MaryJane

The stretching is one of the symptoms of bloat - personally, I would get to the ER as soon as possible.

The pictures of your hounds are beautiful! Welcome from Mass

What was the name of the liver value that was tested?

Feeding hamburger and rice is the "beginning" of an elimination diet. A true elimination diet can take between 1 to 3 months to go through and consists of trying different proteins, carbos, and veggies to see which one(s) are tolerated. If the hamburger and rice don't work - try using tilapia (fish) and sweet potatoes (I believe this is what Robin used). These two are not likely to be found in dog food and hence, hopefully will not cause a reaction. Of course, check with the nutritionist -- they should have the last say on what you should do. I have used Dr. Remaillard at Angel Memorial in Boston to set up the diets for my dog -- I believe she does phone consults.

The pain from osteo is difficult to control and if the leg is not amputated, there is a risk of the leg breaking. If I was in this position, I would want to know what I was dealing with and be able to make the best possible decisions going forward. Just as a note, if you are going to have the xrays, they should be able to do it without the anesthesia. If they have anesthesia, I personally feel that the leg might get manipulated more than necessary to make the diagnosis and as a result, be more painful later.

I'm so sorry that you are going through this - it is so discouraging. I can't remember from your past posts whether you have ever tried a home-made elimination diet with just one or two ingredients? If you haven't, it might be worth trying for 1 to 2 weeks to see if it makes any difference and it could help to identify exactly what can work.

I suggest googling "greyhound rescue manchester NH" to get a list of greyhound adoption groups in the area and I'm sure they can give you a list of the vets that they use.

I might add that you may find that your dog is peeing a little more than he used to because of the increased water content of the food in contrast to what he was drinking from the bowl before.

I'm so sorry that Tarmac has cancer and especially that it appeared that it was a different issue. If you have decided not to do amputation, then the cancer can get very, very painful for a dog and I didn't see any note about having painkillers. Also, there is a chance that if this is osteo, that the leg can break. Maybe you have already discussed this with the vet and if so, please accept my heartfelt apology for bringing this up.

Welcome from Westwood Mass! You mentioned that you're from southern New Hampshire - you might want to check out the web site greyhoundadventures.org - its a greyhound walking club that meets every Sunday in different places in Mass -- some places might not be too far from the NH border.

If this happens to females when they are spayed and fixes it with the males when they are neutered, then the problem seems to have an origin with the hormones. With this in mind, maybe you want to discuss with the vet whether estrogen could possibly help the problem. BUT, please keep in mind that giving estrogen could cause a host of other problems.

If you are doing a bland diet of hamburger and rice (or hamburger and noodles) then you don't need the WD. You can also give a little bit (a tablespoon) of yogurt instead of the probiotic. The hamburger and rice will help to settle his stomach but, may not help much in firming up the poop. to do that you probably need to add some fiber into his food -- you can give some (1/4 to 1/2 cup once a day) of cooked green beans or cooked oatmeal (the 5-minute type).

I would recommend taking to the vet and doing the biopsy if the vet recommends it. Things like this are usually easier (and cheaper) if treated aggressively at the beginning rather than waiting to see if it gets worse (and more expensive or impossible to treat). I understand that having one of you unemployed makes it difficult to manage expenses right now -- is there a chance that you could borrow money from relatives?

Can you leave her at an e-vet so they can check her over?

You mentioned that she is getting 1 1/3 cups twice a day - this seems a little on the light side to me although each dog is different with the amount of calories they need. I usually average about 2 cups twice a day for most of my fosters but, a good number of them do need to gain some weight. You mentioned that she eats her morning meal later in the day ... so it doesn't sound like she is really hungry ... maybe you want to pick up the food after 20 minutes if she doesn't eat. An easy way to get some more fiber into her system is to give her some oatmeal once a day (in the morning meal). Make it the old-fashioned (5 minute cooking time). Give her about 1/4 oats cooked with 1/2 cup water added into her morning meal for a few days. You should see some results within a day or two if it is going to help. The only time this hasn't worked for one of my fosters was when the dog had worms - so make sure that you also do a stool sample to rule out worms.

He seems to be doing well - nothing unusual today and he is pooping, eating, drinking, etc. I am calling the vet tomorrow to get him an appt. though. Thanks again!! Glad to hear that your dog is doing better! It's tough being in a new place and not even being settled and then having something like this happen.

Do you mean albumin/globulin ratio? What is the value? Also, what about BUN, Creat, and urinalysis results?

One of the few foods that worked for my dog when he was going through chemo was "yogurt and cheerios". I also resorted to vanilla milkshakes a few times.

I would have a "first morning" urinalysis done and if that is fine, I would repeat the creat, BUN, and urinalysis in a month. If protein shows up in the urine or the SG is not in range, then you might want to consider a lower protein kibble and then retest.

Welcome to greytalk and great pictures! I just adore "that tongue" on the iggy --- it is just soooo long.

You might also want to feed him twice a day rather than once so that he is not getting all that food at one time. With one of my fosters, I wet the food and feed him a tablespoon at a time. After about a week or so, he was eating slower so I was able to start giving him more and more food into his bowl and after about a week - he had his whole portion (watered down) in the bowl and he was eating at a reasonable pace. I did still watch him like a hawk to make sure that he didn't start gulping again.

My greyhound got into a tangle with a stray cat last week and got a few bites and since we couldn't verify rabies status of the cat, my greyhound got another rabies shot as a booster. edited to add -- my dog was already on antibiotics for a leg infection otherwise, the vet probably would have put him on antibiotics for a a week or so.

Did you by chance see the other post about the Dog flu ? I would usually say if there is no improvement in two to three days with diarrhea to get the dog into the vet BUT, it appears that you are in the area with the dog flu. With that in mind, you might want to get them in earlier ...

I would also ask the vet if you can talk to the people that had the surgery before. Vets don't usually deal with the day-to-day changes and thus, would be less likely to be aware of small changes. If you get a dog owner, they would be able to be much more detailed in what has changed. Best of luck with this trial and I hope it all turns out well

If they can just dremel it down it might be included in the Office visit charge. I vaguely remember that's how my vet did it but, I don't know if that was really a professional courtesy to me.