NeylasMom

Do you have blood work and urine results you can post here? A good number of vets aren't really familiar with normal ranges for kidney values with greyhounds, which are higher than other breeds so you may not be dealing with kidney disease at all. Especially if it was just the BUN that was elevated, which can happen from dehydration (which would be expected if your dog had been vomiting for days). Glad to hear things are resolving though!

After ruling out some other treatments options, and trying palliative radiation that unfortunately did not provide the pain relief we had hoped, we have settled on oral pain meds, weekly massage with a physical therapist and Zoledronate for pain management for Zuri. This has been working well and I have a happy bouncing boy who is acting like himself, eating well and playing with his toys daily. Unfortunately before we did the second Zoledronate treatment we noticed that his kidney values were creeping up. The Zoledronate carries a risk of kidney side effects, but because controlling Zuri's pain is our priority we went ahead with it and hoped for the best. That was 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, we redid blood work and results show a BUN that is up 2 more points, but his creatinine has dropped 0.2. I'm waiting for the vet to call to discuss, but this seems to indicate to me things may have stagnated or are at the very least moving very very slowly. I wouldn't dare hope things are actually improving, more that there are slight variations from the machine/lab used, but all in all I think this is very good news. This gives me hope that we may be able to continue to repeat Zoledronate treatments for a while. I know things can change on a dime, but I was really expecting the results to have increased significantly so today, we are celebrating. The rest of the blood work looked good as well. I had been slightly concerned about his various blood counts trending downward, maybe indicating that he was becoming anemic, but they were all up this time.

Well I'm glad I waited to start the Rimadyl because Skye threw up this morning. At least this way I know it's the antibiotics. She had vomited bile one or two mornings toward the end of her last course of ABs, but I wasn't sure they were causing it. Now I know.

Thanks all. I know the Rimadyl will be fine, I just need to hear it from multiple people. Freaking anxiety. Oh, I didn't even consider that a diaper would be preventing airflow, thanks. Cleptogrey, vet recommended Neosporin if I could keep her from licking for 5 min after. I think I will just do that for a couple of days to five it a head start until the ABs can kick in. Actually, I wonder about using DermaGel. I love love love that stuff - antibacterial, but it really seems to speed wound healing. It has more ingredients though that may not be safe if ingested. I can ask the vet when they call with Zuri's test results today.

So urine had WBC, RBC and bacteria though she wasn't definitive on there being a UTI - said she could also have bacteria on the outside from all the licking working its way in and causing infection. Regardless, she is on Cephalexin and we sent her urine out for culture. I'm also to stop the l-theanine for 3 weeks. She also prescribed a 7 day course of Rimadyl to help calm the area down. I'm in my dog has cancer and I can't handle anything else on top of it mode so I'm afraid to give it to her. Contemplating half the dose instead. What do you think? They prescribed 75 mg which is pretty much the appropriate 2 mg/lb dose (close, she weighs 42 lbs). Otherwise, we keep it clean and keep her from working on it. They want me to use an e-collar, but I am going to try to keep her from doing it using the baby wipes, Neosporin and just watching her and if that fails, we'll use the collar. Or I thought about the cloth diaper cover they make for dogs that you stick the diaper pads in, just minus the pad. I'm not sure which would make her more miserable.

Sounds like it. You may find this article helpful: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/14_10/features/Resource-Guarding-Behavior-Modification_20368-1.html Also, a word of caution - not sure how you've "stopped" the guarding when you take things, but be careful of punishing guarding behavior. You may end up suppressing only the warning signs, leading to further aggression later. Much safer to teach a trade cue and always either leave the dog be with a high value item or trade for something as good or better.

So he's been throwing up for 2 days despite receiving an anti-nausea medication? I agree, back to vet. Did they run any tests - blood work or urine? Any chance he are something he shouldn't have and has a blockage?

Hoping for good news.

The HW preventative isn't sufficient to wipe out an existing infection, which could explain why your sister's dog still had them. However, it will in theory prevent your dogs from becoming infected. Having said that, I would not want my dogs eating off of the grass when I knew I had an infected dog pottying in the yard. But that's just me.

Could it have been a side effect from a medication he was on? I've never heard of this being associated with osteo before, buy I'm certainly no expert.

This is definitely a better option than Ace if you're going to insist on using something. Fyi, it's not sedating to all dogs.

I'm angry for you too. And so sad. This is what this terrible disease does. I wish I could offer you some comfort.

If it were me, I wouldn't potty her in my yard, I'd do poop walks.

Sounds to me like he got rhabdomyolysis from over exertion at the track. It causes muscle wasting and can cause kidney failure or death depending on severity and how fast the dog receives appropriate treatment. But assuming it's been some time since the incident, I'd expect any damage to be stable. In other words, if his kidneys were damaged they won't continue to get worse. But I could be totally off base about any or all of this. Do you have vet records from when he got sick at the track? A high CK enzyme level would be indicative of rhabdo. ETA: it would be worth knowing as dogs who have had rhabdo once are supposedly more prone to getting it again. The track folks might also refer to it as tying up. Common symptoms are dark red urine and muscle pain. Maybe you could get in touch with the track folks or the owner to find out if that's what this was.

Are you leashing him for potty trips? The other thing to consider is that any of those sedating drugs can make a dog stumble or lose their footing, which could have the opposite effect. You would probably be best served using the x-pen and learning him up before you let him out. Yes, it's a total pain, but it should get the job done.

I wouldn't use Ace. I would x-pen or crate him and do lots of food puzzles to tire him out.

We have a vet appt for Tuesday. We could stop it until then, but I'm also going to start wiping her with baby wipes and applying Neosporin per the vet until then so I won't necessarily know. I think I'd like to get her tested either way.

How does one test for a yeast infection in dogs? Swab and culture? I wonder if there's something in the supplement that would keep yeast at bay? Here are the ingredients: Product Facts: Active Ingredients per Tablet: Uva Ursi 200 mg Chanca Piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) Powder 150 mg Cranberry Juice Extract 100 mg Marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) Root Powder 100 mg L-Methionine 100 mg Corn Silk Powder 60 mg Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) 60 mg Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) Whole Plant Powder 50 mg Olive Leaf (Olea europaea) Extract 50 mg yielding Oleuropein 7.5 mg Inactive ingredients: brewers yeast, microcrystalline cellulose, silicon dioxide, smoke flavor, stearic acid, vegetable stearate. This all started back in December, but nothing changed in her diet that I can think of. I feed a raw diet so she gets varied proteins - chicken, beef, lamb, etc. Treats are typically all meat based freeze dried or air dried stuff. Uh oh, I just had a thought. I put her on l-theanine back in November. I stopped it briefly at some point, but I can't remember when, then put her back on it. I've never encountered a dog having side effects from it other than my mom's dog strangely having larger stool volume, but I wonder if that could be the issue? I really hope not as it helps her arousal issues a good bit, but the timing could fit. It's just in capsule form so unless the capsule itself is causing an issue for her, it would have to be the l-theanine. She also takes this probiotic daily: http://www.vetriscience.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=900714120

So we had this issue pop up in December. I noticed Skye (my mixed breed) licking herself a lot. Took her to the vet, ran bloodwork, all clear. I think I put her on a supplement, UTI Stat Strength (a 10 day "course" - you're not supposed to use it for longer than that) and she seemed okay for a little bit. Back in March (I think?) because she was doing it again, another U/A - a little bacteria but not enough to indicate infection, everything else looked good. Put her on a course of ABs anyway and then I followed up again with the supplement for another 10 days sometime after that. I vaguely remember being unsure whether the ABs did anything, but thinking the supplement did. Fast forward to recently - I've noticed her doing it more and more. It's been in my head to get her to the vet, but with everything going on with Zuri I just haven't prioritized it. So very recently it's happening so much more frequently, she'll even stop to lick herself right after she pees on our walks. So I looked closely last night and the area around her vagina is bloody. I feel like a horrible dog mom for letting this persist so long. I don't know if something about her urine is irritating her (too acidic?) and she's licking to soothe it or if the licking started for another reason and now she's licking it raw. When we did the ABs my vet said if it persisted to bring her back and we'd do a culture so I will take her in for a new u/a and culture, but I can't get her in until Monday or Tuesday unfortunately. So 2 questions - is there anything I can do until then to help clean up the area and soothe it? I can probably deter her from licking for a period of time, but I can't assume she won't lick it eventually so I want to make sure whatever I use is safe for her to ingest small amounts of. Also, anything else I should have my vet do while we're there? Could she have more of a skin infection that wouldn't show up on a u/a that we should do a swab/culture of or something like that? I don't want to mess around with this anymore. I feel like a real jerk for letting things go on, but to be fair my vet was very blase about it and said she probably just needed cranberry in her diet, but her diet hasn't changed since I got her 4 years ago and these symptoms are new so I think there must be something more going on. Regardless, I don't want to delay a diagnosis so whatever might help us figure this out, I will do it. Her insurance will pay for a lot of it anyway. So if anyone has experience with anything like this, I would love to hear suggestions.

I am so sorry. How devastating. This has been a horrible week for our pups with osteo. My thoughts are with you today. Hoping for a peaceful passing for Chase and peace for you Judy with time.

I'm so very sorry. I wasn't expecting to see this today as I'm sure you weren't expecting to be posting it. I'm very sorry you had to make such a quick decision and didn't have Roy with you. Sending you many hugs.

Glad to hear it!

This is what I do as well with any that I think are going to be tougher to sneak past the dog. It worked as well when I needed to get pills into my cat and if it works for a cat that's saying something. I always follow up immediately with a non-pill treat too. Basically it's just a steady stream of treats, some with pills they hopefully never know about and some without.

Some dogs are just freaked out by the sound of the clicker. They do make a version that has a much softer click, but there are a lot of other options for a marker, which is what the click is. Its just something that once associated with food tells the dog their reward is coming. I typically use a verbal marker, the word "Yes!" said in a very specific, enthusiastic way that isn't how I would say it normally. You can also use a quiet whistle, a click of your tongue, etc. The main thing is that it's salient - in other words it's a clear sound the dog can hear that stands out because you don't use it at other times. Markers are more important for some behaviors than others so I'd say it depends on what you were hoping to teach whether it will really help you. The good news is dogs are very forgiving so they tend to learn whether we use markers or not and regardless of how poor our treat delivery is, though of course better timing and changes in criteria will get you behavior faster. I might just start with a simple targeting or eye contact exercise without a marker and just have fun.

Yes, even if we had gotten good pain relief from the radiation I planned to continue the Zoledronate treatments for that reason (excluding the kidney stuff that came up). If cost isn't a factor and his kidneys are good, I don't think you are likely to do harm continuing them and they may help keep the bone strong.