vjgrey
-
Posts
1,427 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Store
Articles
Posts posted by vjgrey
-
-
On Thursday, Lucy jumped up on our fence after a squirrel and got a big, ugly gash along the back of her leg. It required an e-vet visit and several stitches.
The vet told us to restrict her activity, but after trying (and failing) multiple times to get her to do her business on leash, we (stupidly) caved and decided we could let her go in the back yard, closely supervised.
Of course, "closely supervised," means nothing when a greyhound sees a squirrel, and yesterday afternoon she saw one and tore across the yard after it before we could react. She not only ripped all of her stitches out, but she also tore a wider gash.
Four hours at the e-vet, a minor surgery and several hundred dollars later, she has even MORE stitches and is on HIGHLY restricted activity for 2-3 weeks. NO unleashed activity, NO actual walks - just short trips to the yard to (please, for the love of #$#@#!) pee and poop.
The problem is, she's still absolutely refusing to go. We've tried hooking three leashes together to try to give her some privacy - nope. We've also tried leash walking her in the back yard, circling around the spots where she always goes - nope. In the last day and a half, she's gone...one full pee and a short "marking" pee, and that's it. She usually pees 5-6 times a day and poops once or twice.
She will (usually) pee and poop on command in the back yard, but on leash, she just ignores us.
She's VERY independent and stubborn. She's not at all food motivated or a people-pleaser, so big parties or treats when she does go won't work.
Any tips? Anyone else faced this with an extremely stubborn dog? We have 2-3 more weeks of this ahead of us, and I'm going to Lose. My. Mind.
-
Tons of positive thoughts for Stewie and your family. Hopefully he's just played too hard and pulled or strained something.
-
So glad to hear that the surgery went well. Hope you can get some rest before he comes home.
-
What a beautiful boy. I'm so sorry. He's so lucky to have found his real home with you.
-
I don't consider it a "problem" so much as an adorable quirk. Both Lucy and my bridge angel Gabe did it for a few weeks, just until they were fully relaxed and settled in. Cash still does it, but really only with socks. Sometimes he'll carry off other clothes, but he is OBSESSED with socks.
-
Information is important, but hope is important, too- while you're reading up, you should search the board for pics and videos of Charlie, Twiggy and Pinky - all of them are proof that hounds can still live active, happy, playful lives as tripods.
-
I'm so sorry. It's not silly to say he's the center of your world. My hounds are the center of mine, too.
You've done the right thing in contacting OSU - they're the experts. As far as "What do I need to know right now," I think it's to make sure your vet has Amicar on hand, since greyhounds are prone to bleeding during amputation. I haven't been though amputation (my Osteo dog wasn't a candidate) but I believe you're supposed to start giving it before surgery. I'm sure someone here will chime in with the details.
The main Osteo thread is also a great resource with the key information in the first post.
-
First, I'm so sorry to hear about Gunner's diagnosis. It's been over a year since I lost my Gabe, and I still feel that overwhelmed, punched in the gut feeling when I think about the day we found out.As this disease unfortunately means a lot of vet visits no matter the path you take, you and Gunner need to be as comfortable as possible with whomever your vet is.
Second, I totally agree with Kyle - it's extremely important that both you and Gunner feel comfortable with his vet.
If you live in an area with access to a Veterinary Oncologist and can afford one, I'd highly, highly recommend getting a referral. Ours was worth his weight in gold, and if I'd had to work three jobs to afford him, I would have. I also found it interesting that the clinic itself had a totally different atmosphere - my Gabe was so vet phobic he'd try to climb into my lap, but he was never scared at the oncology clinic. Not sure if that's universal, but I got the impression that they took a different approach with very ill dogs.
If you stay with a general practice vet, you'll want to be very on top of advocating for/insisting on the full range of pain meds. A lot of vets who don't specialize in cancer are either unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with the heavy doses and number of meds needed to control Osteo pain.
-
I'm so sorry.
-
The receipt from my vet for an office visit generally says what we were there for and documents any of the vet's recommendations--"Give antibiotics for four weeks, call if there's no improvement"--which would document when we started/stopped a round of meds.
Ah - yeah, our vet doesn't typically put detailed notes on the receipt. Sometimes things like that are offered on a separate page, but usually not.
-
As long as you have the digitized copies, you should be fine. Usually, you can get your vet to print out records if you should ever need paper copies, but I know of a local vet's office that closed and more-or-less vanished, leaving owners with no way to get records of vaccinations.
The one use for paper copies is if you need an emergency trip to the e-vet. You might want to have an easy-to-grab folder of papers rather than files you need to take time to print out.
I'll definitely hold onto my copies all of their x-rays, any reports, special instructions from Lucy's cardiologist, rabies certificates, licensing papers, etc... But is there any reason an e-vet would need to see my receipts? These are just the lists of services and prices (e.g. Physical annual exam - $XX.XX"). I can't think of how that would come up, unless they needed to see what meds they were prescribed, or..? I just can't imagine why I'd need them, but I'm so paranoid that I WILL need them that I've kept them for years.
-
Ben is still eating but his quality of life is negligible. He struggles to get up and you can tell he is uncomfortable. It breaks our hearts to see him try so hard but having his body not cooperate and shake while just trying to potty or poop. The look in his face has changed and it's like he is asking for help. He is putting on a brave face for us but it's not fair to keep him here when we know he is suffering. The tumor is like a giant grapefruit and his body twists to the right.
We are afraid if he gets out of kilter and we are not here, he would scream for hours. Also, going down steps to outside and then the yard slants down, sometimes he struggles to walk as the yard isn't flat. He will potty and just look at you panting until you call him to come in and he has to move.
We will see if he stabilizes tonight. Maybe it's just a bad couple of days although we feel his time is very near.
I know I often sound like a broken record with this, but if you haven't tried radiation therapy and can afford it, you should consider it. There were multiple times when I thought we were losing the fight with Gabe only to have radiation buy us more good weeks or good months (I think about six weeks was the longest we went between treatments). For at least two of those visits, he had to be carried into the clinic, and both times he walked out on his own with little to no limp.
I understand that it doesn't work for every hound - I know it didn't work for FedEx. But if you're reaching the end of your options with the meds, it might be worth a try.
-
I recently bought a great new printer/scanner and have been digitizing a lot of our home files to reduce paper clutter.
I have a big file of itemized vet receipts that I've held onto for all four of my hounds, but I can't decide whether they need to be scanned or just discarded.
Thinking about it, I don't remember ever referring back to them, except maybe to check the vaccination due date reminders at the bottom.
Do you keep these? Is there a "just in case," reason I should keep and scan them?
-
I'm so, so sorry. Some things are just out of our hands.
-
Totally normal. It's play.
-
My three all do sit, lay and "foot," (shake). The "foot" comes in handy when I need to towel off their wet feet, but I don't think any of it is necessary - just fun.
-
Ok people, this is my first SIGHTHOUND, not my first dog, I am not a total nimwit when it comes to dogs. I would never consider taking Izzy to a public place if I thought she may hurt another animal, I just am not seeing that in her at all, I have a 10 year old Corgi, a 2 year mini Schnauzer and a 14 year old mini Schnauzer and believe me they boss her around. I would be much more afraid to take my 2 year old Schnauzer to a dog park when it comes to aggression, sadly he is an ankle biter, I have not had a sighthound before and through my reading have read that their recall is not always good. I think everyone's advice has been helpful, I am going to avoid a dog park at this time because I really don't know if she will be hard to catch. I may try a friends backyard as suggested. I am hoping to have my fence up in the next month or so. Her and I are definitely bonding, instead of going to her dog bed to rest she now is up next to me on the couch with her head in my lap. Honestly I was just feeling bad for her because I can tell on leash that she wants to run in the snow and jump around, but she is getting exercise by walking so that will have to do for now.
And to the person that commented that I asked for advice so I should expect to get it.....well duh. If I didn't want peoples opinions I wouldn't ask !!
And thanks to those who commented on how beautiful she is!! I sure think so ( and I'm certainly not biased
No one was suggesting that you're a "nimwit" or that you had no experience with dogs. The issue with sighthounds is that they can go after and kill another dog without displaying an ounce of "aggression." I have a hound like that. Not a mean bone in his body, but he would chase down and kill a small dog in seconds because he has a strong prey drive. There have also been cases where a dog lives with and is fine with a small dog or a house cat, but when let outdoors, where the animal runs, it triggers that "chase and grab," and they wind up killing it. It's not aggression. It's instinct.
-
I fully understand them. I just choose to work with those differences instead of avoiding them.
If went to a dog park and there was a small dog I would think, "oh, there's a small dog, I should probably be careful of that." And then I might walk over within a safe range and say "excuse me Mr. small dog owner, I have a greyhound with a high prey drive. We should be extra careful." And then I may, or may not decide to let my dog off leash depending on the security of the fences, park population, etc."
Taking a "greyhound with a high prey drive," to a dog park isn't working with differences. It's asking for trouble, however "careful," you are while you're there.
-
Which the owner has done (avoiding non-fenced off-leash). I think the negative reaction to the advice is that it seems assumed that the owner has not been watching her dog to see how she reacts with a variety of critters-- which leash walking will show you. She probably wouldn't have mentioned taking her dog to a park at all if she had seen poor reactions to small critters, other dogs, etc.! Training is fantastic, but your dog doesn't 'need' a great recall to do dog parks. Hermes' recall at dog parks sucks, so we catch him during play when we're ready to go -shrug-
Izzy is so beautiful! She'll settle in
I totally disagree.
-
Again, common sense says that one probably understands the differences and unique characteristics that each dog breed has, but the fact still remains... They're all dogs.
ANYTHING can happen to any breed of dog, at any time. As long as an owner is vigilant and observative with their own dog, and uses caution at all times, they should be fine.
Your posts have made it increasingly clear to me that you don't understand the differences and unique characteristics of sighthounds. The idea that you think you can stop a greyhound from killing another dog (or, for that matter, from being killed by another dog) in a dog park by being "vigilant," is a perfect example.
However, I do think this thread has pretty much run its course.
-
Most dogs cant bite with 235 pounds of force, like the Pit can.
Most dogs don't reach the height that an Irish Wolfhound can.
Most dogs can't heard like an Aussie can.
Whats your point?
That these are all in-bred traits that should be taken into account when you own a dog of that breed, rather than dismissing them as "It's a dog- not rocket science."
-
Yes, because NONE of that can happen with any other dog breed. Greyhounds are the only killers out there. It's silly to think that they are so highly specialized.
Most dogs aren't capable of reaching 45 miles per hour in three strides.
-
I'm so sorry Havoc had to leave you too soon.
-
The only thing I think y'all are doing is underestimating other folks common sense.
And I'll digress with that being said.
That's exactly the point - it's not always "common sense," in that what works perfectly fine for a lot of breeds does not work for sighthounds.
Peeing On Leash With Very Restricted Walks?
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
We may try this, but I kind of suspect it won't work for her. She likes to wander the yard and pee on one side and poop on the other. On walks, she's a marker and spreads her pees out for the whole walk. I suspect that if it's small enough that she can't run, it's going to be too small for her to be willing to go in.
It may be worth a shot, though.
[Possibly relevant? She's not a retired racer. She's a schooling drop-out who came to me from a farm when she was just over a year old. I'm pretty sure she was living outdoors there and just going where ever/whenever, so she's not used to a designated turn-out pen like the racers. She also wasn't used to leash walks when she came home, but that was five years ago, and she's since had LOTS].