Robin1017

Robin has been on the Iams Large breed for 9 years or so. After some experimenting with higher-end stuff early on, we found that this works well for him, so I'm not messing with it! Robin is about 80 pounds.

Robin had a bite on his side once and we decided to wait till morning. Worst night's sleep ever, and we felt absolutely awful, because he was in pain and spent the whole night standing next to the bed panting. Ended up with a fever in the morning when we brought him in. So I would say vet tonight. Though it sounds like you already decided that anyway. Good luck!

Hi all, So I bought a thing of Grizzly Salmon oil to add to Robin's food. I hoped it would encourage him to eat more, and also that it would give him some benefits for his joints and such with his arthritis. Been meaning to do it for a while, but finally got to it. 2 questions for you all, though... --How many pumps do you give? It says to give 4 pumps per day, but I was curious what people here do. --Does it typically cause soft stool? He's had 3 meals with it, and already he has the nasty soft serve going on, and I'm wondering if it is the oil. If so, any suggestions on helping it? I would really like to try this, to see if I have better results than the fish oil capsules, but not at the expense of his sensitive tummy... Any info would be appreciated. I'd only heard good things about this stuff, so I'm hoping it's just a transition period... :-) Cathy

I hope Akon starts feeling better. Give him hugs!

Yep, Robin has tetracycline teeth too. Pretty gross looking, but they are much healthier than they look.

I checked Robin, and no dew pads that I can tell. Only claws.

Melissa, I'm so sad to hear about Ave. Our walks just won't be the same. I was so glad to see him at the Jingle Bell Walk last week. He looked happy, and I'm sure he knew how much he was loved. Run free, Ave.

So far, so good. He's had some gas, but otherwise fairly normal poops. And the roommate will not be buying those again, she says, now that she saw the shards that he created. :-) I will continue to keep watch. Thanks everyone!

I'm slightly annoyed with my roommate. She recently got a bunch of new dog treats for her dog, which is all well and good, but Robin is a bit, shall we say, obsessed. He will NOT stop trying to steal them from her room at every opportunity, and though I think she tries to keep track and not let him get to them, he did. I don't like him to have marrow bones and big rawhides because he will chew on them for so long that his gums bleed. Tonight I came home to a shattered rib bone on my bed. It is a cow rib bone, so it is large, and kind of flat. Robin must have snuck it out of her room without her noticing, and he DEMOLISHED it. But it splintered in the process, and my bed was covered in shards of bone and marrow. Gross enough, to be sure, but now I have to worry about how many shards he may have eaten, and how large they were, and if he is about to shred his insides... I gave him some bread just now, for some cushioning, I hope, but is there anything else I should do? Or anything I should watch for to know that something is wrong? Hopefully anything he ingested will pass uneventfully, but I want to know when to worry.... Thanks in advance! Cathy

We used to give these to our dogs, but then we were told (on the news?) that turkey is bad for dogs--almost poisonous. The tryptophan, I think? So we stopped and they haven't gotten turkey anything since. I would love to discover that this isn't, in fact, the case. Our dogs would be in heaven tomorrow....

Robin does "down" like you describe. The trick to teaching him how to sit was to put him into "down" first, then teach him to push up into a sit. We used the "shaping" method where we held a cookie in the air and when he started to push up, we would click the clicker, and eventually he would push all the way up into a sit. Once he had that down, it didn't take him long to figure out how to go straight down into it, as that would save time in receiving cookies!

I just saw this! I'm so glad to hear that Ave came out of it well and that it was benign! Give him love and kisses from me and his buddy Robin!!! And lots of cookies, of course.

Thank you for asking! I'm glad EZ is doing better. Overall, Robin's doing better. He clearly feels better, and we've had no explosive D since. But I'm dealing with slight and occasional loose stools, alternating with stools that are fine. So he's not completely normal yet. Also, I had a couple of instances here and there with slightly loose, yellow poop that smelled bad. But it went away, so I don't know if I should be worried yet. Internet and GT searches make me concerned that he now has SIBO after the rounds of antibiotics, but I don't know. Seems that it would be consistantly yellow and gross, not occasional. I'm going to get some pumpkin today to firm him up and I may look into finding some probiotics to add. But I think if it comes out yellow again, I'm bringing it to the vet immediately. I may also call them this week to get their take on it. Oh, and he randomly threw up bile one night. Weird. Hopefully he will get back to normal soon so I can stop worrying. The more I've typed into this reply, the more concerned I am about this. Hmm.... But at least he is happy again!

Thank you for all your input! We went to the vet today, and he wants to keep Robin on the flagyl for a solid week, along with amoxicillin and his bland diet. He is thinking that it could be a bacterial infection that didn't all get killed by the first batch of flagyl alone and has resurfaced. That sounds similar to what you all seem to be saying, so maybe this antibiotic will do the trick. If not, then we'll probably have to see WHICH bacterias they are so we can fight them in particular. Until then, it seems I will be doing more cooking for my dog than I normally do for myself. Sigh. I can't wait til he feels better. Poor guy.

Well...maybe I'll be lucky. After all, after the first bout, he has been fine for almost 2 weeks... Keep me posted if you do learn the name of it, and I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Well, he's sleeping happily after a meal of chicken and jasmine rice (all I had) and his first dose of flagyl. Hopefully he sleeps through the night without incident. We can deal with soft and liquid poop, but it's the uncontrollableness of the episodes that is difficult for both of us. He feels so bad! Do you know the name of the bacterial infection EZ had? I can ask about it on Wednesday when we go in, and hopefully avoid having to pay the ER prices. :-(

Yikes. The first post sounded like my past 3 weeks with Robin that I just posted about. I'm glad he's feeling better.

Sigh.... 3 weeks ago Robin had several days of diarrhea, waking me up several times with it two nights in a row. :-( After days of chicken and rice and flagyl, he got back to solid. But his stool sample came back positive for hookworms, so we did a round of panacur (though the vet did mention that hookworms shouldn't have caused diahrrea). He has been back to solid poops since. Until Saturday, when he had loose stools, and yesterday, where he had liquid poop, to last night and today when he had explosive accidents frequently. Called the vet, and he said to go with the leftover flagyl and a bland diet to hold him over till Wednesday, when we have Robin's wellness visit. He's due for another round of panacur in a week, but when I asked if we should retreat him now instead of waiting another week, he said no. So he was a happy camper tonight as I cooked him chicken and rice, but I can't help but be concerned. The vet said again that he seems to doubt that it's the hookworms, which makes me wonder what else could be going on. Most likely he is just sensitive, and worms caused diarrhea for him where it wouldn't in most dogs. But he also threw up once during the earlier episode and once again this weekend. And I just can't help worrying a bit. So please give my Robin some good thoughts that this is just the hookworms resurfacing and they will go away soon and easily.

Whew! I'm sure, based on what you are describing, that it is mild, if not a misdiagnosis. They didn't say anything about the species, and seem to be ignoring that and focusing on hookworm because that can transmit to humans, so it seems like it's not worrying them. The "sample" was from that morning, but it had been a good 3-4 hours, in not-so-warm temperatures, so things could have hatched as well. No coughing or obvious exercise issues--in fact, we just came back in from zoomies, so I think he's feeling okay. It's good to know I don't have to worry too badly. Just about the hookworms, I guess, which have already cost me a bedroom area rug and several lost nights' sleep! Thanks for the info! Let's cheer on the Panacur!!! Go team go!!!

My neighbor walked Robin once for me as a favor. The next day, I saw her and she said, "From behind, Robin walks like a lady wearing high heels!" I walked behind him, and, sure enough, he does! (I prefer this analogy to his having a stick up his butt, though that one is probably accurate as well...)

Yes. Apparently he tested positive for hookworm AND lungworm today. He's got panacur, and I'm freaking out about disinfecting everywhere he had diarrhea last week. Hookworm sucks, but at least I can understand that one. But I know nothing about lungworm, except that the panacur should take care of it. (I did most of this by phone with a vet that has a strong British accent, so I didn't get tons of info today.) Lungworm sounds like heartworm to me somehow. Maybe it's just a random association. Should I be worried? Or should the medicine get rid of them? (I don't even know if I should be embarrassed to admit that this happened. Will it make me look like a bad mom?)

Has anyone's hounds ever tested positive for lungworm?

If Robin loves bones he will certainly like eating the turkey necks Yes first times giving them are a scary experience for the grey owner, but it will go fine yes Robin will swallow piece that seems big to you but dont worry, he chew them good and it's all digestible in a dog stomac Otis loves turkey and capon necks. Robin doesn't just love the bones that my roommate's dog gets--he OBSESSES over them. He will sneak into that room at any opportunity to steal them and then chews on them until he bleeds. Big marrow bones. So I do want to try the turkey necks. Plus, if it helps his teeth.... But yes, it probably will terrify me at first. But thank you for the reassurance! Now I just have to locate them....

So, if I want to give Robin one for his teeth, I just get one at the grocery store and let him go to town? Sounds scary, with all the bones and stuff. He'll just eat it? I'm thinking about trying it, but I may have an anxiety attack while I watch him. Is that okay? eta: He doesn't eat raw and hasn't in the 7 years we've had him. When he gets my roommate's dog's bones, though, he will chew until his gums bleed. That's why I have some concerns....

Robin is a therapy dog too! He just started in March, but he is a natural. He really likes visiting the people in nursing homes. I am hoping to be able to start doing visits at the children's hospital in the fall after we have enough visits to qualify for it with our group. He always gets a lot of attention because he stands out among all the labs, golden retrievers, and smaller dogs we go with. We really like it so far....