MaryJane

I didn't see any indication of where she got you and your husband - was it by chance on the arm ? The reason that I ask that is that I have seen this behavior in greys where they will get excited and then they "grab" your arm. It is not usually done in aggression, rather more like playful fun. I inherited a dog like this that had made contact with their previous owner's arm. In my house, I refer to this boy as my gentle giraffe - it took time to work down his excitement and overabundant happiness and, I'm still careful in certain situations that would cause excitement. As others have said, just as long as you either muzzle or put the dog in a separate room when your child wants to run around or to have friends over, you may be able to control the behaviors - only time will tell. The other situation is similar to the "prey" mode where they go from having fun and being playful to competitive and aggressive. This is one reason that when many greyhounds get together in a fenced in area to run around - they are ALL muzzled. It seems that you understood what was happening and moved to counter the aggression however, you also seemed to realize that it was too late to intervene as the incident unfolded. It's scary however, it is also a good lesson that you are unlikely to forget and thankfully, the other dog was not hurt so you can take that as a warning and adjust behaviors as you are already doing. I like that you are not making excuses and simply stating what happened and your part of it and because of that, I think that you might be able to handle any potential situations with your dog. You didn't mention whether you have started training with your dog - I mean regular obedience classes. This helps with bonding and also you will be able to get a better idea of any other potential issues when you are in a class with other dogs and have more uncontrolled situations come up. I do want to warn you that if you do this, make sure that you do not off-leash your dog in class as most trainers will tell you to do that for the recall portion. I would probably suggest doing classes before bringing in a behaviorist as you really do not know the dog yet. In the interim, identify situations where you want to muzzle the dog or put in another room. Good luck..

Have you ever tried a homemade diet of hamburger, oatmeal, rice, and veggies ? I've had dogs with bad allergies and most were corrected or managed by getting rid of all chicken in the diet and in some cases, wheat. Commercial food usually has chicken or chicken oil and the only way to control it is by making your own food. Commercial food also has preservatives that can contribute to triggering other health issues.

Only use a toothpaste that is for dogs - human toothpaste is not meant to be swallowed and can contain bad stuff (strange sugars). I've been using a dental rinse with Zinc along with a bit of toothpaste for Lucy's teeth however, I don't use a brush - I use the sponge on a stick. I can really move it along her gum lines and it doesn't hurt and do her entire mouth with just a few complaints from her.

I remembered this thread from awhile ago when you mentioned a nasal discharge -- it might provide some helpful information http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/288271-for-those-who-have-a-dog-who-hates-to-take-medication/?hl=%2Bnasal+%2Bdischarge&do=findComment&comment=5285912

I had positive experiences with my dog's chiropractor. Having said that - he teaches chiropractic adjustments a few times a year at a vet college in the mid-west. He is also a "human" chiropractor certified to do animals. If you are going down this path, I would strongly suggest that you make sure whoever you get is certified for dogs. I made sure that I told him every time he came that the adjustments had to be gentle -- there is an instrument that they can use which lessens the amount of bone movement and he used that when we first started the sessions. My dog loved the adjustments and since the chiro usually came from adjusting horses (from the farm down the street) - there was a marathon sniffing session. There was no time that the chiro did anything that could I construed as painful although, there were times that it was obvious some parts of his body were a bit more tender and with that, the chiro did the manipulations more slowly. The day of the adjustments, my dog would be really tired and i usually let him sleep most of the day. The next day my dog would have a marked improvement in mobility and that ease of mobility would continue for between 2 to 4 weeks.

I would hold off putting the Manuka honey on this injury as this is a deep wound and you don't want to encourage anaerobic bacteria activity which would really complicate the healing process. I've used Manuka honey on surface wounds, however never something this deep.

I agree that antibiotics are used with cattle however, there seems to be less use with cattle or at least more targeted use -- at least from my "googling" decades ago. The way chickens are raised are also alarming and while normally relatively clean animals, the cages they are kept in are a cesspool as they are never cleaned and the chickens are jammed in there. The way chickens are slaughtered is pretty disturbing in that it spreads bacteria even though they do a "bleach" wash. This is not saying that cows or pigs are treated any humanely when they are killed - they are not, it's just that there is less bacteria in the internal cuts of meat as they are larger animals - for example, a roast is unlikely to be contaminated on the inside and outside can be quickly seared to kill any bacteria. Although, some stores are now using needles to tenderize the roasts and with that, adding in potential bacterial contamination. I didn't mention it earlier but, there is also the hormone use to make the cows grow bigger and that is not great for dogs ... or for people either. Oh my, I think my "veganism" is showing ....

There might be a few things interacting here but, the simplest is to increase the fiber and see if that helps. You can try adding cooked (5 minute type) oatmeal to his food and if it helps, you'll usually see it after 1 to 3 days. I'm also going to suggest that you try a bland diet - white rice with cooked hamburger and mashed up green beans for at least a week or 2 and that should help calm down his GI tract from all the food switches that have happened. I'm suggesting the hamburger for two reasons - it has less antibiotics than chicken and it seems that dogs are not as allergic to it (from my experience). Once the poop firms up, then you can switch gradually to a new food at the level of abut 1/4 cup a day and if there is a problem, you usually see it when it gets to about 1 cup ... so buy small bags.

That's too bad that they didn't give you rectal Valium although the nasal stuff is pretty new so that might help. Hopefully it is at a dose that gives you enough time to get to the ER if necessary. If the seizures happen again, you might want to ask for a med like generic Keppra that could be used as a cluster buster - a few people that I know have been using this for episodes when their dog has had clusters. You could give it for 2 or 3 days (3x a day) and then stop. As to the sugar levels - if your dog has GMs - that activity will pull sugar out of storage as they are using so much energy and most times it is replenished (as your vet said) however, I have found that giving my dog about 1 to 2 tablespoons of vanilla ice cream (real stuff, no artificial sugars) really helps in the post period of a seizure - she just bounces back much quicker. Good Luck

I might suggest that you have your vet get a consult from someone that specializes in injuries like this -- maybe a nearby university to make sure that the proper procedures are being adhered to. Snake bites are pretty bad and if I remember right - the tissue might be dying (necrotic) from the venom. Again, my memory is a bit stretched on this but, is similar to spider bites in the reaction. As some mentioned - antivenom might have helped but, there are so many different types of snakes and each has it own cocktail mix of ingredients in the venom that unless you know which snake, it's not going to help. Good luck ...

Depending on the kibble - it may be too much protein or the wrong type of protein (allergies). Also, the protein may not be easily digestible and this is pretty important for senior dogs who need better protein. Again, depending on the kibble, it will include some amount of preservatives and salt which are not going to be good for overall health. I feed my dogs regular food - hamburger, fish, rice, veggies, oatmeal and so on .... and I supplement with calcium, fish oil (1 capsule) and vitamins. I started more than a decade ago and have liked the results of feeding my dogs "real food".

Unless a dog is having seizures more than once a month or having clusters (more than 1 seizure in 24 hours), many neurologists will hold on starting medication. How long was the last seizure - if it was more than 5 minutes, then you should get back to the neuro and get his opinion. Even though your dog may not be at the point to be put on daily meds, you should get a "cluster buster" just in case your dog start seizing and doesn't stop or goes from one seizure to another with very little time in-between (Status Epilepticus). This would be used so that you at least have a chance to get to an Evet to get the full treatment protocol. Usually, rectal Valium (at the proper dose) works great for this. Good luck

Think of this as a positive (I know - hard to do that), you now know what the issue is and you can work to resolve it and actually see the progress that you make. In this case, he gets very worked up when an out-of-routine incident happens and as you noted, it also took time to calm him down after. One of the keys is to not let him escalate, so a point here is to catch it before it gets to an uncontrollable point. If I had to ascribe feelings - the dog probably thinks that he has to protect the house from "intruders". You might consider adding the word "HOLD" or "WAIT" which means to stay alert but stay in place - it's different than "STAY". As strange as it seems, you might also want to use the word "FRIEND" when people that are OK to come in arrive. You are lucky to have two people to do the training - you can have one person hold the dog back with the command and the other person open the door. As you make progress, you can then switch so one of you is ringing the bell and see if the other person has control of the dog. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but, greyhounds have a limited attention span - they usually won't last for an hour training session, they get bored and then won't listen so, best to sessions short. I started using the "WAIT" command when I walked my dogs and we would approach situations like a street to cross or a loose dog coming towards us .. although I use the Ukrainian and not the English word. I didn't want my dog to sit or stay as I needed the dog alert and ready to move however, I didn't want any action until I precipitated it. As a note, when you use words like this, you also want to have a release word - if we were ready to cross the street, I would use the Ukrainian word for "FAST" and it would indicate that we would be double-timing it across the street.

Try some toast with butter on it. You could also try cheerios (toasted nut is what I used) and either by itself or mixed with a bit of yogurt. Good luck

Check the medical first - do a urinalysis (first catch) and a culture to rule out a bacterial infection as that can sometimes make them not know they are going or either not have enough time to get to the proper place. You also want to do a blood work check as maybe there is some other issue that is not obvious. I would also suggest that if you do end up using an incontinence drug that you use DES rather than Proin (can cause problems in greyhounds). Also, even though your routines may have worked well before, I would suggest taking her out a bit later for her last pee and making sure that she goes. Good Luck

I did want to add that after a dog has cluster seizures (more than 1 seizure in 24 hours) it will take a few days ... maybe up to 2 weeks to recover. They will seem confused and aimless but, it usually gets better. After some of Lucy's worse episodes, I would take her outside to pee and she would stand there cause she forgot what she was outside for. I would have to follow her around the yard and keep saying the "key" word for pee and eventually she understood. Depending what med you use, it can also cause loss of balance and confusion until the dog adapts to it. I would suggest that you read up on "status epilectus" as this is a dangerous situation that can occur with seizure dogs and because of this, I usually have rectal valium on hand. There is also great yahoo group (stay away from the FB groups - they are very bad with the advice they give and many dogs have died as a result) that can provide a ton of support and information -- This link should tell you how to join the group. http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/

I strongly recommend that you take your dog to a neurologist rather than being diagnosed and treated at a regular vet. A neurologist will have more current information as well as the latest tests and treatment options for your dog which the regular vet will likely not have access to. They will probably recommend an MRI along with spinal tap and if you don't have insurance, this can be expensive (between 2 to 3K in my area). This is a difficult choice if you have to pay for it yourself as in most (not all cases), the results of the tests does not change the treatment options as most people (my opinion) do not proceed to have brain surgery on their pet if an abnormally is found. Talk to the neurologist about this further and get all the facts. If the seizures happen more than one a month or more than one at a time, then your dog will likely be put on medicine (anti-seizure meds). In your case, there was more than 1 seizure and because of this, the neurologist will probably recommend that you start meds immediately. Make sure to get a neurologists opinion before you start the meds - even if you have to have the vet do a phone consult as most vets go with Phenobarb as the first choice and this is not usually 1st choice with Neurologists. My Lucy started seizures at about 4 1/2 and she is now 10, she is on meds and is controlled but, we did have about 2 years when it was difficult. Good luck.

I agree with others ... Evet. This needs to be seen as soon as possible.

I wrote a post about something like this with my Lucy -- http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/318774-distal-axonopathy-long-nerve-disease/?do=findComment&comment=5957334 but, it might also be corns developing ... one other note, if it is long nerve, it can also affect other areas of the body like the throat (LP) so you would need to watch out for coughing, trouble breathing and so on ...

You've probably already done it but, have you checked for a corn ?

It's probably from the blood draw - they either did not hold pressure to the site long enough or they went thru the vein and then backed up - either of which would release blood to the surrounding tissue. Next time have them do it from the leg which is usually fine with a dog like a greyhound - the veins are big. If they have to do it from the neck - make sure they hold the gauze there for longer.

Your dog picked up a small dog in it's mouth and luckily, the other dog was not hurt ... the question should not be how to get it back to normal because there is no normal anymore. You need to avoid dog parks and not let the dog run loose unless it is in your fenced in yard. If you keep your dog on a leash and avoid parks, then there should not be a reason to muzzle. If you do playdates with other dogs, all should be muzzled. Think of this first incident as a warning, the next one will probably not be as benign.

You might want to try these - https://smile.amazon.com/GUM-Soft-Picks-Wider-Spaces-Pack/dp/B018PQ60EK/ref=sr_1_5_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1477992075&sr=1-5&keywords=soft-picks&th=1

I was going to suggest this as I have used it and it works great on foot injuries. In your case, you might want to use two or three and make it like a large boot, one for the bottom with the two more so it goes high enough to cover all of the bandage. You will have to tape them together with something like duct tape. If you get creative enough, you can make a tie that comes up over his head and then you can tie it in place.

As already noted, go back on a bland diet of hamburger or fish with rice, noodles, or potato and a cooked and mashed green beans. Do this until the stools are a bit better. After about 1 week, you can add some cooked oatmeal and that adds some fiber which helps to firm up the poop. At this point, I would keep the dog on this food for about 1 month+ and then slowly start transiting off to a kibble. Before doing any more worming - have them check the stool again for worms - if they are not there, I would not recommend worming as it is going to be irritating to the GI tract. I would also remove most of the treats from the diet as one of those could be creating GI issues - also, check the place of origin of the treats and if any are from China then throw them out.