winnie

We've had Darcy since December 2006. She's never been interested in eating poop, but does eat grass whenever she has a chance. We've had Bonny since December 2007. She was a poop eater before we got her and has continued to enjoy her treats. Our area has been hit with a huge snow storm dumping 30+ inches of snow. We've been turing our three greys out in the yard to do their business since walking is simply not an option. We cleared an area in front of the door and the dogs have blazed some paths into the snow. Celeste and Bonny will go on the paths to do their business. Darcy hates the snow and will usually "go" in the cleared area near the door. Well... we noticed in the past 24 hours that Darcy has taken a liking to eating poop. She even woke me up at 1:30 a.m. to go outside. I let her out and she proceeds to dig in the snow looking for some poop we had flung there. I yelled at her to drop it - which she did. Darcy apparently didn't need to go potty - just woke me up to eat poop. Is it possible that she learned this behavior from Bonny? Darcy never showed an interest in poop before, but now she's obsessed. Do you think she is eating it because she can't get to any grass? I'd like to think this behavior will stop once the snow melts, but I'm not feeling very hopeful right now.

Just saw this... poor Treasure! I hope she is feeling better today.

I guess we should consider ourselves lucky... three greys, messy counters and not one counter surfer.

We have 3 female greyhounds. Celeste - will kiss everyone as often as they allow. She also loves licking bare feet and hands. Darcy and Bonny - will give occasional kisses to DH and I. Neither licks other human body parts.

We use Caring Hands Animal Hospital in Centreville. I'm sure the office EnzaFerrari goes to is much closer though. We use Dr. Amy Dillon at the Centreville office. She did an internship near a greyhound track and is quite familiar with the breed and their "quirks." We've been very happy with Dr. Dillon and all of the vets we've used at Caring Hands.

I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that Celeste never actually showed signs of being sick from coccidia... no Big D, etc. DH and I just need to be more diligent about cleaning up our yard after the dogs go potty... Celeste isn't a poop eater (that we know of), but she sure likes digging holes in the mud. I would never recommend giving any dog a medication that was not approved here in the US or approved for dogs - just not willing to take that chance.

That is my point in thinking groups should treat for this during their vetting. How many Greys are carriers and when stressed this causes diarrhea. A one time treatment of Baycox, costing a couple bucks, would take care of it. We've had Celeste since April 2006. She's had annual fecals every year - this just showed up last month. So, more than likely, she picked it up recently in our back yard...

Our 6 y/o grey Celeste recently tested positive for Coccidia during a routine fecal. She showed ZERO symptoms - no Big D at all. We did the round of Albon and need to run another fecal.

I haven't read all the responses... just speaking from my own experience. DH and I aren't dog trainers and have never sent any of our three grey girls to obedience school. However, all our girls know to "wait" (used when crossing the street, for example), "sit/down" (we make them do this before giving treats), and "drop/leave it" (when asked to drop something or leave our kitties along). We somehow managed to teach those commands pretty easily. We do let our greys on furniture, but they know to move when a person wants to sit down. They don't protest either - just a wave of the hand gets them to move. Our grey girl Darcy was 6 y/o when we got her from the track. I must say, she is a DREAM when it comes to well disciplined dogs. She is the perfect dog to walk and has impecible manners. I wish I could say the same about our other two.

Happy Holidays to you and Trudy too!!! Thanks again for all that you both do... for our country and GreyTalk.

Good luck Elsie... don't be too mad at your mama either!

Of our three girls, only Celeste has corn issues. Celeste developed them at around 4 y/o. She was retired at 2.5 y/o after 40 races. Honestly, I don't believe there is any correlation between corns and age/race history. I think some dogs just are prone to them while others are not. Celeste's littermate had horrible corns too. Our other two girls are both 8+ y/o and neither has corns.

Yeah - greys figure things out pretty quick. I'm not good at the cramming down the throat although DH can do it well. The key is getting them far enough back there and then holding their mouth shut until they swallow - blowing on their nose and massaging their throat seems to help. Me - I either use the Greenies pill pockets, cheese or lunch meat to disguise the pills. Rotating what it's hidden in seems to help.

We had a cat once that used to pee in our bed - more spite than illness. A waterproof mattress cover helped us out a lot. It's not the most comfortable thing to sleep on, but it did save our mattress set from ruin. I also second putting plastic covers under the dog bed covers. Good luck!

Proin has done wonders for our two "leaky" girls Bonny and Darcy. As for the bed - look into a waterproof liner.

Bonny is the largest female greyhound DH and I have ever met... we attend most of our groups adoption days and two greyhound events per year too. She is very tall, but also very lean at 75 lbs. Most people mistake her for a male due to her size. ETA... just measured Bonny and she's about 30" at the shoulder. She's all legs though. We refer to her as our supermodel - long legs, skinny and "blond." Bonny is in the center - next to our more "average" sized girls Celeste and Darcy.

The Albon our vet gave us are plain white tablets... nothing nasty looking about them. Celeste eats them right up... the pill pockets help, of course.

I never heard of it either... had to google it. I read that it's pretty common in puppies, but Celeste is 6.5 y/o. Oh well... at least she hasn't been having the Big D or acting sick.

The vet put Celeste on Albon. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky. Celeste shows absolutely no clinical signs - no poop issues whatsoever. This just came up during her annual fecal test.

Celeste's fecal came back positive for coccidia. From what I gather, they get it by swallowing infected soil or substances containing dog feces. Celeste isn't a poop eater, but she does love to dig holes in our back yard. Plus, we haven't been cleaning as much as we should. We've been having so much rain/snow lately that our yard is a mud pit. Poor Celeste. Luckily, she hasn't shown any signs of being sick and is now on meds to clear up the coccidia.

Bonny loves to bark. For example, if you ask her if she wants to go out she'll start barking her head off. She also sighs and squeal quite a bit. Darcy is a whiner. She'll look right at you and start whining her list of grievances. Celeste is our quiet one... she'd rather sleep than talk.

Two of our three grey girls take Proin in low doses. One gets 25 mg every other day - the other gets 50 mg. We haven't had any problems with it.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm Ringo's Secret Santa and really enjoyed reading your description of him. I just mailed his gifts yesterday. I hope the package doesn't cause you any grief. I'm sure Ringo would want his siblings to enjoy the presents. RIP Ringo

All of our greys were "healthy" when we adopted them. Since then, Darcy and Bonny now have incontinence issues. Both are on Proin and will likely stay on Proin for life. All of our greys also have arthritis which require daily supplements (Synovi G3). Both issues are age related. We don't mind one bit - old age issues happen to all of us.