Hawthorn

My boy had a mini-stroke several years ago now but has never had another one (touch wood!). His eyesight was affected in one eye, but he recovered fully within a week. I know how stressful it is, though, especially when it happens at a weekend and more so for you not having a car I imagine. It's certainly not easy seeing them age, but I hope Ace continues to improve and you have lots more time with him.

When I read your post my mind went straight to autoimmunity as another possible cause. Did the specialist you saw mention this as a possibility for the blindness? I think it would be well worth biting the bullet and having tests done, because if you don't there's a risk that you could miss something that could be treated. I would see a neurologist and get a confirmed diagnosis.

I'm so sorry that it was time to say goodbye to Doc. He had a wonderful long life with you and a peaceful, loving end. Beautiful poem.

I'm so sorry you had to say goodbye for now to your handsome boy. Rest in peace, Magic.

Too sad. Rest in peace beautiful Jewel.

Wonderful update!

A very handsome boy indeed. Sympathy to his family and all who knew and loved him.

I am so envious that you have an holistic vet, and one that makes home visits too! There are very few holistic vets in the UK, and usually you need to get a referral from your regular conventional vet before you can see one. I have to travel for over 2 hours to see mine. Hopefully this will change in the future, though. I know very little about raw diets, but I know that meat is generally low in magnesium (but bones would presumably be quite high), so this could be a factor, depending on what else he eats. I found this very interesting website about magnesium and this useful food chart, although it's for people so does not include bones! http://www.magnesiumeducation.com/?id=18 The other thing that has occurred to me regarding Barkley is that his cortisol levels could be chronically high due to his flight or fight reaction being constantly triggered. Cortisol can remain elevated for several days once triggered and if he is constantly being triggered then perhaps it never gets the chance to normalise? I have a similar issue with my Sophie, but to a much lesser degree. She is very sensitive and easily stressed, especially by trips to the vet or anything that involves being away from home. The way I deal with this for her is to keep her very quiet for a few days after any stressful event to give her cortisol a chance to normalise, and I also give her Ginkgo Biloba (which helps to normalise excess cortisol) and B vitamins. With Barkley being triggered even whilst at home, though, it's a much more difficult situation. Do please let us know how Barkley gets on. Jennifer: I'm sorry but I do not know of any references for dogs, though when I get time I will see if I can find anything.

I doubt that there have been any studies into magnesium insufficiency in greyhounds, but I could be wrong. In humans, at least in the alternative medicine field, magnesium is well known for its calming and anti-anxiety effects but talk to someone in the conventional field and they probably won't know anything about it. Most of what I know about magnesium has come from holistic doctors and nutritionists over the last few years, and also from my dogs' holistic vet. The only other thing I can tell you which may help is that my dogs are both on 100mg per day of magnesium as a maintenance dose (increased at times of stress), with the complete approval of their holistic vet, and have been for several years now. I suppose having used magnesium for several years now for myself and my dogs I feel very comfortable with it, but can completely understand your doubts. To me, it seems that Barkley has been under an extreme amount of cumulative stress these last few months (including his health issues and vet visits) and this makes it almost certain that he is low in magnesium, as magnesium is lost from the body very easily during stress. Whether or not magnesium insufficiency is contributing to his problems or not you would really only know by giving him some and seeing if it helps. Honestly, I would have absolutely no hesitation at all in giving him 100mg per day because even if it didn't help with his issues it isn't going to do any harm, even long term. The only thing that would make me hesitate is if he is getting any prescription meds that the magnesium might interfere with in some way, and in that event I would check with my vet. (My vet would then tell me that my dog doesn't need any magnesium, so I would then ask my holistic vet who would say it's fine. ) Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Magnesium is a very safe supplement, but you could get problems if you gave a high dose over a long period. Whilst I cannot advise you how much to give Barkley, I can say that if he were mine I would give him 100mg three times daily for 5 days (or 100mg twice daily for 8 days), then reduce to 100mg daily for life. Or you could just start out by giving him 100mg daily (divided into two doses) if you feel more comfortable with this, but then it would be longer before you saw any improvement. If you give him more than he needs, he may get the runs. I would also consider trying Zylkene (at the highest dose it states on the label) before resorting to the more heavy duty pharmaceutical drugs, but that's just my preference.

I have a strong suspicion that Barkley may have a magnesium insufficiency. Magnesium has a very calming effect on the nervous system and is depleted by stress; insufficiency is very common and can cause nervousness, confusion and anxiety disorders etc.

Couldn't you give them their second meal at 5pm and then give them another before bed?

I have some experience with this, in that my two collided a few years ago, although in their case it was head on. One of them developed partial seizures within 24 hours. Her brother initially seemed OK but within a few weeks developed intermittent front leg lameness. Our regular vet could find nothing wrong but a greyhound vet found a misaligned vertebra in his neck and told me that collisions are a common cause of this. We treated it with tramadol (my boy cannot have NSAIDs), valium as a muscle-relaxant, and then later with chiro when he was less painful. Some soft tissue injuries can take quite a while to heal but I would be concerned that there may be an injury that hasn't been detected yet if he hasn't improved at all in 6 days. You said he's on pain meds - are these anti-inflammatories? Did he have xrays? If he doesn't improve soon and your vet cannot find anything wrong, might be worth getting him checked over by a chiropractor, who in my experience sometimes find things that vets miss. I have no experience with acupuncture or laser. Will be interested to see what your vet thinks.

He (is he still TBN?) sounds quite the character! He also sounds a lot like my boy Sunny, who also thinks every visitor to the house has come specifically to see him, and is also a big barker. Strangely, he never barked at the cat, but he barked at pretty much everything else: curtains, open windows, light fittings etc etc (but don't worry, the first 4 months were the worst ). What works well for us is distract and reward. I keep a small tupperware container full of kibble (or other hard treats that make a nice rattling sound) next to me in the living room. If he is barking too much at something, I just rattle the treat box, which instantly gets his attention and causes him to stop barking, then ask him to lie down and give him some treats. Actually, these days I don't have to say anything, because as soon as I rattle the box he stops whatever he's doing and goes to lie down on his bed to await his treats. It might seem that you would be rewarding the barking, but in fact what you would be rewarding is him removing his attention from the cat and stopping barking. It might also help him to develop a more positive association as regards the cat. Hope you both feel better soon.

I can see several good reasons, not least of which is to have happy, contented dogs that aren't frantic for food for several hours a day. If people feed their dogs twice a day, with a few snacks here and there, and those dogs are happy and contented with that, then fine. However, if dogs are whining, barking and pacing for 2-3 hours before meals, then it seems obvious (to me anyway) that those dogs need an extra meal (or at least a substantial snack) or two between meals. I can also remember the days when most dogs were only fed once a day and yes they survived, but times change, and hopefully most people these days want their dogs to do more than just survive.

I feed mine four times a day. Two main meals morning and early evening, plus smaller meals for lunch and supper (+ biscuits at bedtime). They probably are pretty hungry if they're going 12 hours without food, just as we would be.

Me too! My cat hid in the spare room for three days after I brought my first greyhound home.

Choosing a name is such fun. Often if you wait a while one jumps out at you. I originally called Sunny something else, but it didn't really seem to suit him, and the name Sunny just seemed to fit his looks and personality. Now if I were lucky enough to have a big black boy, I'd maybe call him Benson, or Bruno, or Shadow or Ash or .... the list goes on! Can't wait to see which one passes the PJ test!

Congratulations - he looks lovely! And you didn't have to wait too long either. Hope it all works out - sounds very promising so far.

It's hard to be patient I know. When I was looking for (what turned out to be) Sunny, I'd been walking dogs at a rehoming centre for a couple of months hoping that the big, cat-friendly boy I was looking for would turn up, but to no avail. The only cat-friendly was a small boy, and I really wanted a big boy; a big boy we liked was decidedly not cat-friendly ... and so on. I was getting pretty desperate. Then one day I decided to ring another branch of the RGT on spec and they immediately suggested Sunny, even though he hadn't been cat-tested, and the rest is history. Sunny had been waiting in kennels for a couple of months too ...... waiting for me I like to think ..... but I couldn't help wishing I'd found him sooner and saved him a couple of months in kennels. Still, it all worked out in the end, as I'm sure it will with you too.

I saw this little girl on the RGT website the other day and thought of you: http://darlington.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk/Dog/?dogId=db73059d-4482-761a-881a-54e9be3551bb&from=adopt-a-greyhound Unfortunately she's in Darlington. On the other hand, County Durham would be a lovely place for spring break.

Drontal made mine sick too, but they've been OK with Milbemax. Never used Panacur. The other thing I would do is only give as much as they need: eg if Fey is 26kg she only really needed a little over 2.5 sachets. I know the instructions probably say to give 3 sachets, but I don't see any reason why they should have more than they actually need. I would do this with tablets too.

Very sad - rest in peace Jewel.

It's sensible not to expect this, of course, but nevertheless it does sometimes happen. Two of mine have shown no interest in the cat at all from day one (as in didn't even look at him), and the other two were a little curious in a friendly way but were easily corrected. All of them came direct from kennels and only one (my first) had been briefly cat tested (trainer scooped up a stray cat that was hanging around the kennels and showed him to the greyhound!). Would be less stressful to have one that had already lived with cats though. Sorry Buzz wasn't the one, and hope the right one comes along soon.

Congratulations - he's beautiful! I love the white marking on his face.