greyhead

That was a lovely tribute to a great-hearted and lovely queen, Donna. And what a resume! I'm so sorry for your loss.

I see she's newly arrived. How long has it been since she has seen another greyhound? Are there any that live near you? I'd be tempted to arrange a visit or play date today if possible. Hope it's something like that and not something physical. Sending scritches and wishing I could be more help!

I know how distressing it is, to see a previously intelligent, aware hound look so lost and confused. Hopefully your vet will have some ideas. I Googled "B-12 deficiency causes" and found mention of other things, like an autoimmune malfunction and tapeworm infestation. Not that it's either of those! I didn't have time to look further, but it's interesting to consider the possibilities. Just don't let them get away with the it's-old-age explanation. I was given that as the reason our then-5-year-old greyhound was having incontinence problems! We never did figure out what it was, but it went away, so I guess it wasn't age! Scritches to Jacey!

It's called a serum cobalamin test. (Cobalamin is the name of B-12.) And I think they usually do it in conjunction with a TLI test too. TLI stands for trypsin-like immunoreactivity, and it's a test for pancreatic insufficiency; if a dog has that, there are other indications of a digestive nature, so I wouldn't worry about it in your case. In our case it later turned out that Spencer had a SIBO infection. And we only found that out because we kept pushing to find a reason for the intestinal malabsorption, which nobody but us seemed curious about. I don't know what other causes of B-12 deficiency might be. I do know that another symptom is a tendency to chew on wood; have you seen any of that? (Spencer went after a windowsill and a rocking chair.) And how is the poop quality? Here's a link to a list of Texas A&M links regarding cobalamin and folate. Well worth checking out the first two especially. http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/TAMUCVM?q=cobalamin&domains=www.cvm.tamu.edu&sitesearch=www.cvm.tamu.edu In any case, best of luck getting to the bottom of it. I'm so glad you're pursuing it.

With Spencer it turned out to be inability to process B vitamins in the gut due to intestinal malabsorption. In addition to acting cognitively confused, he at one point had difficulty standing up. So now he gets a B-12 injection, just under the skin, once a month. (For a while it was a couple times a week, then weekly, then twice a month, and now monthly or whenever he acts like he needs it!)

Jeez, I take a day off from GT and look what happens! Just seeing this and went from post 1 to the last page. Glad to see things are going well, so now I'll read the posts in between! Eeesh, I'm so sorry! You've no doubt been through hell. Lots of prayers for continued recovery.

You must miss Suzie something awful. I'm so sorry for your loss. Run free, Suzie.

Beautiful girl! I'm so sorry.

I rejoice in the long and wonderful life she had with you, and I'm so sorry for your loss!

Yours is the first grey I've specifically heard of other than our own Spencer who's had clostridium. We had perfringens, not difficile. Our vet said they only expected to see it in GSD's, which my Internet researches revealed to be an out-of-date opinion. I had to insist that a culture and sensitivity be performed on his poop, and I had to specify Clostridium; sure enough, that's what it was. It took three antibiotics to shake it. This all happened in late '08 and the first half of '09, followed by his having serious IBD. Nobody here on GT mentioned during all of that that any of their greys had had SIBO based in Clostridium. In a strange way I'm consoled at the thought that Spencer isn't the only one! Our other grey didn't get it, and we don't know why Spencer did. The only difference was that Spencer was taking a powdered Chinese-medicine formula from his acupuncture vet for his lumbosacral stenosis. It was a BIG jar, and I've wondered if the stuff got contaminated. Now I won't give anything that's not in pill form! There was also some thought that since this happened immediately after a dental, which had been followed by an antibiotic, that his intestinal flora may have become imbalanced and allowed this overgrowth to occur. In fact, Clostridium is supposed to occur naturally in the intestinal tract; as I understand it, it's only a problem when it becomes excessive and starts secreting a toxin. But it's also present in soil and other places where it could be picked up. Poor Spencer got poor me up about four times a night until we got it figured out. You and Desi have my sympathy. BTW, feeding raw seemed to help Spencer where probiotics just messed him up more. It just depends on the dog, it seems.

I am SO sorry for your loss. Run free, Rose!

I hear ya! I've had problems with Science Diet too numerous to even mention here. Had better luck with low-residue foods made by others, like Eukanuba, when we had this issue with cats. As to dogs, we don't use SD either. Like you, we get OTC stuff for our IBD dog (because he can't have chicken, and the prescription diets all have chicken!) and for our dog with the elevated creatinine.

It's called polydipsia and could mean several things, including pituitary malfunction. Sounds like a finer level of blood work may be required.

http://www.felinecrf...nts.htm#rubenal This is a link to a discussion of rubenal on an excellent feline kidney info site. I recommend it. One thing it mentions is the phosphorus content, and it suggests you monitor that level in your animal. There is also mention of it, though not a lot of outcome information beccause it's so new, on the K9KIDNEYS group on Yahoo. That would be a great forum for you to join and you should get right to it, because you have to be approved by the moderators before you can participate actively. Wishing you greyt luck in keeping your pup as healthy as possible! Mary ETA: Let me just add that going to a low-protein diet is the old, traditional response to this. However, it was discovered later that going to very low protein too fast actually makes things worse overall and is best saved for much later in the progression of the disease. I know your gal is leaking protein, so maybe this is a good move for her. But not all vets are equal in their knowledgeability about kidney disease. You might want to consult an internist about this if it's within your means, or perhaps Dr. Couto for free.

I don't have experience with Rubenal, but I do have some experience with cats & dogs & kidney stuff. One of our dogs takes rehmannia to keep his iffy creatinine in line, and it works. Give me a minute and I'll check a forum for chronic kidney failure and see if it's mentioned. I'll get back to you.

Someone mentioned acupuncture and it has kept our 9-1/2 year old going strong the last two years with lumbosacral stenosis. For your dog at this point I think I'd go with the MRI and then see where you stand. It sounds like a disk or a nerve problem. I'm so sorry this is happening, but it may not be at all hopeless! Ten and a half is not really old for a greyhound.

There's nothing like a long-legged, fearless, handsome boy. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Here's the link to Dr. Dodd's .pdf on thyroid values. Oops, that wasn't right. I'll keep looking. ETA; Nevermind! I'm sorry, but I can't get anywhere with Dr. Dodds' website. I'm sure someone else will produce something helpful about thyroid testing in greyhounds, though.

That would be wonderful if it works out that way. How did you determine that the hypothyroidism was causing the seizures? Two vets that treated him said that it could be the thyroid. After he started on Soloxine, the seizures stopped. They had been small ones, not grand mals. And sometimes they seemed prompted by a trigger, like smoke wafting by. They were occurring every 2 or 3 days for a few weeks, sometimes more than once a day. Just to round out the picture, our main concern was the "aggression" that he started showing and that stopped with thyroid treatment. (It was really a defensive reaction to feeling vulnerable, which having a thyroid in the basement would make a dog feel!) It was a huge relief to get both the seizures and the growly behavior stopped. I'm afraid I didn't answer your question very fully. All I know is that the thyroid is connected to everything that the body does. Thyroid defect can cause everything from indigestion to muscle/joint pain, heartbeat irregularities, and miscommunication between neurons! Being hypothyroid myself and having experienced a ton of weird symptoms that went away with thyroid treatment, I wasn't moved to quiz the vets about Spencer's seizure/thyroid connection very thoroughly. I didn't need to be convinced that a poorly functioning thyroid can screw up just about anything. When he had no more seizures after Soloxine, that was all the proof we needed... I hope things turn around for Larry and will stay tuned for an update.

Honestly, seriously? I swear she's just a tiny bit better. May all be in my head, but I think so. And how about today, still better?

Hypothyroidism can prompt seizures, too. So the best case would be treating that and having the seizures disappear. Hey, it happened for us! So I'll hold a good thought that it'll happen for you and Larry.

When I read the user name I got gramma rules as in Gramma is the ruler of the house. Doh! You're right, I'm sure. Just goes to show how a bias distorts perception!