greyhead

Godspeed, Mimi. You were among the very best and will be again.

That is an especially beautiful tribute to your very special Pal, probably the bestest greyhound boy there ever could be! He had a long and fabulous life with you and as the Founder of Camp Greyhound, and for that we can all justly celebrate. But I'm so very, very sorry for your broken heart.

Shane had a UTI for the better part of a year. Vet kept "looking" at the urine and saying it looked good. When I finally insisted on a culture, as he had refused food and had become lethargic and hard to rouse from sleep, it found E. coli. We'd finish the antibiotic, he'd still be leaking, and vet would call it incontinence. (But he hadn't done well on Proin before, and I wouldn't try it again.) So I'd ask to repeat the culture, and sure enough, there was still E. coli. This happened three times. After we finally got rid of the infection months later, there was still slight leakage. Had to put him on a medium-protein renal food. That took care of most of it, but he still had to go out more frequently for a while. Also found that pain can cause leakage too, as when their arthritis makes them not want to get up and go out unless it's really urgent.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

To address your dosage question, Dr. Stack recommends .1 mg per each 20 lbs. of weight, I believe, which is half what non-sighthounds would get. But it's an individual thing. Spencer started at .6 (twice a day) also, when he was 5 years old and about 83 lbs. Later he went to .5 mg. And now that he's almost 12, he's at .25. So unless your boy is significantly smaller, .6 should be okay for now. Sure hope his symptoms subside, and quickly!

Right away, in our experience.

I'm so sorry Munchie had to leave. He was certainly well-loved. Godspeed, Munchie.

What a long and wonderful life Mr. Basil had in which to be so loved by all who knew him. I'm sorry for your loss.

I'd be telling the vet now. Maybe it was an infection that wasn't treated long enough, so it recurred. Even just stress can upset the balance of flora in the gut, causing something to overgrow that shouldn't. Just a possibility.

She was quite a girl, and she found the perfect home. I'm very sorry for your loss. Godspeed, LG.

Godspeed, beautiful girl.

I'm sorry this happened, Lori and Michael. Bill was especially special.

You wrote a beautiful, heart-touching tribute to this well-loved boy. Please accept my sincere sympathy for your loss.

I'm very sorry for your losses, of Ice and your father. Keeping you and them in our thoughts and prayers.

I'm SO sorry that Snappy, so well-loved by all, had to leave so soon. My heart goes out to your family and dear Fred. You've made a beautiful tribute to a handsome guy made even handsomer by the addition of a bow tie.

Glad we could help, and even gladder that it sounds like Bus is doing okay!

Happy Birthday, Miss Bee. You celebrate up there with your many friends, and we'll cover it down here, cuz everyone's delighted you were ever born.

You said "any other organism." Did you mean to exclude humans?

What we realized was that it's not just where the dog raced that puts it at risk for TBD's, it's also where it was farmed and trained. We didn't test a Kansas-raced dog and find its Babesia and Lyme until we learned he'd been raised in Oklahoma, and then the light bulb went on for us! TBD's can be picked up young and be dormant for years. So glad you have answers and treatments for Spud.

That is simply the nature of the science. The amount of free T4 in a greyhound -- or any other organism -- is so small that even the best assays we have (equilibrium dialysis) may not find enough to measure according to the established +/- accuracy of the test. And that is entirely normal. My endocrinologist would disagree with you. If my free T4 were undetectable, he'd be upping my meds. As it is, he ups them when it's low.

I imagine it would be quite expensive to send it from Hawaii to Michigan. It's good to have a full panel done. My problem with MSU's interpretations is that they have defined hypothyroidism out of existence for greyhounds, IMO. Even if the greyhound has so little hormone that they can't even measure it, they won't recommend supplementation unless the TSH is elevated AND there are antibodies present. As I've said elsewhere, TSH measures are not always accurate indicators, and not all hypothyroidism is autoimmune in origin (so of course there will not be antibodies). And I consider that kind of interpretational rigidity dangerous to the health of our dogs. But in all cases you have to start with a panel. You can send the results to MSU and Dr. Dodds, or whomever, for interpretation later if it seems warranted.

And puppies who haven't learned adult-dog manners don't have any place there either, IMO. So, yes, I'm sure the puppy played a role in this problem, from what you describe.

Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear it was so major but happy to hear she's doing well. I two hope you have lots of good time together. Sending lots of gentle hugs and prayers.

If the problem is mainly just in getting up, there may be some pain issue with the back or neck. We had this with our first grey, who also had a 12-hour bladder (or more). Looking at his racing record, we see he had a long career, with all the bumps that involves, and was specifically rear-ended. A few months after he came to us, he also went down hard in the mud while running with the pack at playgroup. After that, he stopped coming to get us in the a.m. (He also wasn't a morning dog especially.) But we didn't add it all up until a few years later when his problems increased and he was diagnosed with lumbosacral stenosis. So it may just be that your dog doesn't want to make the (uncomfortable) effort to get up when he doesn't need to go out. Not cuz he's lazy, but cuz it kinda hurts. Perhaps you could let him out earlier at night so that when morning comes, he'll actually need to go out before you go to work. Your dog is young and maybe didn't even race but may have gotten hurt enough in training to wash out. Just a thought. Do you know about greyhound-data.com? And if it is something like LS, it has been pretty easily managed for years for our dog, with acupuncture/chiropractic by a rehab vet. So no huge impediment to a nice long life. Ours is almost 12 now and came to us at almost 5. Keep us posted!