MaryJane

My Larry has grabbed a stick of butter more than once when he was younger and in his "counter surfing days". I would just give him some bread/toast after and expect diarrhea for a few days.

Good to hear that she is at the vets and they are stabilizing her. It's tough when the storms can trigger seizures. Hope to hear good news later...

Welcome form Mass ... What a cute guy! We are going to need some more pictures of those ears.

Did they ever do a fungal culture on her feet? What about tick borne diseases - has a snap test been done? And I would really suggest doing the elimination diet.

I think that they will likely make it through but, they are likely to be very depressed as they will not understand that you are coming back and they will be looking for you everyday. They could also end up loosing weight because they don't eat. You want to make sure that you bring your dog food so they don't have a change in food and get diarrhea issues. Bringing their blankets or toys could also help. You want to make sure that if your hounds are in any distress that the kennel knows to get them to the vet and not wait to "see if it gets better" - better safe than sorry. Many kennels just fed once a day just because of the logistics, you might want to make sure that they continue a twice a day feeding if that is what you do as it would keep any complications to a minimum. You might have to pay extra for that. As someone mentioned, make sure they do not put them in the same run - even though they may get along OK, the close quarters could end up causing a fight. You might also find out how long someone is at the kennel at night and what time they come in the morning. You didn't mention if this is the first time that you have left them ... Good Luck. edited to add .. find out if they have a webcam or any way that you could call in on your computer and see the dogs or if they could post pictures or a video on a regular interval.

I live in Mass and the tick problem here has been getting progressively worse each year. With the strange winter this year, I expect that the ticks will be out earlier and much more of them. I've been so concerned that I've been vaccinating the dogs for Lyme and they also get a yearly snap test. So far, I haven't seen any on me but, I'm finding them quite regularly on the dogs. Where in Mass are you?

Any chance that the gagging be reverse sneezing? If you've never heard it before it sounds pretty awful ...

I'm on the side that just doesn't give bones. I try and clean my dogs teeth every few days so they won't need as many dentals. My dogs seem to do just fine without bones.

The companies are getting smarter - you have to watch and make sure both the ingredients and the assembly are "USA". For example, you can take chicken from China and do some final processing steps in the USA and label it "Made in USA". edited to add .... the "good comapanies" are getting smarter too - some of them are labeling more details like "made in the USA from beef raised and slaughtered in the USA".

I hope no one flames you. You were fostering and you wanted to fail but, it was not to be ... maybe next time. For what it's worth, I like (and respect) that you just came on and said that it didn't work, explained why and didn't apologize (except to the dog). You took responsibility and are not looking for others here to justify your actions.

I checked out this dog food after seeing this post and I was pretty impressed with the ingredients from reading their webste - so much so that I found someplace near me that sells the food and I got the Sachla food for Adam who is my new boy. We had a little stumble (diarrhea) on the first day that I started mixing this in but, today is better. If it keeps on working for him I may try some of the other ones for my other dogs, one who has kidney & food allergy issues and the other one has seizures & food sensitivity. I do home-made cooked food which works excellent but, I've been looking for an alternate dog food that I can mix a bit in so if I ever have issues that someone else has to feed them or I lose power or something else comes up I would have a dry dog food that they could all tolerate at least for a few days. I also contacted the company about where they source their ingredients and they got back to me quickly. It "sounds" like they are very diligent about making sure their ingredient sources are either from USA or Europe and they are careful to stay away from ingredients made in China. They are also very picky about their source for lamb and venison.

I think this hits the nail on the head - it's not uncommon to hear of greyhounds going well into double digits but not as common for breeds such as shepherds, dobermans, great danes, and so on. The other larger breeds are usually showing their aging between 7 to 10. Two of my greyhounds that went over 10 didn't seem to start to showing their age until after they turned 10 but, then I have a limited number for comparison.

I agree. While stitches might or might not be needed, the vet might decide on a course of antibiotics.

First, you have signed a paper agreeing to some type of action - why would a person not keep the agreement they made? What could people infer about a person that does not keep their promises? What does it say about someone that lies to an adoption group about their intent? Second, as to being enforceable, that's always been controversial ... does a "title" to a dog pass to an owner so they can do whatever they want? Does the agreement mean nothing? When you think about it logically, any agreement (not just one about keeping a dog on a leash) is potentially enforceable but, you would need to go to court and have a judge decide the merits of the case and if the judge rules for an adoption group, then the next step is what would the damages be? Could a judge order a dog to be returned? Could a judge throw the case out? There are many scenarios that could result but, it would be misleading to assume that a person can simply ignore any agreement that they sign their name to because no one is going to enforce it.

I hope no one flames you about this ... dealing with growly dogs is usually best done by experienced people who can get a handle on it quickly.

Actually, I don't think is has been beaten enough yet -- especially since you are trying to leave the message that off-leash is OK. Many adoption groups have the mantra "not off-leash, not tied up outside, and no flexi-leads" - and, you sign a contract stating that the dog will be on leash or in an enclosed area, at least I did. My word that I gave to the adoption group is good and my dogs are not off-leash. If you want a dog that you can take off-lead there are plenty of other breeds in rescue shelters - go there.

I would watch for a few days but, I would also clean her daily with some mild soap and water - it could just be some irritation and it will go away by itself. Watch for tinges of pink/red when you wash her as it would be a sign of blood. You might also pick up some cranberry pills and give one a day to make sure any bacteria has a harder time establishing itself.

How does he react if you do "trade-up" with toys? How does he react if you are close to his food bowl - can you pet him while he is eating? If he starts to stiffen/freezes when you get close to his food, then that signals a problem. With the toy, does he just growl or does his posture seem to signal being more "ready" to attack?

Just a brief note that blankets for dragging DON'T work very well when used alone. Out of the many incidents that I have had -- one was with my shepherd (110+ lbs)and getting him out of an SUV after he had x-rays and anesthesia and he wasn't walking. An 8ft piece of plywood for a ramp worked OK but dragging using a blanket didn't - it got caught more often than not and was not "heavy-duty" enough going over cement and grass and just didn't have enough cushioning - I would not count on using that unless it was an absolutely last resort because I think you can do better if you have time to plan. Someone mentioned using the plastic from a pool - that sounds like it has great potential as it would slide over surfaces.

You might also want to check with the AC in your area and the police - sometimes the AC can come with a stretcher and help and ... occasionally the police might give you a hand but, that is not really very likely (and you might not want the help they would provide). If your town does provide services, they are not going to be quick - you might have to wait hours ....

They have those dollys that in addition to being upright can go flat so they are about 6 inches off the ground. You would have to lift the front of the dog and then the back of him onto the dolly but it is not so high that it would be impossible. You would also need to get a piece of plywood so that you can attach it to the dolly with some blankets. Getting to dog into the car can be done with a wheelchair ramp - I have one that I use for my mom and it's about 5 to 6 feet long so it works for my minivan. If you have an SUV, you would need to get a much longer one - maybe 10 or 12 feet - so it goes into the back of an SUV. You could use the dolly to roll your dog right up into the vehicle and if needed, at that time remove the dolly. You want to pick up adjustable strapping at the store so that you could harness your dog onto the plywood and dolly. You could also use a piece of plywood and roll your dog onto it and then using a ramp, push the plywood up onto the dolly and then use the dolly with a ramp to get your dog into a car. One of my most current ideas which I have not completely thought out yet is to get a piece of plywood and screw in heavy duty wheels on one end and put grommets on the other end so that it could be used for ropes to lift and pull or maybe even to attach another board that has wheels. There are quite a few options but, they all require a ramp for the car, plywood, quilting material (like movers use), strapping, and dolly or something with wheels. Right now my backup plan is to use my dolly, ramp, plywood, strapping all of which I have in the house but, I want to try and do the wheels with a piece of plywood because it would be much more maneuverable and it would have a dedicated purpose. Hope that helps ... I forgot to add - if your dog is on a second floor and you need to get him to the first floor - piece of plywood with cushioning and some strapping and one end of the plywood needs to have a board which is used as a stopper. the board needs to have holes because you'll have a rope which you use to slowly let the plywood slip down the stairs (which is why you needs the stopper and strapping - to keep your dog from sliding off). They also make pulleys (mountain climbers use them) that you could put into a wall so you could use that to slowly have the plywood go down the stairs - they also have brakes.

You mentioned that the foot was swollen this morning and that is not necessarily a good thing - it could mean that the wrapping was on too tight which is more likely or it could be bleeding under the skin which I would think would be less likely but, I suppose could occur. Since it is swollen and it started gushing again this morning, maybe it's time to see if your regular vet can squeeze you in for an appointment.

Do you know anyone with a greyhound that you could walk with? The reason is that many greyhounds "know their own kind" and might be more responsive to another greyhound to play with. With your friends - do not have them approach her, let your greyhound go to your friends. You could even have a friend sit on the ground with a treat. If dogs are allowed at your local petstore, take your grey with you - that way you'll see how she handles the stimulus there - it could be that it is too much or she could be fine with it. Do you walk her on the same route every day - sometimes that helps with the shy ones. Check your area and see if there are any "greyhound walks" or playdates scheduled.

While some people have brought up that the OP was not talking specifically about going off-leash someplace other than a dog park unfortunately, the first post changed the tone of the question. This is not really information that you want to have a newbie walking away with. I've talked with many potential owners at Meet-n-greets and if these people heard something like this they would walk away with the thought in their head that "it's OK to let a greyhound loose". This should not be about what a particular person is able to accomplish with their greyhound - it's about what the typical owner is going to be able to accomplish and that is certainly NOT going to be taking the dog off-leash.

Corns ... one of the sure signals of a corn is that your greyhound is preferring to walk on grass rather than asphalt. Even if you can't see anything on his pads, you might want to consider getting a boot with cushioning inside and have him use that on walks and see if there is any improvement. You might also want to put something like a foot cream on his pads daily as that sometimes helps to make them more noticeable. As stated previously in the thread, the corn problem could have caused the shoulder issue. If your vet is not familiar with greyhounds, they can easily miss corns.