MaryJane

You are better off getting a sterile container from the vet. Even if you do not need a sterile specimen, you really want a container that has never been used. For example, soap residue could distort results. You can usually put the container under her/him when they go - try to catch a mid-stream specimen. Note, try a few trial runs first.

I started using the packaged cheese slices. Lucy is easy to give pills to but, I wanted something that didn't get all over my fingers and that she would just chomp down. I use about 1/3 slice of cheese - cut that in half and each half gets a pill rolled up. The cheese is a little squishy so I can seal the edges so the pill doesn't fall out. Works great. My other two love it too - they each get 1/3 cheese slice when Lucy gets a pill.

Having an MRI and the spinal are used to rule out brain tumors and meningitis. Having said that, if your dog does have a tumor most people are not going to do brain surgery on their dog and you are left with treating the symptoms which are the seizures. So, the question becomes, why have the tests if you are just going to just treat the symptoms. If it is a brain tumor, conditions usually deteriorate by 18 months or so and it becomes more obvious that is what you are dealing with. I also struggled with wanting to get an MRI and spinal tap to establish a baseline but, decided that the money might be better spent later in the game then at the beginning and so far, I have not regretted my decision. If your dog is clustering which means more than 1 seizure in 24 hours, then you want to see a neurologist and get a "cluster-buster". I use rectal Valium for Lucy and it's intent is that once given after an initial seizure, it stops the next one from occurring immediately afterwards. So you can still have clusters, they just should be further spread out.

These things happen but, .. until you know what caused it, play or otherwise, I suggest that you cancel the meet-n-greet. I had one dog that was always great at meet-n-greets and then one day out of the blue, he growled at a child that was reaching over my other dog to pet him (we were on a walk at that time). No more meet-n-greets for him.

Did you get Amicar - the reason that I ask is that it could be blood accumulating and causing the swelling. I think Charlie's_Dad had a great picture of some face swelling, maybe he could post again ... If it is not better, take a picture and send to the vet (and post here). The vet can decide whether they want to see him. The swelling might also be due to the antibiotic not working and as such, they may need to change it to a different one. Good to hear that the x-rays on his leg were OK!!

Did they do an x-ray at all? It could be a cracked/broken rib and if so, there might be a small chance of getting a collapsed lung. If they did an x-ray, they should see issues with the lungs but, things could have changed since the visit. I agree with the others, E-vet. The panting is worrisome as it could be from pain or not being able to get enough air (collapsing lung). Good luck ...

This is very important - if the urine starts to get pinkish/red - get to the ER vet ASAP. Hopefully, everything will be OK.

If he is having extractions, check to see about getting Amicar. Greyhounds can have bleeding issues and rather than having problems later, it is easier to just put a greyhound on this (it helps to keep the blood clots intact). It may need to be ordered at the pharmacy so, you probably want to call the vet today about it - if they have questions, they should call OSU. You only have to give it for a few days. Lucy had 1 emergency extraction and I had her on it .. just in case.

This sounds very familiar - I've had tons of fosters and most have gone through that "I'm comfortable and don't want to get up". I suggest getting a leash on and using that. If you don't want to get that close to the collar to hook it, you can make a loop of the leash and just ease the loop over the head. I usually just position my foot under their rump and nudge them along with saying "UP" to get results but, I would not suggest doing that unless you have handled plenty of dogs in your lifetime. I do it very fast so the dogs usually don't have time to think about it and react. I might suggest that you work on this throughout the day.

I'm sorry to hear that he is not better. I might suggest thinking back to what Henry was doing for the hour before the swelling occurred. While it is starting to sound more like a spider bite, I wouldn't discount a snake bite at this point (although it is unlikely) . Have they been able to shave the fur and look for any bite marks?

Shouldn't be but, confirm with the neurologist that there isn't. On the swelling, any chance that it is a snake bite?

One of my previous greys had a heart murmur and I went ahead and got the ultrasound and so on. Turns out that it was functional and we just had to watch it. Only because Henry has seizures, you might want the heart information by the neurologist to make sure that you don't need a change in seizure treatment - I don't think so but, I'm not a neurologist. Hope Henry gets better fast.

Muzzle her at night when she is on the bed with you. She still doesn't know you, why take a risk.

Yup, mine cost about 50 for Lucy. I now keep a few days supply on hand because not all pharmacies carry it and it can take a few days to get it. I got mine at CVS. I noticed that you are going to be discussing things with the vet tech -- maybe you want to talk to the vet instead. Also, find out who will be doing the dental, the tech or the vet. If the platelets are low, I would not be contemplating any surgery - way too risky. As someone mentioned, you can take care of an infection with antibiotics until you get a better handle on this. The vet also didn't seem to know that this is given afterwards and not before the surgery, I'm not so sure I would be comfortable with that.

Lucy pretty much eats everything - I just toss pills in her food and everything is gone. For the past week, she is starting to leave the Keppra pill in her dish -- must taste pretty bad.

Lucy was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy a little over 20 months ago. For anyone who has a dog with epilepsy, you know that it can be a heart-wrenching disease. You can have your dogs on medicines and do all the right things but, your dog can still go into status (seizures that don't stop). There is no telling which dog will live to 14 years old and which one will be discovered in status or already expired when you come home. Like I said, a heart wrenching disease. Since Lucy was diagnosed, I have been doing research on her seizure dates but, it has only been recently that I have had enough dates to make sense of the data. As a result, I believe I have made a clear breakthrough. She was having most of her seizures when certain spatial points were being activated. There were also identifiable patterns when she escalated and as a result needed more medicine. This just occurred again this past week and resulted in an increase of medicines. I am still going to be studying Lucy's patterns more closely but, with a different focus -- to be able to identify periods in the future when her seizure activity could be higher. In the interim, I am going to expand the study to include more dogs. If I could find a pattern in Lucy's past seizures, maybe I can find it in other dogs. With this in mind, I am looking for dogs to participate in this research study. Each dog participating must meet certain requirements which are listed on my web page. There are no charges or any fees for participants in the study, all costs for the research are borne by my company. If you are interested, more information is on my web site at: http://lionessassociates.com/lionesscommunity/seizureresearch.html

I assume that your vet explained to you that some seizure medications cause liver issues - is she on "those type" of meds?

I had one of my greys on the Metacam occasionally. He seemed to tolerate it better than some of the other drugs.

You probably want to bring a first morning urine to the vet for a urinalysis. Doesn't sound like an infection but, they should be able to see if there is bacteria in the microscopic. You also want to get the protein and the Specific gravity of the urine and both of those would indicate whether the creat is a concern. As a note, Larry runs a higher creat but, he also runs a lower specific gravity so he has been on a reduced protein diet for years. My epi, Lucy has had numerous bouts with UTIs which cause urinary incontinence but, when she does not have a UTI, she holds it a long time (like what you are describing). At one point I was nervous whether she was drinking enough water and I was adding water to her food. edited to add ... Your note about "standing outside like a statue", Lucy does this all the time. I let her out in the morning and she'll stand there and it's like she's examining every leaf on the trees and every grass stem to make sure they are all the same. She'll check every car that goes by and doesn't take her eyes off of it. If I call her - it's like I don't exist -- she's in her own space. A few minutes later, she's back to her old self.

Good to hear the Lucas is on the mend ...

It's been so hot and humid here the past 2-3 days - any chance that it could be heat stroke? Since she is a black dog - it hits them harder when they are outside in the sun. Hope she gets through this quickly.

Thanks for posting this. I guess my question would be "Why do people keep on buying any dog treats made in China?" What's the answer -- most people don't even know to look at the ingredients and where they are made and our own FDA is not requiring proper labeling to make it easy to see countries involved in the product. And in case you haven't heard, a Chinese company wants to buy Smithfield Pork - so they will be providing pork for Americans and this will allow them to bring chicken in from China through the back door and sell it to people through this company that they will own in the states .... Glad I went vegan years ago ... sorry for the rant ...

Irritation from the tube should not be going on this long - I suggest going back to the vet and having them do an exam and maybe even an x-ray to check the structures around the throat.

I'm so sorry.

Nope, as someone mentioned, it has to be given whole (not cut in half either) otherwise it will no longer be extended release. You might also check the poop for a few days to make sure it is not being excreted whole - as I mentioned earlier, some dogs cannot metabolize the shell and as a result, the whole pill gets excreted. On another note, I tried giving Lucy the Costco version of the regular Keppra and 1 day later, she had a seizure. So she is one of the few that cannot metabolize that particular manufacturer whether it be the ER form of the pill or the regular. To someone else's question about how many pills can be involved in treatment of seizures -- many. There is some consensus among neurologists that if your dog has been having seizures for more than 18 months, then it probably is not a tumor. Lucy's neurologist was very frank about that. He noted, by that time most brain tumors would have caused other symptoms. Not to say that it doesn't ever happen but, usually with seizures time does tell.