silverfish

One of mine had it while in kennels. It's a very odd thing because yes, nobody is sure what causes it. It might be bacterial, but they think there is also a stress factor which would fit with our experience. Stress can lower the immune response, so it's entirely possible that one dog can get it and the rest of the household do not - which is a common experience with HGE, and in Renie's case, one dog got it and the rest of the kennel were fine. She started vomiting on the day we were due home. She also had horrible diarrhoea and Claire (the kennel owner) couldn't tell which was which. When I arrived, she'd just had another episode and the kennel floor had two or three piles of .. well, it looked like beetroot slurry it was so bloody. I took her straight to the vet and she was given supportive therapy and was fine within a couple of days. Personally, I think it's unlikely that an allergic response to food would cause such dramatic gastric/bowel bleeding, especially food which you have switched gradually to over a period of time. Allergies don't tend to cause bleeding anyway, not as a rule, although allergies are very strange and unpredictable things. Vomiting and diarrhoea, yes, but not bloody, not immediately. That might happen if it went on for long, but you'd see other signs first, I think.

Agreed. Sid does go a bit slow and spacey when he's on it, but it is an effective form of pain-relief for him and it doesn't make him unhappy. I'm on it myself at the moment, by the way, and from my own experiences, I can tell you that when you first begin taking it, it can cause nausea and dizzyness which do seem to wear off within a few doses, then you just feel kind of disconnected.

Some drugs - like Tramadol - will definitely cause this type of behaviour in some dogs. If she's not on any drugs which could be the cause, then either you do have some kind of wildlife in the walls or floors, or she's having some kind of 'event'. Definitely get a video to show your vet - a picture speaks a thousands words, as they say. Oh, and for urine samples .. the boys are easier and generally don't mind a tub being popped into the stream of urine to catch some. The girls are a tad more difficult but I've had success with a flat container taped to a stick so that I could slide it underneath the bottom as they squat. Some people use a soup ladle (and then go and buy another one for the soup!).

Before having a second toe off the same foot, I'd go for a specialist referral. Hopefully they can clear this up with heavy-duty antibiotics like clindamycin (one of the antibiotics useful for bone infections) before they start thinking of doing that. Hope she's OK!

Tramadol. Sid was on it for quite a while and it made him spacey and sleepy. Once we got him off it, he perked up nicely. He wasn't unhappy, he was just a bit zombified.

One or two of mine have been possessive with high value treats at first. Both, in time, and with patient training, completely stopped doing it. Jeffie is the sort of dog who'll be possessive over more or less anything if he values it enough, but these days, though he'll growl and Sid and stop him even walking past if he's on a favourite bed, he'll let me step into the bed to reach something without a murmur, and I have no more problems with him and high value treats. So yes, they can get past it and become fine. I would always be cautious with a dog like this though, in the sense that I am always watching their body language to make sure they're OK with what's going on. I am very careful about correcting for growling (this is their early warning system, and if you teach them it's not OK to growl they can go straight to a bite without a sound), always let them see me coming at them with things like nail clippers. And I never take food away from a dog for no good reason. The only time I'll take food away is if it's dangerous for them to have it; for instance if they've picked up a chicken bone while out walking.

We do home-cooked as an add-in - I cook up a batch of meat stew (with veggies if I have anything suitable) a couple of times a week to mix in with the kibble. Between times they have tinned pilchards or mackerel as an add-in, or good quality canned. I use chicken carcases quite often. If you cook them for an hour in the pressure cooker (or for however long it takes in the crockpot) you can mash or grind up most of the bones, thus making great use of almost everything. When it's cooled, it almost has a canned food consistency, with the stock turning to a thick jelly. The dogs LOVE it. They'll tolerate carrot or green beans in very small pieces, spinach, small amounts of broccoli, or sweet potato ... but Jeffie will not eat anything 'tainted' with tomato. Sid really likes it, but if I put it in the stew, Jeffie won't eat a thing!

We use a Bite-Not collar if we need to, but our boys don't bother wounds at all. Sid licked his foot once or twice after his corn surgery, but when I told him to leave it he did, and we didn't wake to soggy feet so he must've not even licked when we weren't looking. We've found the Bite-Not great for all but front leg wounds, it's a good alternative to the cone, which NONE of my greyhounds has tolerated well (didn't try the soft one, though). Have to say, you can also cover wounds with a t-shirt or leggings and it's usually enough to stop them getting at them. We did that with Jeffie's three 'Ooops, I ran into a brick wall which I knew full well was there' gashes, just to make sure he didn't chew them during the night.

I think she looks in great shape! She and Sid (a tripod, so also handicapped) look very similar in the amount of muscling and bone visibility. You perhaps can't see quite as much of the hip points on Sid, but he is hugely muscled over his loins because of the extra work his back end has to do. I used to worry a lot about his weight; like you, I can't afford to let him get overweight, and we need to keep his muscles in good shape, but to many people he looks wrong. However, I frequently check with vets and greyhound trainers/rehabilitation specialists and they all say he's looking really good and exactly the weight he should be. We have to work at it with Sid because he's a pig. I know now when he's put a couple of pounds on and reduce his food for a week or two. Here's Sid Absolutely. I see more of the spine than I'd like on Sid, but it's only the way he's developed since losing his leg. If I fed him enough to cover it up, he'd never be able to haul himself upright! 'Handicapped' dogs need to carry less weight. It's a little bit of a balance between keeping them skinny and maintaining muscle mass, but basically, it is as simple as that. Sid is ten years old, by the way.

Depends on the rescue. Brambleberry doesn't insist on 6 foot. Sharon assesses each property according to the dog she's adopting out, I think. Our fencing is 5 foot at its lowest, but we have an older tripod and a senior of twelve. I think a lot is to do with whether they can see through it or not, as well. I've never had a dog attempt to climb or jump this. it's like this fence, with a slightly different baseboard on two sides. On the third side is a 13 foot conifer hedge backed by four foot chain link (which they can't see because the trees are so thick) and the house makes up the fourth side.

Definitely do this. There are other types of bone cancer and diseases of bone. I would definitely seek the advice of an expert. If Dr Couto can't help you (unlikely!) then please ask for a referral to a specialist veterinary hospital since your own vets seem to be a bit clueless on this. You've waited plenty long enough already.

That's right. Last I heard they were still classed as 'agricultural livestock' in Eire, which means they don't get the same protection in terms of cruelty/humane treatment as other dogs. Hopefully that will change at some point. Most of the ex-racers from Ireland come to England - in fact most of the active racers in the UK as a whole are Irish. We breed far fewer here than they do, and have more re-homing charities. My understanding is that greyhounds are not seen as potential pets in Ireland to the degree that they are here, so occasionally when the Irish shelter gets a greyhound that seems very adoptable they will arrange for him to come to Massachusetts so he has a better chance of finding a home. Thank you for all of the welcomes!

We use rice for when their guts are upset, and some people use it to build them up if they are elderly or for some reason are not putting on weight. We also do use wet food (canned) when I don't want to cook a batch of homemade 'stew' and it's not a problem. Many greyhounds do well on a mix of wet and dry, and it adds interest to their dinner. But do get a good quality canned food; many of them contain very little actual meat.

Tapeworms are one of the least harmful of the intestinal parasites (unless you get one of the hydatid worms, but then the segments are usually too small to be noticed) so don't worry too much. The most they usually do is make their host undernourished because they take all the food for themselves.

I've answered more fully in the other thread, but one thing I do want to say is that it is extremely unlikely that you are seeing undigested rice in the poop. It is FAR more likely that what you think is rice is actually individual tapeworm segments. I'd take a poop sample in to the vet and get it checked for parasites. Worms will often cause poop problems.

This is extremely unlikely to be rice. Cooked rice is so easily digested, I have never seen it in poop, ever. If you did, the poop would be completely liquid, very light coloured, and probably bloody (it would have come through so fast). It is much more likely that the 'grains of rice' you are seeing are tapeworm segments. There is a good picture of tapeworm segments in poop on this page. As to food: Jeffie, who is about 66lb and underweight, gets all he will eat, which is about 180 g kibble plus three to four tablespoons of wet food mixed in, twice a day. Sid gets less, despite being bigger, because he tends to put on weight. They both get snacks between meals (Sid's are compensated for by the reduction in kibble and they are good quality, dried meat type treats for the most part). Newly adopted greyhounds often have runny poop. It's partly due to stress, so you're right not to be chopping and changing foods too quickly. And also, greyhounds generally tend to produce less of the 'log' type, and be looser in consistency. So long as it's not diarrhoea, it's probably okay, though the 'log' is more desirable for lots of reasons! But do check for worms, because worms can cause loose poops too. Pooping in his crate? I'd say it may possibly be due to his not being let out on his previous schedule. Greyhounds usually arrive not knowing how to ask to go out. They are never expected to ask to go out at the kennel, they are just taken out and expected to do their business, so they get used to waiting until the regularly turn-out time. Since they can be very much creatures of habit, this sometimes means they make a mess in the house at first, depending on how 'off' your schedule is to them. If there's any way you can find out the turn-out times you might be able to improve things by sticking to those for a few days and gradually changing to a schedule of your own making, or simply turn him out/walk him half an hour after each meal, and again at frequent intervals, praising him when he goes in the right place. Whatever you do, do NOT scold him for pooping in his crate or you may end up with a dog who won't crate at all. Hope some of that helps.

We used to get raw milk delivered. It tasted so much better, quite apart from any health benefits it might have. It came from a local, TT tested herd. Now, you can't seem to find it here.

I use goat milk a lot. It's easier to digest than cow's milk and the dogs like it, too. But one of the supposed 'health benefits' of goat milk is a myth: they can and do get TB, so it still needs to be pasteurised.

If the Rimadyl and Tramadol aren't helping within a day and she's screaming in pain, I'd take her back and request further investigations. There can be all kinds of reasons that cause screaming in greyhounds from extreme pain, fear, etc to stepping in poop, but unless you know of a clear cause, it should never be ignored. I'm concerned that the Tramadol isn't helping her for more than a couple of hours. It's a fairly strong painkiller, and combined with Rimadyl should give her cover for longer than that. If it isn't, I'd suspect an injury or pathology of some kind. It could easily, by the sound of it, be a disc problem. I can imagine that in that circumstance, the dog would know she would hurt more by trying to stand in the car that she would by lying down. Once they're down, they can be comfortable for a while because they're relaxed. Does she also have trouble getting up? Does she carry her head at an unusual angle?

Hmm. I am always very dubious about putting stuff on to the skin/coat to improve it, but I do have some coconut oil, so I might try it on Jeffie's ratty old tail!

Have they checked to make sure there's no foreign body in there? Might be worth asking. You can rinse out the sheath with a mild saline solution (about a teaspoon of salt to a pint of barely warm water), and use a syringe - without the needle attached, obviously! Simply take him outside with the container of water and a towel to dry him off afterwards, and gently squirt water inside the sheath, being careful to avoid the tip of the penis as you insert the syringe. I usually try to hold the opening shut for a second or two and squish it about before letting it run out, but he may be too sore for that. BTW, every male dog I've done this for has thorough enjoyed the process! Maybe also get them to check for crystals in the urine. That can be very painful for them.

In addition to the other answers, I do have one thought: if she doesn't normally ask to go out, and doesn't know how to ask to go out, why would she suddenly be able to do so, just because she has a UTI? Under those circumstances it would be completely normal for her to just pee anywhere in the house. I suppose vets wouldn't normally think about this because most dogs do ask to go out. It's just that greyhounds have never had to, and as long as their new owner takes them out on a schedule anyway, it can go unnoticed that they actually CAN'T ask if they want to go outside their schedule. I would take a urine sample in and ask for it to be tested before doing anything else. You can use a shallow container to slide under her when she pees, or a yoghurt pot on a stick, or a soup ladle. All have to be spotlessly clean, of course. You can pour it into a new ziplock bag for transport. At my vet, we don't even need an appointment just to drop the sample off to be tested, though they like you to have one when you discuss the results if there's anything to find. Just as Greysmom described, Renie had two or three UTIs that our vet would have missed if I hadn't asked for a urine sample to be done. It happens. They wanted to put her on the incontinence drugs at one point, too. A course of antibiotics cured her in less than a week.

Please don't feel like that - it wasn't my intention to make anyone feel guilty or add to anyone's grief. It's just a thought I had. Our two lay around a lot too (normal greyhounds!) because they're elderly and/or have physical problems, to I can't do much exercise with them. I try to get them up on their feet during the day though rather than lounging around ALL day .. but who knows? Nobody does. I haven't heard a single vet suggest that they get strokes because of inactivity, it's just that with cardiovascular incidents running strongly in our family, it's kind of on my mind a lot and I was wondering. Lost my Mum in 2011 to a massive stroke. She was disabled and in chronic pain and sat around literally all day in a chair unless she was pushing her frame from one room to another, to get food or drink and it was a small bungalow. She had one of those static pedal exercisers but used it only for a week and then it gathered dust. Our greyhounds are lazy, lazy dogs. You can bet Dusty wouldn't have been blaming you for the happy life she led.

Ha! Yes, I was rather tired (and sick) when I wrote that. What I meant, of course, was that it doesn't have to be off-lead in an open space. It can be in an enclosed area! That's what we do, too. Or used to, when we had suitable off-leaders!