Jump to content

silverfish

Members
  • Posts

    3,451
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by silverfish

  1. Presuming she has had all the necessary bloodwork (especially important since she's an oldie) it may simply be that she can't smell her food as well as she could. Try adding something stinky; a sprinkling of parmesan, some mackerel or sardines, small amounts of liver, heart or kidney (but not offal every day!), and see how she feels about eating those. You can also gently warm her food - you can even warm canned food. We give it two minutes in the microwave from chilled to make enough add-in for both dogs. You may have to allow it to cool a bit from that, but I prefer to heat properly and then cool rather than simply take the chill off and maybe grow bugs in it.. We've been having to do that for Jeffie for a while now. He also now prefers his food rather wet - he likes to see 'gravy' in his dish. We've also switched him onto a better quality kibble. This means that 1) he likes it better so he eats more and 2) he doesn't need to eat so much to get the same number of calories into him. Jeffie is twelve and a half, and actually has put more weight on since we've been doing that than he's had since we adopted him at ten! Oh, and we also give him a bowl of milk last thing at night. Splitting up the meals can be really useful as they get older. I'm aware that feeding milk to dogs is a bit controversial to some people, but we've always done it and never had an issue. You can buy lactose free milk if you prefer. She won't know the difference! Edited because of the stupid smiley that pops up when you type 'B' and a 'close bracket'
  2. I was going to suggest that Vit B often works. After that, you're going to have to leave it to the vet, I'm afraid. They do, after all, have the skills - or should have! How old is she?
  3. Yep. There is a noticeable difference when you switch to a higher quality food with less filler in it. Poops are firmer and less bulky. When we got our first greyhound, we fed him what the shelter had told us to feed him: Pedigree kibble. It not only went straight through him, but frequently and in large amounts. My DH made my Mum laugh one day when he stared at the 'output' on one walk and just said 'But he's so thin ... Where is it all coming from??' With a better kibble, they poop once or twice on each walk mostly, unless they've been holding it for some reason. I was reminded of my DH's remark at our Boxing Day dinner when Jeffie got himself wedged under the table, panicked and let loose with his bowels. I have never seen so much poop come out of him in one go! From solid to liquid. And that's what sheer fright will do ...
  4. The fact that she can't stand to empty her bowels is a bad sign. If she were mine I'd call the out-of-hours vet. I know it's tough for you being out of the country. Please let us know how she does. Bless her, it sounds as if she's in a bad way - I hope she pulls through.
  5. Many - if not most - greyhounds tend to lose weight as they age, and if they reach a grand old age, like yours, they do often end up very skinny. A big part of this is muscle loss, which is pretty much unavoidable. Having said that, my personal experience is that if you change the diet appropriately, it may be possible to keep the weight on the old bones for a while at least. My twelve-and-a-half year old is on a higher protein kibble (often it's a puppy version) with add-ins of meat stew, oily fish, and cheese treats. Having said all that, what you have at the moment is not normal. She needs to see a vet. Oldies lose condition frighteningly fast and need professional treatment quickly. She may have developed a metabolic disorder (liver or kidney disease, etc), or cancer, or she may have picked up a food poisoning bug, or she may simply have eaten the wrong things over Christmas, but you don't know, and we can't tell you. The oldies become less and less able to cope with sudden dietary changes, like someone slipping them a bit of turkey skin or a greasy sausage roll, but they are also very vulnerable to organs going wrong and systems breaking down, so please get her checked by a vet ASAP - and don't forget to pop back and let us know how she's doing! Meanwhile, keep her fluid intake up, and only offer her small amounts of bland food: lean chicken and rice (a tablespoon at a time) is often recommended.
  6. Oh yeah - adhesive tape and baby socks! Got those too! I make up saline as and when I need it. I also have a bunch of 10ml syringes (without needles) which are useful for irrigating this and that. True enough, if a pad wound isn't deep and isn't gaping, it'll heal.
  7. It's good to have a few first aid supplies on hand. I keep vet wrap, gauze, cotton wool, Hibiscrub, disinfectant, Manuka honey ointment, adhesive wound dressings with non-stick pads inside, etc, and also two sizes of PawZ protective rubber booties, which are GREAT for wounds on the feet, to keep them dry when they go outside. I keep two sizes because you need the next size up so that dressings can fit inside them. Whether I take a dog to the vet for a cut on the foot depends on where it is and how deep. A great blood supply isn't going to help edges align, and unfortunately, cuts on pads usually gape and stay open, and are made worse by walking. So unless it is a very, very small cut on the pad, I do take them in for stitches - and antibiotics if necessary.
  8. The reason we don't correct for growling is simple. Dogs cannot speak our language, they speak their language. They are very, very good at picking up cues from us and at reading body language, but they can't reproduce what they know about our language so that we can understand them in return, they have to use their own language; they have to speak 'dog'. If they get uncomfortable with any given situation (afraid, nervous, upset, annoyed, hurt, cornered, whatever), they have a strict order of 'language' they use to let us know, and warn us that if all else fails, they will use their teeth to get the message across. Here's how it goes: First they'll try to use subtle 'dog' body language to let you know they want you to back off. This includes tensing, blinking & other eye movements, and showing the white of the eye in a particular way (known as 'whale eye'). If you don't get the message, they'll use 'calming signals' licking the lips, turning the head away from you, yawning, maybe lifting a paw (you'll still see the earlier signs at this stage as well). If none of this works, they'll try to move away and escape. If they can't escape, they will progress to an audible signal: growling. This is communication, NOT aggression. If you don't pay attention and the situation doesn't change, they may move on to snarling. The next step (if you're still not paying attention) is the air-snap - the 'fake' bite. This is not intended to connect, but our human reactions are so slow that we sometimes move in the wrong way and get banged or scraped. And the sad fact is that our skin is not as tough as dog skin and what wouldn't injure another dog will bruise or cut us. So people think of these snaps as bites anyway. Of course, you know what happens next. If nothing changes, if you don't back off, it's a serious, intentional bite. This will always cause a real wound, not a bruise or a scrape or a graze, but deep punctures, and maybe more than one set. What happens if you teach the dog that it's not OK to snarl or growl is that they progress directly from calming signals - which so many people miss - to a bite. That's why we advise people not to discourage growling. So what do you do? You cultivate mutual trust and you respect the dog. Learn how they communicate and learn to manage the situation before it escalates. If one of my dogs growl, I back off a bit and reassure them, because - like the situation you find yourself in now with the nail clipping - it's always due to fear or uncertainty or anxiety. In this case, I'd work on desensitising him to the nail trimming. I've had to do this with Jeffie. Don't start out expecting to trim all the nails in one go, and don't try to do them while he's lying on his bed resting.. I started by working on getting him happy to have his feet handled. Then to having his feet handled while I was holding the clippers. Then to tapping a nail or two with the clippers, and finally to trimming a tiny bit from ONE nail, making sure I was holding it straight and firmly enough so there was no twisting or wrenching. With baby steps, we went to two nails, then three, then four (a whole foot!). We progressed from that to proper clipping of one nail, then two, then three, etc. Now I can trim them all in one go, on a good day, but I am still watching carefully to judge his comfort and tolerance levels and when he's had enough, I let him go. Jeffie tolerates it much better standing than lying down, but they are all different, and Sid prefers to lie down while he has his manicure. It's about trust. If he trusts me not to insist when he's beyond his limits, he lets me do more. They're not complicated creatures! (Edited because I wrote this very late last night. I've made it a bit easier to read and corrected a couple of grammatical mistakes which were bugging me)
  9. Plaque-Off made one of mine sick, so I stopped using it. Some people say it really works, but I didn't actually see much difference so it was an easy decision to throw it out.
  10. Yes, to both of those! I never discourage growling - it's communication, and without it, they may go straight to a bite. And one of the first things I teach a new hound is to be fine with me touching them while they're eating. Just touching. No taking away. At first it's a fleeting touch on the shoulder as I put their food down or give them a treat. With a lot of time, work and patience, we progress to 'trading up' and then removing something without a trade. Having done that work, I then leave it (with the occasional trade-up reinforcement) knowing that if the day should come when I need to drag something from their mouth, they'll be OK with that. Without that work, you really can't expect them to be fine with you stealing their stuff.
  11. Wow, yes, at seven and a half, I'd say she's too young to be showing signs of dementia. It could be a seizure disorder though. My suggestion is that you video the episodes and show your vet - it's also worth keeping a diary to see if there's any link to events, activity, food, etc.
  12. Sorry, there's an 'i' missed out. It's Vivitonin. And I'm in England - it's quite possible that it isn't available in the US.
  13. It could be, sadly. Jeffie had done the staring into space thing and had increased anxiety, and also had started dropping poops in the house and in his bed. Normal poops. It looked as if he didn't know he had to go, to me, but the neuro said he knew, but was possibly getting a bit mixed up on the whole housetraining thing. He's been on Vivtonin now for nearly a week and is a lot brighter, calmer, and happier, and has not had one single poop incident in the house. Not holding my breath on that one because I know it could still happen - and probably will in the future - but for now he's almost a different dog. I'd talk to the vet. If everything checks out as normal, well, dementia is sometimes a diagnosis of elimination.
  14. I think he's too much of a nester for that. Also I'd worry that he'd slip on the shower curtain if it got exposed. He does have degenerative myelopathy, they tell me... Sweet old girl! Good for you! Those are exactly the sort of beds that he likes, but I'm not sure the biggest one is big enough for him, sadly.
  15. Being reluctant or hesitant to do something is a big clue, particularly when it's jumping into the car at the end of the walk. For an oldie who is not injured, this often means that he's outrun his strength and is over-tired, physically. At ten, if he's fit, his slowing down should be gradual. If it happens all of a sudden, I'd suspect injury.
  16. My problems are that: 1) we're in England so American brands of anything would be prohibitively expensive to have sent over. Not only is the shipping pricey, but these days they slap a HUGE amount of import tax and/or customs charges on imported goods. Last time I ordered some small bits and pieces for jewellery making from the US, the charges came to more than the item was worth. 2) Jeffie is a bit difficult when it comes to beds. Firstly, he's a nester, so anything just laid in his bed or folded round the cushions is going to get tossed out PDQ, and secondly, his bed has got to be more attractive than Sid's bed or he'll steal Sid's. I'm pretty sure he's not going to go for a fleece-stuffed bed - he's old and bony, so he needs more softness than that. Sid, being an aging tripod with pain issues needs his flat, memory foam bed with a sheepskin on top for warmth. He can't get into donut beds very easily, so if Jeff steals his bed, I end up having to physically heave nearly 30kg of dead-weight Jeffie off it and into his own or Sid ends up on the floor and can't walk so well in the morning. I simply can't do that every night! Nor can I clean faeces off sheepskin very often, because those things take forever to dry. By giving them each their preferred type of bed, one which the other won't use, it saves us all a lot of hassle. Which is why I said each of us has to manage in the way we find best. It's good to have these discussions though, because I'm now looking to see if I can find replaceable covers for the donut bed. If I can, we're home and dry - if you'll excuse the incontinence pun!
  17. I'm looking for a more washable bed for Jeffie. Unfortunately, he's a nester so bed pads aren't going to work. He also likes the big squishy donut beds which also happen to be too big for my washing machine! We'll manage somehow. I see an extraordinarily expensive Orvis bed in our future - you can take them completely apart and wash the bits separately, but they cost about £300 for greyhound sizes.
  18. I think there's no reason not to, if the old dog will happily tolerate them and it helps everyone to manage. I'd want to make sure that they were comfortable and didn't bind anywhere and I'd also NEVER leave them in a dirty one for more than a few minutes. Clean up - proper clean up - is vital. Skin care management is also vital. If they caused distress for any reason, I'd stop, but I can see there might be a lot of situations for many people where it was that or euthanasia. Personally, I have a husband who hates dirt and mess, I have tiny grand-daughters and I can't be getting the carpet cleaning machine out every day because my health won't allow it. If it were only me, I wouldn't be anywhere near as fussy about the oops poops, but there are other people to consider. Before the usual cries of 'kick him to the curb' or 'he should lighten up' or 'children should be exposed to bugs' etc get posted, that's all very well, but the fact is that they are other people's opinions and not mine. They are not my husband's opinions either, nor are they necessarily the opinions of my son and his partner. I will continue to do the very best I can possibly do for my dogs, and will not put a dog to sleep simply because he is old and leaking poop or pee, but each one of us has to manage in the way we find best. Personally, I don't see what is wrong with using diapers/nappies if that's what it takes and the dog doesn't mind and is managed properly.
  19. That was my first thought, too. It's thrown her. She may associate being crated with being in the kennel at the boarding facility, and it may trigger this anxiety. Drinking a lot of water can sometimes be due to anxiety. Worth keeping an eye on, because there are some serious metabolic disorders which cause excessive drinking, too. Definitely worth a urine check. Does she have to be in her crate? What happens if you leave her out of it?
  20. I'm having this problem with Jeffie who is 12 1/2yrs old. We've just had a referral appt with a neurologist who tells me he strongly suspects degenerative myelopathy (we're waiting for blood test results). It would be relatively unusual in a greyhound, but there you go .. apparently there are several types, not just the one which affects GSDs. Here's what I learned from the neuro: It's a complicated question to answer, because first you have to determine why she's doing it. If she's simply losing bowel control, Wendy is right: it's an age thing and she can't help it. Clear it up without making a fuss and move on with your day. Arrange the best you can with poop pads on the bed, or washable covers, or diapers if you choose to go that route and be glad you still have her with you. If it's due to her 'losing' her housetraining, she may need 'Dogzheimer's' drugs. Jeffie is trying these at the moment because - I'm told - the fact that he raises his tail just before he drops the odd poop on his way to the back door means that he is aware. Raising the tail is under his conscious control. If it's due to lack of bowel tone, then yes, changing the diet may help, if only temporarily. Sometimes they need more fibre, but we tried this first and it made Jeffie worse. So we are going the other route, and giving him a lower residue food which make his poops smaller and more solid. Hey - at least they are easier to pick up! If it's due to lack of sphincter tone, there's not much you can do, so it's back to 'A': clean it up without making a fuss and move on. If it's due to a bulging disc or lumbo-sacral stenosis (cauda equina) you need to address that issue and treat her accordingly. If there's any change in the consistency of the poop, talk to your vet. It may be an urgency thing, it may be parasites, it may be a tummy bug. If she's had antibiotics recently, she may have trouble with her gut flora and need probiotics. Jeffie has good sphincter tone and there seems nothing wrong with his bowel (or prostate, which won't be an issue for your girl, of course). He has a slightly bulging disc but not enough to cause this problem because it's not compressing the nerve. He has no parasites. I'm trying to find some decent dog nappies (diapers) at the moment, if only for the times when the poor dog has diarrhoea and it's not so easy to pick up! Not sure how I feel about having him in them permanently, but we'll do what it takes. I'm sorry you're dealing with this as well. It's so sad to see them failing.
  21. I agree. A few times now it has turned out there was a physical problem when my older dogs have done something like this.
  22. If it's any help, the neurologist told us that Jeffie appears not to be in pain. Agree about the NSAIDs. When our Jack was on them, we used to give him natural yoghurt every night, but he still ended up on acid reducers.
  23. Tracy - He's been down to the vet school hospital and had radiographs, MRIs and a full neurological work-up. We're waiting on that genetic blood test result at the moment but they're fairly sure. The neuro said that DM was first thought to be confined to certain breeds like GSDs but they've since found it plus the genetic markers in Pembroke Corgis and Bernese Mountain Dogs and in each cases the markers are specific to the breed. They are still researching it.
×
×
  • Create New...