MaryJane

Hope that you are OK after being rear-ended - you might want to have a doctor check your neck and that your head has the "proper side motion". A few years ago I was rear-ended twice in a week and shortly after, I discovered I couldn't turn my head to the right and I was compensating by turning the whole upper part of my body to the right. About 6 months of chiropractic treatment seemed to fix it but, it might have gotten better on it's own. As to Cash, hopefully it will just be a pulled muscle.

One very clear symptom of gas issues are the "neck stretching". The gas is the bloat which then can leads to the torsion or twisting.

I'm so sorry that this happened to both of you. I hope the bites heal and that there will not be any physical scars although, I suspect that there will always be emotional ones. As to why it happened, hard to tell .. maybe Faye was hurt, maybe skittish from the earlier incident, maybe it's still too early for her to trust anyone ... One of my greys just doesn't like anyone within a certain "perimeter" of her. If's she's standing, she doesn't even like the boys to get close. If she is laying down, even I have to be aware that I don't get "within her zone". IMHO, Greyhounds do have a slightly different body language than other dogs and are very used to "warning" other dogs with growls when they get close and it's different than the growl when you try and take away a toy/treat. It would take much work to get her to a place where someone is going to trust her and she will trust back and with that, an area full of kids is not the place to work on that. She's likely to do better with an experienced greyhound owner that has dealt with issues like this before. Talk to the agency and see what they suggest. Just a note .... all of my greyhounds were either returned or were going to be hard to place - so there are homes for the dogs that are returned for situations like this.

Condolences on your loss.

One last thing, if you are using the KeppraER, some dogs have trouble metabolizing the enteric shell and as a result it just gets excreted whole. I mentioned that this happened to Lucy ... what you probably want to do is check the poop for a few days and make sure that the pill is not getting excreted whole and in that case, it's not getting into the system. From what some people have said, sometimes just the outer shell gets excreted and if that is the case -- that's OK. Probably just what you wanted to hear ... having to dig through ** ...

The regular vet probably won't know the right dosage for a rectal dose. When Lucy's vet prescribed the rectal valium for the interim time until we could get in to see the neurologist, she prescribed 5 ml as the dose ... once we got in to see him, the neurologist prescribed 16 ml (yikes .... big difference). Don't get me wrong, I love Lucy's regular vet, just not for the seizure treatment. If he is going into the ER, they are likely doing a drip that has the valium - bring that up to the neurologist or if you are having a hard time dealing with that particular neurologist, switch to another one. Lucy's neurologist wants to know whenever she has a seizure - I email him and ... usually I get an answer back within an hour or two ... even on weekends. We were lucky to get someone so caring and so intelligent - he is a wealth of information on not just seizures, but everything else. You might also want to join the epi-list. There are tons of really caring people on the list that can provide support and suggestions (sometimes at all hours of the night). Some have had luck with occular compressions, others with going to grainfree diets .... just tons of other things that you can try. I didn't have a chance to add some links (cable guy was here and pulled my connection as I was typing last reply ..) http://thewallyfoundation.com/ http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Resources.html There are mentions of Dr. Dodds ... please be forewarned, she is on the fringes of the established medical community. While it's good to read her materials, they have not been peer-reviewed and thus, may make conclusions that others would not. For others that may be reading this -- send the Wally Foundation link to the adoption group that you dealt with - again, they will help to pay for seizure drugs for dogs in adoption shelters.

I'm so sorry to hear about Thunder -- seizures are tough on our pups but, this must have been a really bad weekend for you. Lucy has gone through clusters like what you describe and I was a wreck afterward. Usually, the neurologist would either increase the pills or if we were at the limit, add another. We are now at the point where she still has a seizure about once a month and this pattern has developed after a few months. The neurologist and I agreed that we are going to wait and see if the pattern stays the same over the next few months and then decide what we will do (maybe nothing). I am also using rectal valium ever since she started clustering to make sure that the one seizure does not turn into multiple and so far (cross my fingers) it has been working. 1. If you are not already using a neurologist, it is time to get one. Your regular vet is not going to be of use with all the different seizure meds. 2. You may not get to the point where Thunder is seizure-free, you may have to settle for a seizure a month, or every 5 weeks, or every three weeks - have a heart-to-heart talk with the neurologist about this (NOT the regular vet). 3. The neurologist should show you how to use the rectal valium. The rectal valium will help prevent the clusters. It lasts a few hours but, during that time, it helps to keep the dog from seizing. Otherwise, you will end up at the ER. Lucy tolerates the procedure for the rectal valium pretty well. After a seizure, she gets her vanilla ice cream and then she gets her rectal valium. They should set you up with the glass bottles, syringes, catheters, and ... the neurologist should show you how to do it. My neurologist was great -- he made me do it after him to make sure that I felt "capable" of doing it. Lucy is on 300mg Zonsiamide bid - after her seizures moved to every three weeks, we went from 200 to 300 and the neurologist does not want to increase the zonisamide at this point. Zonisamide has a "grace period" of a little less than a year and after that, a small percentage start to seize again and have to have another medicine added. Lucy, was not one of the lucky ones. After cluster, we added the 750mg KeppraER bid (a bit over 100$ for 1 month) which went well for about 3 months and I decided to switch to Costco (note, you don't have to be a member for their prescriptions) and the cost there was about $50 for 1 month. It turns out, different manufacturers use different enteric coatings and it looked like the one from Costco had a coating that Lucy couldn't absorb so the pills were not likely getting into her system. After starting the Costco pills, she has a seizure the next day ... Ok, then we went back to the hospital for their version of Keppra pills but, they no longer had the KeppraER (out of stock) so Lucy went on the regular Keppra ($100) and things went well for about 6 weeks and then another seizure. Since she was on the regular Keppra, I am able to cut the pill and give her 1 1/4 pills tid. As I noted, she's been having a seizure about every month (she had one on Friday too) but, we are watching and waiting. It gets expensive but, someone on the epi-list mentioned that Sam's Club has an even better deal on Keppra (I vaguely remember about $50 for three months - WOW) but, Sam's club does not ship, so you have to go the store. I just recently am trying to move Lucy to the Costco Keppra again, since this is not the ER pill, maybe she can use those. There is also a foundation -- Wally Foundation which helps adoption groups with the costs associated with epileptic dogs.

The only thing that comes to mind is the drool and they get ravenous.

First - glad to hear that everything is OK! Second, thanks for posting this. It's hard to remember "everything" that we have to do to keep out hounds safe and sometimes, things are just going to happen. As in your case, quick actions can make a difference.

I'd do a urine culture for sure along with a urinalysis. Also, my Larry will have accidents if he starts to have too much protein in his food (he does have some minor kidney issues with elevated blood creat and decreased urine specific gravity) or if he gets something he is allergic too. With that in mind, have you changed dog food/treats and if you did, does it have more protein or maybe he's allergic to one of the ingredients. Dietary allergies usually cause diarrhea but with Larry, I have also noticed that it also increases the urine output and maybe that is because he is drinking more water.

Urine can develop crystals if it sits around for awhile before being tested.

Call the vet - if it is infected and Atticus is on antibiotics, then chances are a different antibiotic is needed.

Are you by chance giving fish oil as a supplement? Fish oil has aspirin like tendencies and can keep platelets from clumping/clotting. Hope that the bleeding gets under control this morning.

Those pictures look pretty tough. While not exactly common, there can be severe reactions to vaccines -- I'm so sorry that this happened to Gracie and I hope that she'll be OK.

Needs an x-ray and a Lyme test. If your regular vet is not inclined to do it - take Zero to a vet that will. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that these tests were not done at your appointment.

If you are given any "fish-oil products", you might want to also discontinue their use 10 days to 14 days before surgery. Fish-oil has aspirin like tendencies in that it keeps platelets from clotting. Note, there have not been any studies done to identify how much (if any) bleeding issues arise from fish oil in people or animals but, you might want to be on the safe side and just discontinue.

Lyme .... hmmm I don't remember this being mentioned before but, then again, my memory is not what is used to be. There is some controversy in the medical community (human) whether or not the bacteria that causes Lyme is ever really destroyed with anitibiotics .. some doctors think that it may just go into remission (lie dormant) and come back again when there are some immune issues. Lyme's symptoms are pretty insidious ... it causes joint pain, fevers and a while host of other symptoms that are pretty difficult to diagnose in a human and it is doubly as difficult to diagnose in a dog. Although, it does sound that Zero could be having joint pain and as such ... maybe it is the Lyme flaring up again. As far as I know, the tests that they use to diagnose Lyme are indirect - they don't really measure the presence of the bacteria, they measure the antibodies or the reaction to the bacteria so it could be hard to tell whether the antibodies are from an current inflammation or from 2 years ago. But, having said that, I'm not current with the state of art testing of Lyme. I'm not sure whether you are using your regular vet or going to one of the specialty hospitals in the area but, I might suggest seeing if one of the larger hospitals has someone that specializes in either Lyme or bacterial infections. Hope Zero is feeling better and that you get this resolved.

If I was thinking about doing something that might endanger my dog and I posted it on this forum (or any forum) and it looked like I didn't fully think it out -- then don't sugarcoat it, tell it like it is and let me know anything that I might have overlooked that could hurt my dog. My feelings don't come into consideration when we are talking about the well-being of my dog.

I've been waiting for this thread to get locked so I wouldn't feel the need to respond but, it's still open ... karma I guess ... First --- Your decision to let Henry off-leash was not carefully thought out - instead, the leashes got tangled and the rationale was, let's just let him off-leash and "see what happens". This is not a plus for Henry Second -- (and this is a big one) One of your dogs is a seizure dog (which no one has mentioned) and this has a strong bearing on this particular situation. If Henry is the seizure dog, then if he gets loose he would not get his medicine and that will make it very likely that he has a seizure and if he is in the wild, that would attract all sorts of nasty creatures and he would not have much of a chance to survive -- This is not a plus for Henry. If it is Truman that is the seizure dog and if he has a seizure on the trail, in the chaos, Henry could become agitated (which happens to other dogs when a dog is having a seizure) and could take off and, he might not even be missed. This is not a plus for Henry. Third -- This situation smacks of someone saying to you "why don't you just let your dog off-leash and see what happens" and with that, good chance that someone manipulated you and it's hard to tell from my seat, what their objective was. This is not a plus for Henry. Fourth -- By letting your dog loose, you are ignoring the rights of other people (and their small children) that would like to walk the trails without having loose dogs. This is not a plus for Henry or for other people. Fifth -- You signed a contract stating that you will not let your dog loose, is this how "good your word" is? This is not a plus for Henry or for you and it does not bode well for future adoptions. Sixth -- Walking without a leash for an hour does not seem to be sufficient cause to let a dog loose because the risk is so high. One one side is your dog being able to sniff and frolic a bit (they can do this is a fenced in yard) and on the other side is having a lost dog and possibly one that dies from being out in the elements. A dog lost in the woods might be much harder to find because there would be NO sightings. This is not a plus for Henry and for the many searchers that would give their all to help out. Seventh -- Statistic are funny .. if your dog comes back 99% of the time is sounds pretty good but, that means that ONE time out of a HUNDRED he/she does not come back. Hmmmm -- not so good. Another funny thing that happens is that the more someone lets a dog loose and they came back, the person starts to feel complacent (this is the killer) and they don't realize that the odds are working against them. Let me explain, if you let your dog lose 99 times and he/she comes back, the percentages (on the 100th time letting him/her loose) are now that your dog is 99% NOT going to came back. So how does that work ... out of 100 times, the dog does not come back once .. if they have already been loose 99 times and came back .. that 1% is still lurking out there and it's pretty much saying that your dog is on now on borrowed time. (Didn't Krissy's dog also get lost just recently ???). And using the "Black Swan" analogy .. I can say that Henry will not come back one time and it just takes ONE time for me to be right ... while you can say that Henry will always came back ... and it will just take one time for you to be wrong. If you were a betting person - who would you bet on? This is not a plus for Henry. There are many more to the list but, I'm sure the moderators will chime in and I might even get lightly reprimanded (as I should) but, it would be "bad karma" for me to ignore this and to not state what I think about the situation. Previously, I ignored threads on this forum where dogs ending up in unfortunate circumstances and those threads have come back to haunt me more than once ...

Condolences on this loss and having it so close to the last one. My thoughts are with Mercedes ... and Ellie .... and you.

Larry has a very sensitive GI tract in addition to severe allergies/kidney issues so, I want to make sure any meat that he gets will not cause any complications. Also, my parents get well-cooked meat (I'm a vegan) but, now I'm concerned that either one of them could get exposed to E. Coli from patting one of my dogs if the dogs are eating potentially contaminated rare meat. There have always been common-sense procedures for handling prep areas and counters after handling raw chicken and making sure it is cooked thoroughly, now from my perspective ... those same procedures for cooking apply to beef. IMHO, it's a shame that the meat industry has decided to do this ....

I recently saw an article that the beef industry has been tenderizing beef with needles/blades - this is an automated operation done in the processing plants. Note, the article that I saw yesterday stated that Costco "labels" the meat if it has been "tenderized" with instructions to cook thoroughly but, I couldn't find that particular article so I substituted a link to a similar one. http://news.yahoo.com/big-beef-runs-risk-bacterial-contamination-mechanical-tenderizers-201000014.html I would always cook hamburger well-done for my dogs because of the bacteria risk but, I assumed that leaving the insides of roasts relatively rare would be OK. Guess I now have to start cooking all the dog's meat to well-done.

Good luck today. The first three weeks or so are the toughest .. gets better after that. Has the vet discussed using Amicar after the surgery to control bleeding - I believe that OSU uses it as part of their protocol now (you can contact them and check).

I agree, wean the dog off slowly from the medicine and then recheck and see where the levels are. The "no hair" on the stomach and butt is common for greyhounds. It may grow back but, then again, it may not. One of my dogs that had this condition when I adopted him is now so hairy he's like a polar bear. Keeping a dog (or human) on thyroid medicine that they don't need will speed up the metabolism and as a result, can cause heart fibrillation/irregular beats among other issues -- it's like getting shots of adrenaline.

I was mixing about 1 cup into my youngest meals and he did OK on it. Problem ended up being that my other two have to have home-made and my youngest figured out that he was getting different food than them. This was one of the few foods that I found that did not have any chicken which my oldest is severely allergic too (just in case he got into food of the youngest).