GeorgeofNE

Just seeing this lovely tribute Sue. Run free Millie!

That is a beautiful poem Donna. I know you will miss your handsome boy. I'm so sorry for your loss.

"Heart murmur" is very subjective Tom. You could have another vet listen and tell you it was totally normal. I had a vet at Angell tell me that my Kramer had a heart murmur, and he recommended all kinds of stuff--to which I replied, "Why? He's not going to have a transplant!" and I declined. Not long after, my dog needed surgery. Extensive presurgical exams--the other vet said Kramer had the heart of an athlete with ZERO murmur... And in fact no other vet ever said he had a murmur. I've had the same thing happen with George with the different vets he's seen. One thought he had one, the other three did not. Even if she does, I would not worry about a grade 1.

I'd be thrilled if George pooped on the sidewalk. Much easier to clean up than plunging my hand into the snow digging for it. Why is that a problem? It's winter. No one is going to be walking around barefoot. As long as you clean it up, I'd let him go where he wants.

Good luck. My father's English Setter is a whiner. I find it INCREDIBLY annoying--but it doesn't seem to bother either my Mom or Dad... He's 11 years old. Been doing it for 11 years now...

Oh Leslie. I am so sad. I love Gustopher. He and Guinness kept me laughing and coming back to GreyTalk when George was SO difficult. His persona was so funny and so clever. And he made us friends. I cannot believe this. And I know how much you love your boy. I wish I could do or say something that would help. Love and hugs, Susan (sobbing) and George (heartbroken)

If her teeth are breaking off, then she probably just has really weak teeth. I've never in my life heard of a dog whose teeth are just breaking off--she must be chewing on something hard. Can you elaborate?

No real idea, but I would like to point out that "natural" remedies do not always turn out to be harmless-- Case in point: my VET told me to give George Valerian Root extract to help with his SA. She did so on the recommendation of a veterinarian friend of hers--that human friend was taking it himself to help sleep. I bought it, I gave it. Not sure if it helped, but hey, it was NATURAL, so what could it hurt. Next blood works showed VERY elevated liver enzymes. The ONLY change in his diet was the Valerian root. Stopped that, retested in six weeks. Values were going back down. Retested again in 6 more weeks--enzymes totally normal! My vet has since apologized and stopped recommending it for dogs as we searched the web and found web site after web site telling hepatitis patients to NEVER take Valerian Root as it has the potential to mess up the liver. I personally would stop supplementing with anything for a bit and see what happens. Lot easier to narrow the cause of this down if you're not adding things that aren't essential to the diet. I would also consider ditching the tag bag on the hound who has lost his fur right exactly where that lays. It would be an amazing coincidence to lose fur right under that and have the tag bag not somehow be the cause.

Take it one step further, Carl didn't just have a few vague symptoms, he had a rare symptom. I'm glad I question "conventional" wisdom. Those symptoms are not vague--they're fairly classic signs of a thyroid problem!

Absolutely not. Genetics. Many Greyhound sires have THOUSANDS of offspring. It's harder to find two racing hounds who don't have some common relatives than to find two who do not. Greyhounds who have never been anywhere NEAR a track get it. I had the honor of hearing Dr. Couto speak for two hours on the topic. FYI, he calls NGA Greyhounds "three legged dogs with a spare." Look at your dog's front legs and chest. See how close together they are? If you remove the leg, the other leg only has to shift about an inch to provide proper balance. Greyhounds do just fine with three legs versus a broad dog like a Rottie who has to really move that remaining leg fairly far. Sounds like you need more info. on the particular cancer before you can really make a decision. Good luck.

Lots of people on GT swear yogurt reduces gas; I'd personally just give probiotics (in powder form) if I thought my dog needed them! But yogurt gives my hound diarrhea! I found that out when it was recommended I give it to him while he was on antibiotics. And some antibiotics are actually not to be taken with dairy.

I'm so sorry. FYI, it's not hard to pill a dog who won't eat it. You just open up their mouth and stick the pill all the way back, then close it up and gently stroke the throat until they swallow. Tramadol is not a delayed release pill, so it won't make any difference that you crushed it.

The sad truth is that, according to Dr. Couto, the expert, approximately 1 in 5 NGA hounds will get bone cancer. I don't know about other forms of cancer, as when I heard Dr. Couto talk, he was talking about bone cancer. Color has nothing to do with it. Racing or not has nothing to do with it. There has yet to be a concerted effort to determine which lines are more prone to it (at least that I've heard of). Because AKC Greyhounds rarely get bone cancer (no more prone to it than any other breed of dog), they have decided it MUST be genetic since the breeding lines are different for AKC versus NGA hounds.

I was going to ask why you're crating a dog who clearly hates it--but then I got to the cats part! Did anyone indicate to you that this particular Greyhound had been "cat tested"? If not, you could have a problem--or this might be a very temporary thing that you can work out. I have two cats--had three when I got George. He has no interest in them and never has. They're also totally unafraid of dogs, having grown up with my other dog, so they don't run from him either. I don't have any experience teaching a hound to leave cats alone, but I can tell you that there are LOTS of Greyhounds who live peacefully with cats. Many of those dogs were judged "cat workable" or "cat trainable" by their respective adoption groups. There was a dog in my group I really wanted, but they would not let me even consider him since he was not cat safe and in their experience never would be. I hope that someone with a lot of Greyhound experience evaluated your girl and your situation carefully before placing her with you. The adoption group is a good resource for these kind of issues. Was she not fostered with a cat? Have you asked the foster family for some ideas? If the crate continues to be a problem, can you put the cats in a bedroom during the day? Until you're sure they'll all be safe together?

George doesn't chew his food at all, and you could just let her kibble get soft with water, or you could grind it up. I had a cat loose all the same teeth, and never changed his diet. He did just fine. Fact is, he wouldn't eat anything BUT kibble. I think you might be surprised what a non issue it is for her once her gums are heeled.

He's pretty active and has super poops on high protein Many here disagree, but no pet needs that much protein, nor does protein level have anything to do with poop output. That's probably the grain free effect. The extra protein won't hurt him, but he likely would do just fine on anything in the 20% range.

X-rays are part of a normal dental at my vet. I don't understand why your vet didn't just do them?

There are many folks on GT that have shy/spooky dogs. I wouldn't automatically assume it was caused by abuse at the tracks unless I had some evidence to back it up. I came into the world of retired racers knowing nothing about the industry and was ripe to believe all the propaganda about abuse, but I still had to see it to believe it. I have visited a few tracks and puppy farms (albeit just a few) and my experience is that the dogs are healthy, happy and reasonably well cared for. While it's true they are not being treated as pets, the places I visited and the ppl I met there would not tolerate any abuse of the dogs in their care. It just wouldn't make sense for them to abuse the very animal that they need to go out and make the money. Phew. You said it before I could. Thanks Sheila.

Ditto. I've had George for over 2 years. He plays (alone) with one of his stuffies for MAYBE 2 minutes a MONTH. His primary interests are: food, walks, and sleep. Yes, he'll snuggle with me--when he feels like it. Yes, he follows me around, but I think just hoping food might appear! He's friendly with strangers, loves people, does NOT like other breeds of dogs, and is a lovely quite companion. But he is NOTHING like any dog I've ever had. But at this stage in my life, he's what I wanted.

Has anyone checked her anal glands? If they're impacted or infected, a hard post-bone poop would hurt like heck.

I imagine it wasn't supposed to, but this made me laugh out loud!

George learned stay and down easily enough, but stay????? I've given up! Way to go Jeff!!

Some dogs jump sometimes, and sometimes that same dog won't! There are LOTS of dogs of lots of breeds who, for whatever reason, won't jump into a truck/car/SUV. I think it was 15 years ago I read a question/answer column in my father's issue of "Gun Dog" magazine where the question was, "My Brittany won't jump into the truck. What can I do." The answer (and note: I am NOT suggesting this as a solution to the OP's problem--just as a funny answer) struck me as funny which is why I remember: "Your dog probably weighs about 35-40 pounds. Pick her up and put her in the truck!" For example: George, a male, would not get on the bed no matter what. However, he did one day jump through the rear window of my SUV! The tailgate was up, the glass was open. It was well over 4.5 feet to jump up over the tailgate and through the window space. He didn't hit the top of the car, or the tailgate. Clearly he CAN jump. He simply didn't think the bed was a good idea! I finally got him up on the bed by picking him up and putting him up there. He promptly jumped off. Next time I tried, I got up there with him and held his collar and made him stay up there until he relaxed. And now I can't keep off! It was 18 months after I adopted him that he figured out the bed was good! As to the car question--a 90 pound dog really cannot practically be lifted into the car. If food doesn't work, then maybe you'll have to resort to steps or a ramp?

They all get acidopholis in the morning and Prozyme at night. I purchased Missing Link for him, but haven't used it yet. He gets the Deramaxx in the morning with his breakfast. It occurs to me that could in fact be overkill? I'm just guessing that those things duplicate each other.

It's surprising that he drank enough water that he couldn't hold it--or that he didn't wake you up to go. Is there a favorite treat he enjoys? Bully sticks? Something like that? Perhaps if there is, you could spend some quite non-sleeping time in the bedroom and allow him to enjoy his treat there?