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greyhead

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Posts posted by greyhead

    Cat Vs Dog Nightmare

    in Training and Behavior discussion

    Posted

    How well our cat and greyhound get along is directly proportional to how well I keep the cat's nails trimmed! He has those super-pointy needle claws on his front paws, and they hurt! He'll sometimes bat Shane on the leg as Shane passes or on the face when he's lying down. If Shane really doesn't like it, he'll bark once, and the cat backs up fast! (It has only happened twice.) The cat just wants to play, but now he realizes that there may be consequences, so he's more circumspect. I'm betting your cat will be too! At least I hope so.

    Can't Get Diagnosis For Very Sick Grey

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted · Edited by greyhead

    Our senior gray had similar symptoms to yours in recent months. Long story short after lots of testing: It appears to be a kidney infection, and the urine culture is negative nonetheless. That is because the infection site is so deep in the tissue that the urine doesn't contact it. Temperature and BP spikes are frequent. Our dog also has kidney disease, so now he is on a BP medicine and it's helping a lot. When the temp spikes, we cool him with damp washcloths at home.

     

    Even more likely for your dog is a SIBO infection -- small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Have they done a culture-and-sensitivity test on his stool? That can be very dangerous, and you want to either rule it out or treat it. They should also test for Intestinal Malabsorption. This all could wind up as IBD; and the sooner you know about that, the better.

     

    Here's the thing, you don't want to be giving an immunosuppressant like prednisone if what you have is infection. The infection needs to be cleared first!

     

    Thyroid issues aren't going to present with those symptoms. I wouldn't spend time on that now.

    Budesonide Vs Pred For Ibd

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted · Edited by greyhead

    We used budesonide instead of pred for Spencer, our IBD dog. He had already lost 20 lbs and had no more to lose. Budesonide targets the gut and avoids the wider-ranging side effects of pred, so no weight loss at all. The only side effect we saw was fur loss on the legs and chest over time (three years).

     

    He also had a permanent case of hookworm that did a lot of damage before it was caught. But before the IBD he got a long case of SIBO, in his case a vast overgrowth of two strains of Clostridium perfringens. That tends to kill intestinal tissue and leads to intestinal malabsorption. It can be fatal. So I don't really advise going to an immunosuppressant of any kind, whether budesonide or pred, until you've had a fecal *culture* (culture and sensitivity) to rule out bacterial overgrowth. Otherwise, you're just giving the bacteria a helping hand, you know? (Vets don't seem to do fecal cultures readily, partly because they expect to find many bacteria occurring naturally. It's the *number* of specific bacteria that's important to find out, that determine an overgrowth. We finally had to just order our vet to send it to the lab and get it done!) It took three antibiotics to clear the SIBO. By that time he had developed IBD, and we treated him for that.

     

    Good luck. Let me know if I can be of any help.

    Lupus And Aggression

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Your list of possibilities sounds about right, Ducky. Hope his family can explore them before something really bad happens. (Our Spencer was snapping when he became hypothyroid, and also became space aggressive, all of which disappeared immediately upon treatment. It was an easy fix for us.)

    Diarrhea Question -- Insurance $ On The Way.

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    SO glad Joe is home and doing better. (Again, not to make this about us, but just to support you, Shane is also sticking close to home since he got back from the e-vet. One to two blocks is the furthest he wants to travel, just until he poops. DH took him somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 mile round trip the day after he got back home and precipitated a mini-crisis. That's a mistake we won't be repeating!) They have to get their strength and weight back!

     

    Thank heavens for your insurance!

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