NeylasMom

They were able to get us in this morning. I had already made the appt, but after doing a little more reading on the type of antibiotics that are best for dental issues, I definitely didn't feel comfortable just using the Cephalexin we have. Turns out, the tooth that I suspected was the problem now has some nasty pus in there (this is the tooth that has had the hole in it by the gumline for some time). So she prescribed a 3 week course of Clinadmycin so we'd have enough to get us through until her dental consult, which I'm about to call and schedule. Poor girl - hopefully the ABs help her feel better. I know it can't be good to have a tooth like that in your mouth. I also wanted to run a urinalysis and do blood work if we hadn't done it in a while so we were able to do that as well so it all worked out. Now to just avoid having panic attacks for the next 3 weeks about the dental.

Violet's teeth are a mess. She just had horrible teeth and is now overdue for a dental because I just couldn't handle the likely emergency situation that is sedating her while Zuri was fighting osteo. So we are out of town the next 2 wkds, but I had promised myself that I would get her to the dentist right after that. In the meantime, in the last few days she's started rubbing one side of her face a lot. She has a messed up tooth on that side so I'm starting to worry about a possible abscess. I don't see anything obvious, there's no swelling, but it's obviously bothering her some. So my question, is this a situation where my vet might just prescribe a course of ABs until we can get her in to the dentist? I have virtually no time between now and when we leave Thursday, but could maybe get them to squeeze her in tomorrow. Alternatively, I have access to Cephalexin...

Though if your dog pulls, there is potential for injury over time, primarily with the shoulders with many harnesses, especially no pull ones. When in doubt I recommend the Balance harness. Deters pulling, designed specifically to not cause injury, and highly adjustable.

There is absolutely no need to train with shock collars, which rely on pain or fear to stop behavior. And anyone who tells you they don't has no understanding of how animals learn. By definition, in order for punishment to work (decrease the likelihood of the behavior being punished) the animal must find the punishment aversive. We know now through good scientific research and decades of animal training with positive methods that reward based training methods are as if not more effective than punishment based training without the myriad of potential negative side effects. Reward based training teaches our dogs what we want them to do, not just what we don't, while allowing us to maintain a healthy and loving relationship with our pets. What the heck do you think is causing the dog to receive a shock? There are so many euphemisms for shock collars, but being told it's just a radio frequency is a first even for me. Maybe the remote communicates with the collar through radio frequencies, but don't deceive yourself, the collar itself is delivering an electrical shock to the dog. "How They Work Mechanically, a shock collar is designed to deliver varying levels of electrical shock to a dog. Jim Casey, a mechanical engineer with more than 35 years of experience, describes how they work: In the collars, there are two terminals that contact the animal's skin. When the circuit is activated, one terminal is energized. The load is the animal's flesh and the other terminal provides the ground return path. Note that even though the two terminals on the collar are only a few centimeters apart, the electricity follows the path of least-resistance. If the skin is dry and non-conductive, the voltage in the collar is high enough so that the electricity can spark through the skin into moist, conductive tissue underneath that is full of nerve endings. If the unit fails to work when the remote button is pushed, the operator may increase the intensity and the dog receives a highly-intense shock rather than a gradual increase. The effect of the shock on the dog will vary. There is no way to determine how intense the shock will feel because of variables such as the individuals skin thickness and coat, moisture on the skin, whether the skin is broken or split and the level of electrolytes in bodily fluids." https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.petprofessionalguild.com/resources/Documents/The%2520Shocking%2520Truth.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwi3nrG647PPAhWFWx4KHR9yApwQFggnMAQ&usg=AFQjCNEnrH9mM0Ird671bCkLe0NPeNacNQ&sig2=pdt3a78WvVQJtLerL95tmQ If you want to use a shock collar to "train" your dog knowing there are more humane ways to do it, unfortunately that's still your right. But don't be deceived or try to deceive others. Call a spade a spade. Please just don't. Let me know where you live and I will be happy to recommend some good trainers who can help you achieve your goals without the use of pain or fear. I'm a dog trainer and behavior consultant and unfortunately see not only the damage that punishment based training can do, but also how ineffective it can be. If your training skills aren't great using rewards, they won't be good using punishment. The difference is the worst that happens with ineffective reward based training is your dog progresses more slowly and is happy about all the extra rewards he's getting. With punishment, a poorly timed punishment can create fear, anxiety or aggression.

What tests have they done so far, just a urinalysis? If so, you might consider a sterile culture and treat prophylactically while you wait for results. Then you'll have either addresses or ruled out the simplest dx. However, given the frequency of the accidents including overnight, I would suspect something else. Key possibilities are diabetes (2 kinds, one harder to dx), renal disease, and Cushing's or Addison's. Renal disease should show up on blood work pretty easily though you need to make sure your vet understands greyhound values, the others can be harder to diagnose. If the UTI us out after the above is done, then I would consider an internal medicine specialist. By the way, good for you for trusting your gut on the water. If she does have a disease, especially kidney disease, depriving her of the water she NEEDS to flush out toxins and avoid feeling sick would be the worst thing to do. There is one other possibility - that it is behavioral. It's called psychogenic polydypsia in that case and is usually a diagnosis when everything else has been ruled out. I was convinced my dog had a medical issue when he started drinking and peeing more but we couldn't find a thing and I even did an ultrasound. It happened with age and I changed a few things and he stopped. Having said that, a year later he was diagnosed with bone cancer so who knows if there weren't already things going on in his body that contributed. Anyway, last thing I would do is measure water consumption for a couple of days. Just measure what you put into the bowl and what's left each time you empty and refill and then total it up. It will be helpful in pointing toward a diagnosis versus behavioral depending on how much she's actually consuming. Also, what was her specific gravity? With most of the diseases that cause these symptoms the urine isn't concentrated and SG is low.

I'm guessing she needs more exercise and mental stimulation. Dogs that are overly mouthy more often that not aren't getting enough of both. If the energy doesn't come out through their paws and brains, the only thing left is their mouths.

What makes you say that? I actually did some digging (anyone who knows me at all would have seen this coming ) and read some research articles that looked at their accuracy in predicting bacterial infection and while not failproof, it did seem like using both the nitrite and leukocyte values together would give a good idea. These studies were looking at both sensitivity and specificity. Again, not going to be 100%, but seemed to me like 2 negatives would warrant a wait and see approach, whereas one or the other and especially both being positive would warrant and vet visit and "real" testing. I did not look into the accuracy of the specific gravity yet.

Well we got it straight from the vet and I'm sure payed a lot more money that way. I'm sure once you get the needles figured out this way will be just as good if not better.

Great news!

Yeah, those are the ones I ordered. Care of the Racing & Retired Greyhound recommended 2 brands that seem to be well regarded in actual research - Chemstrips and Multistix - but neither was available on Amazon. I think there is the potential for greater inaccuracy with the cheaper ones, but I figured I will start with those and if I find them useful and actually use them routinely I can upgrade later.

That's so strange. When they gave me Adequan for Neyla the medication was already portioned out in syringes with needles.

I have strips that test pH in urine and saliva for the dogs, but only just now realized that they make ones that test a variety of factors including specific gravity, indicators of bacterial infection, etc. How did I not know this?! Does anyone use these at home? I'm really wishing I had had them the last few months so I could have kept an eye on Z's SG and checked for infection periodically. Moving forward I'm just going to use them periodically to have a sort of "at home" baseline for each girl. I obviously wouldn't use them to self diagnose at home, but I can certainly see them being useful for helping to gauge when a vet visit it necessary with the caveat that I know they aren't 100% reliable. Especially for Violet - being able to check for blood and protein in her urine when I suspect she's having a mild rhabdo episode (like I suspect happened last night) - would be really useful. Or being able to see bacteria and knowing she probably has a UTI and that explains why she was guzzling water last night would be a big relief.

This. And honestly, it's not the end of the world if your dog doesn't have access to water for a few hours provided he doesn't have a medical condition. Fyi, I have a friend whose male dog guzzled water when he comes over. He does it because he's somewhat stressed. Does the same thing when they travel or when his mom dogsits. Eventually if he stays for any length of time it lessens. So we just watch him like a hawk and he runs him out if there's any question. If the dog's behavior is like this at home though, I would wonder if they're not missing something medical. Cushing's isn't always easy to spot and would cause those symptoms. I might suggest a urinalysis to see what his specific gravity is like. If his urine is dilute, they might want to dig further.

I don't know except to dose his Gabapentin closer together if possible.

Glad he's firmed up. Don't rule out beef though please. If you're going to feed raw, you need to feed a variety of proteins. Red meats contain some things you can't get in chicken. I still suspect the issue with the beef was the low bone content. So down the road, consider reintroducing it, but alternate it with something with higher bone content. My dogs boneless meals are separated by bone in ones, same with organ meats. If I gave all of the boneless/organ meals in a row, I'd have dogs with stool issues too.

I don't have any experience with the liver specifically, but for Zuri's enlarged spleen they did multiple FNAs guided by ultrasound when he was sedated for his CT scan. I would assume less invasive is always better. Not sure why you'd want to do it surgically if you can get a good sample just sticking the needle in? Have you had a chance to talk to your vet about it? Either way, hoping for positive results.

I wasn't suggesting it specifically for Artemisinin, but that there is a lot of discussion about holistic remedies in general and there were a few dogs with specific treatment plans involving multiple things for that cancer. Just thought you might find some additional ideas or support there.

You could also post on the Artemisinin Yahoo group. There are certainly people on there who would want them.

You might want to join the Artemisinin Yahoo group. There are a few people on there with dogs who have or had that cancer and they discuss other non-traditional therapies other than artemisinin.

Thanks. The one on her other eye is dark, and not as visible, but I'm thinking the most likely is the 2 just look different and it was just irritated from something. I will not run to the vet just yet.

I am starting to wonder if that's just how her eye has always looked. The inner eyelid is still more visible on that left eye, but it doesn't appear bloodshoot like it did. When she was sleeping yesterday she was conveniently doing it with her head on my arm so I could study the eyelid in detail as it covered her eye and there was an area that didn't look smooth. So I don't know, maybe something happened when the girls were playing, a tooth or claw scratched it? Going to just continue to keep an eye on it for now. Thanks for checking in.

Oh, thanks, you probably wouldn't have seen it as it was August of last year, not this year (I'm really behind on that siggie update). He was an old old cat with CKD and hyperthyroidism, but all well managed and we thought he'd live forever. Then he started having weird issues eating and wasn't grooming normally so I took him into the vet thinking his thyroid meds needed to be adjusted only to find out he had cancer in his mouth. We let him go 3 days later. And thus began my **ty year+ of loss and anxiety. Glad your pups are doing well and the house is feeling more normal again. I am having bad dreams on a nightly basis. Over it.

Thanks. Violet and Skye are handling everything really well. They're getting lots of good exercise and training again, plus they get to go to Coventry (where I work as a dog trainer) when I work more frequently now. One of the perks of being a dog trainer - I was able to get Violet right back into nosework class, literally 2 days after Zuri was gone and there happened to be an intro to nosework class that was on week 3 in the slot before the one Violet was going back into so I just started Skye, who has never done NW in that one. So both girls go for nosework on Wednesdays now. I actually lost Cisco to cancer in August, but didn't realize I had never updated my signature. I guess I need to do that for both Cisco and Zuri. I have yet to write a remembrance thread for Zuri either. I never got around to doing it for Cisco and Neyla, something that always bothered me. I started for Neyla, but just could never get very far. I sort of hate that - she was such a special dog, I feel like she deserved one.

So sorry for your loss of Lizzie. And I'm very sorry for the loss of Miles as well. I can recall a time or two where a dog passed away during or shortly after amputation surgery, though I don't know that those owners still check in here. It's not common, but unfortunately it can happen. I'm very sorry it happened to you. I'm curious, what were your vets telling you the "bone degeneration" was from leading up to this? Did they not ever recommend an FNA or biopsy, or possibly a CT scan? Roux, I'm really happy to hear that you are looking at bringing another dog home. I hope whoever you decide on will bring some joy back into your home. I haven't been up to check in much. Things finally started to sink in after I got Zuri's ashes back and I had a really rough few days. Then I went back to running myself ragged. That seems to be my current pattern. Keep myself really busy until I pretty much can't function alternating with long naps, then after a few days of that I can't keep up with it and I break down. Yesterday was particularly bad. It was 2 weeks since I let Zuri go and around 2:30, shortly before the vet would have been arriving at my house 2 weeks earlier I finished the book I was reading (I had already called in sick) and it all just hit me again. I spent a good hour just crumpled on the floor crying until I had to pull myself together to get to my therapy appointment, thank god for that. Anyway, I hope everyone else is hanging in there.