MaryJane

You might want to consider holding off going to specialists/behavior assessors and take a bit different approach for a while and see if it works. A simplistic approach would be to remove the stressors in his life and see if he improves. This would take a few months. You would first have to identify what causes fear/stress/overexcitement and then remove that from his environment. The intent would be to get him to a baseline where he is not "stimulated" - sort of a "zen place". Once he is at a "good place" for a few months, stressors could be added back slowly and increased/decreased depending what his behavior warrants. It could be that he will never be the type of dog that can handle much before he overloads. You mentioned that some of this behavior occurred after his neuter - by chance, did anything happen at the animal hospital ..... or, it could that the behavior has been heightened with the issues with Henry has recently gone through .... I fear that going to new specialists and having his behavior assessed wold be just another stressful experience for him. Adding more drugs would simply dull his life experience although, that might eventually be necessary. As I write this I think of a few shelters in Spain that do wonders with "damaged galgos". One that comes to mind is 112Carlotta (I think that is the name) and another is FBM. Maybe you can reach out to organizations like SAGE or SHUG (or GRIN) and see if they could put you in touch with one of the Spanish shelters (of course, small donations would help). They might be able to provide some suggestions that worked for them with their "damaged galgos". edited to add -- you might want to check to see if there are holistic vets in your area that do acupuncture - I wouldn't suggest doing that now but, maybe later when Truman is more relaxed.

IMHO, I might think that the new kibble may not agree with him - he might be allergic to an ingredient. My Lucy has what appears to be IBD (no biopsy yet) and we have transitioned her off her old protein which was meat and she is now on fish only. We are thinking that the original cause may have been the seizure medicine that she was on but, we still doing the diet changes and probiotics. HGE might also have some dietary factors. edited to add -- forgot to mention that you might want to get a poop culture to see if it has a bacterial cause.

Did they do a culture to check for UTI? Many vets will just do a urinalysis and see if bacteria show up and that may not be the best way. I suggest doing a culture before starting on incontinence meds.

If they get infected you can get blood in the expressed material. This happened to Larry a few times. You might want to consider getting a culture if the antibiotic is not working after a few days. edited to add -- to clarify, Larry had tinges of blood but it wasn't a full teaspoon of blood.

I would first check for a UTI and that means getting a sterile first catch morning specimen - it could be an infection. There shouldn't be any issue to increasing the DES back to once a day for a few days (if I remember the loading period is about 5 days) and see if that helps to bring it under control and then reduce back to the twice a week. You could also add Proin to the DES but, I'm not sure how I would personally feel about doing that. As a note, this happened to Lucy and she ended up on the DES daily for a few weeks and in that time, we discovered a UTI and then slowly weaned her off the DES (over 6 months) but, in the interim, it looked like we might have to give her both the DES and Proin to control the incontinence. Proin in rare cases can cause high blood pressure that is not easily naticed.

While this is most likely an issue with worms ... there is also the slight chance that it is something else. How long ago was the Flagyl stopped? Since there has been diarrhea, did the vet suggest a bland diet as that would be gentle on the GI tract.

You cannot test for a UTI in 1 day - it takes a few days (about 1 to 2) to have the bacteria grow out and then another day for the sensitivity.

Get a first morning urine specimen (sterile) and have them culture it for a UTI. DO NOT just give antibiotics without knowing the bacteria (if any). If she does have urinary incontinence, you might want to consider DES rather than Proin because a few people on her (can't remember who) had issues with the Proin (high blood pressure).

Do not give bones or rawhides (or any long chewing food) until you have your greyhound at least a few months. In the interim, take the dog to basic obedience. The dog has to learn to trust you before it is going to let you take a "high-value treat".

Not all dogs can be easily trained not to react. It sounds like your dog is not going to be easy, maybe the right word would be very difficult and maybe impossible. I might suggest going back to the point where he is comfortable and does not exhibit the behavior and then take baby steps. For example, take him out to your driveway and just stand there for 10 minutes and do this for a few days. Then have a friend with a dog walk up to you slowly but, carefully observe when the not desirable behavior starts and stop the friend from coming closer. You can now do this every day and try and get your friend closer and closer by working with distraction techniques with Truman. You can then try moving towards the other person instead and see when Truman starts the undesirable behavior. Personally, I'm not a fan of doing treats, I'd rather use my voice and praise which has always worked wonders with my dogs but, use whatever works with you. This is a very long process but you should be able to see very small improvements over time.

As to the cranberry not being effective in dogs - supposedly, only helps against E.coli. Lucy has been on supplements on and off for about 3 years now and it seems whenever I take her off, she gets an infection.... I'm currently using a cranberry supplement formulated specifically for dogs. Before I was using one for people. Note, the cranberry supplement for dogs is pricy - runs 50+ a month (Crananidin Pet Supplement) Did you get a culture and sensitivity on the bacteria? Sometimes the antibiotic used is not the best for that bacteria and the culture and sensitivity can help determine what antibiotic is best to use. Did the urine PH get tested right away? I vaguely remember that crystals and PH can be affected by refrigerator storage but, I can't say with much accuracy - hopefully someone else can answer this.

It looks like it - wet it or put cream on the paw and you can usually see the corns better.

Did they do a culture on the discharge? If not, that would be the first step as the antibiotics might not have been the best to use. Also, there could be a chance that the antibiotic use should be continued for a longer period. Watching her outside sounds like a good idea, also, did you put duct tape over the muzzle front piece so that even if she shoves the muzzle in the poo, it won't go in?

Needs to get the anal glands checked - could be an infection and that would cause "seepage" and give the illusion of having gas all the time. You might also want to get a culture when the glands are expressed to make sure that you get the right antibiotic.

I might suggest that you do a urine culture and see if any bacteria grows out.

Sorry to hear this news but Larry has been on a special home-made kidney diet for about 7+ years now and he is 12 1/2 years old now. You probably want to look at the foods that are about 20% or lower in protein or you could consider doing a home-made diet. IMO, the key is to getting less protein (and phosphorous) but, to making the protein a good-quality one. You could also use the diet you are on now but, add white rice & veggies to it but, I think that will be harder to determine exactly how much protein you are giving. Another option is to give a vegetarian dog food and supplement with the protein (meat, fish, pork) yourself so you know exactly how much you are giving and you can guarantee the quality". edited to add .. you might also want to post the blood and urine values. Also, there could be an acute rather than chronic condition going on and with proper care, it could resolve.

Doesn't seem like 2 years have passed .... I always think of Charlie as the poster dog for osteo -- he gave it a good run and lived his life to the fullest

My dogs are fed rice all the time as part of their home-made food - it's easy to digest.

Most of the blood work looks OK although, there is a bit of protein in the urine which might or might not be a concern. You might want to cut back on the protein in the food or add white rice. It could be IBD and if so, one of the diagnostic tools is a vitamin B12 level/folate blood level although this doesn't diagnose 100% - you would need a biopsy to do that. If it is IBD, there are numerous ways to attempt treatment - using a unique protein, giving probiotics, sometimes flagyl ... also steroids. Lucy is battling the same issue with weight drop and I've become a little bit of an expert over the last 6 weeks about diagnosis/treatment of IBD. Lucy also has seizures which adds a whole new dimension to trying to treat her and it's likely that in her case, the seizure meds had a hand in causing this issue. Edited to add --- I forgot to mention the low lymph count - that might be attributable to inflammation in the body ... maybe the GI tract ... see link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3261110/ you probably want to search on low lymphocytes and IBD to get more information

I think that the adoption group probably meant to split that over the two meals - so, give about 1 1/2 cup of the Iams, 1/2 cup rice and 1/4 cup canned food for each meal

Doesn't seem to be enough stated lab work done to develop any theories... Did they do a blood smear to look at the cells? Did they run a B12 to check absorption from the GI? What urine tests were done? What chemistry tests did they do?

I wouldn't get involved as to why they don't have a refractometer - office politics ... whatever. Get another first catch of the day and have them send out for a urinalysis which will include the specific gravity. The outside lab should also do a microscopic that might pick up bacteria and they should also be able to culture the urine. I would not let them do any lab tests at the vet hospital - wrong results or misleading ones can complicate this matter.

It sounds like a UTI. Get a sterile container from your vet and get the first morning catch. Try and get it mid-stream rather than right at the beginning of the stream. If you can, clean her with warm water the night before. You should probably get both a urinalysis and a culture/sensitivity - In my area, that can run between 100 to about 180 so, be prepared for the cost. As already mentioned in a previous post, greyhounds are used to their scheduled turnouts and don't really "ask" to be let out although, they may learn as they get accustomed to being retired ....

This came across my newsfeed today. P&G has been looking to sell for more than 1 year so, this is not really new. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mars-buy-significant-portion-p-130343259.html

Didn't your vet mention anything about a switch to a lowered protein/phosphorous diet to limit the load on the kidneys?