw in the odd treat = "happy" vet visit, which will help make future ones less fearsome. Of course, Covid may well have changed that.
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Not something I have needed to do myself - hopefully someone else has and will be able to chip in, but be aware that there are relatively few UK-based members of Greytalk.
Here is a link to the official UK government advice, you do have to have the health certificate. You could try asking around some other vets, to see if any offer a better deal.
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What a handsome chap! And settling in so quickly. I wish you many happy times together.
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You might have a greyhound if, as the pair of you take a walk, passers-by call out "where's his jockey?"
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Greyt story! This picture in particular of Lewis crashed out on board with his toy is just
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Ouch - that must have been quite a shock to both your systems, as well as your wallet! Hope she is feeling fully recovered this morning.
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I am so sorry for your sudden loss. She was clearly a very sweet, very special girl. Run free dear Rosie!
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If you Google 'lady greyhound brooch' and/ or 'lady greyhound pin' and then click on 'images' many many different designs will be shown as photos, with links to the webpages those come from. I hope you will be able to identify your design, and maybe even somewhere to buy a new one!
I am so sorry for your loss. She sounds a very special girl. Run free, dear Sheba! 
Mooney
in Introductions & Biography
Posted
Welcome home Mooney - he is adorable!