rascalsmom

Hugs to you and yours, Susan.

I just wanted to add that no matter how long my dogs had been with us, if I was within hearing distance when they peed outside, I *always* told them GOOD BOY or GOOD GIRL. Even the one we had the longest, which was 10 years. Praise never hurts.

Maybe a blood panel. Jack had lost a lot of weight and when we did blood work found out his protein was terribly low. Ended up he had intestinal lymphangiectasia. Weight loss always scares me.

Yeah, Sammy was only about 2 when that happened. He never learned, though, and continued to harrass Daisy until he died at age 7 (he developed diabetes). Daisy--who also killed and ate my daughter's parakeet--lived to be almost 19. As you can imagine, Daisy didn't put up with any crap from the dogs.

I would like to add that the worst animal-caused injury our family has ever dealt with was cat-to-cat. It happened long before we had the dogs....we came home to find our male Siamese, Sammy, with a big gash in his rear leg and the leg dangling. Turned out his Achilles' tendon was nearly severed. He had surgery, and ended up recovering completely. The only thing we could figure that happened--and we are pretty sure about this--is that our other Siamese, Daisy, did it. She hated him, and he harrassed the crap out of her. I think he probably attacked her, as he was wont to do, and she defended herself--and hooked a claw into his leg.

I admit we left them all free in the house pretty soon. Our first dog was fostered with multiple cats (thanks, queenwinniesmom!! ) and once she was over her initial greeting with the cats she couldn't have cared less. Ditto with the second dog. Third dog was different, since she wasn't used to cats...but she quickly decided they weren't worth her trouble. Fourth dog, also not at all interested in them. The cats ALWAYS had places to go where the dogs couldn't go, and I think that's vitally important. For us, greyhounds and cats was never a big issue, fortunately.

My bridge girl, Rascal, did that a few times. I took her to my friend's house, who was going to dogsit for us, and Rascal promptly peed on one of their dog beds. From then on, whenever we took the dogs there, we'd take her through the house and directly into the back yard. Rascal LOVED their backyard--1/2 acre, fenced--and she could sniff around there forever, marking to her heart's desire. After she did that, she was fine in the house. She also used to pee on other dog's blankets at meet and greets. She was a major 'marker', obviously. Walks were always an adventure, since she had to mark everything.

Hello from north of Pittsburgh! We adopted four greyhounds from GHG--sadly, all are gone now.

Hi Sheila! I am still here, though dogless now.

Having just lost a dog to something sorta/kinda similar in November.... Jack had intestinal lymphangiectasia...I know what you are going through. Jack had a mass, which they removed, it was'clogged lymphatics'. No cancer, but he was on pred, too.... I am so sorry you have to go through this. Jack was only 7 years old. It's hard.

Mind sharing who your vet is?? Remember my friend Sally? She's looking for a new vet. Glad to hear all is well with your pretty girl.

Jack had his corns hulled many times, and there was never any bleeding. The vet did it, and so did I. Sometimes hulling just doesn't give them all that much relief...other times it's miraculous.

My heartfelt sympathy to you, Grammy, and Gidget. I know how hard it is.

Definitely normal to be a bit panicky at this point. I know I was! I even made my DH take an entire week of vacation, when we got our first dog. After about an hour at home, Rascal had chased some toys in the backyard, found her dog bed, and was cockroached. It was really rather anticlimactic. Re: the cat thing....are these dogs in foster care? Ours were all fostered (except Jack, the handsome fellow in my avatar, WE were his 'foster home', a term I use loosely since I knew from the outset he'd be mine ), 2 out of 3 with multiple cats. The one who wasn't fostered with cats was fine after about an hour in a muzzle, being told "NO CAT" when she even looked at them. Like Jan, we had very few problems with any of our four. Greyhounds are awesome. We are now dogless, having lost Jack last November, for the first time since 2001. I miss them terribly.

I remember that day very clearly.

Your dogs are beautiful! Welcome to GT from another near-Pittsburgher. I've been on GT for many years, but all of our greyhounds have gone to the Rainbow Bridge.

Welcome to GT from another almost-Pittsburgher! We are about 30 miles from the 'burgh, but no more greyhounds.

My bridge boy, Buddy, went crazy over diesel Dodge trucks. Not Fords, not Chevys...only Dodges. And only diesels. I am convinced the dog truck that took him to race was a diesel Dodge. He would get SOOO excited.

Like you, I, too, was very uncertain about adopting a greyhound. I had only had cats, and was concerned about them as well. It took a long time, a lot of begging on the part of my daughter, and several phone calls to people in the adoption group before I was sorta-kinda OK with the idea. Our first dog was perfect. Two years old, a little girl. She came home, ran around the back yard, and was cockroached on her bed within about an hour. All that worrying, for nothing. Our second dog we adopted two months later. A boy, who was a two-time bounce, and did have a few issues--largely related to trust, as we came to learn. He changed immensely in the first two years we had him, and turned into my lap dog. Went from growling if you got too close, to cuddling ALL THE TIME. Third dog--sister to the first. Not as 'outgoing' as her sister, more reserved, but really, no problems at all with her. Oh, she did want to eat the cat initially, but an hour in the muzzle, being told "NO CAT!" was all it took. She had simply not been in a foster home with cats, even though she passed her 'cat test'....after that first day, she could not have cared less about the cats. Fourth dog--got him off a farm. Perfect in every way--didn't care about the cats a bit. We fostered him, and adopted him. He just died last November, had a bizarre intestinal disease. All of my dogs are gone now but they truly changed my life. I made friends through them, people who are still my friends even though our dogs might be gone. I miss them all of my dogs terribly. Don't forget the rules--lots of pictures!!

Chiropractic was an immense help when Ruby hurt her neck. In fact it saved her life, as it got her back on her feet.

Jay, it sounds so much like what happened to my Buddy. He started with back end weakness, and we treated for LS, but he kept losing weight, didn't want to eat....at a vet visit she found enlarged lymph nodes on his neck, did the fine needle aspirate, and in a few days we knew it was lymphoma. Start to finish, about eight or nine weeks. Buddy was 12. I'm so sorry for your loss.

I think it will pass through, largely unchanged, unless you grind it up.

I am so very sorry to read this, Judy. My sympathy to you, Mike, Kevin, and all the hounds, too.

My dentist had a whole box of tools they no longer used, and they gave me a tool which I used on Jack's corns.

Congratulations to all of you, Karen! Those two sure got lucky!