kudzu

Yeah!! That is fantastic news.

Hopefully this was just a miscommunication or misunderstanding. A follow up appt is definitely the best thing. (But you already knew that.) Even if it was just a mistake it would certainly help me set my mind at ease to have another pair of eyes checking out my dogs eyes. Good luck!

Ask her about adding Front line Spray. That has worked rather well for us & can be used in conjunction with many other flea/tick products. I spray the dogs outside as we are headed somewhere. By the time we get home it is dry. That's my solution to the cats & dogs problem. Good luck. Hope you find a solution.

Does diatomaceous earth work on ticks?

I've never seen ticks crawling up my wall or on my ceiling & I live tick central. Gack! I'm no expert but those sure look like brown a dog tick. Dog ticks are larger than deer ticks. An engorged deer tick can be as big as an un-engorged dog tick but an engorged deer tick, in my experience looks fat where as an un-engorged dog tick is flat. If you've never seen either though that distinction may be hard to discern. (The very fact that I know the difference from personal experience is rather disturbing.) Most deer ticks are tiny, tiny unless engorged from a meal. Dog ticks can be small but still large compared to a hungry deer tick. If the ticks look quite flat then they haven't had a good meal & so it highly unlikely to have had a chance to transmit disease. It's hard to be certain from the picture but that tick looks skinny. (Disclaimer: I'm in accounting not entomology.) So the question is where the heck did those come from?

The first bottle of colloidal silver I got was at GNC. The next time it was actually a spray from the vet's office with colloidal silver as the active ingredient. The spray was easier for me but the hound in question clearly preferred the application of the liquid as opposed to the spray.

Oozing some serum is fine. It might do that off & on for a day or so. Or it might stop later today. Also, some licking is fine. As long as it isn't looking worse she's probably just doing her own version of wound care. Some dogs can get a bit obsessive about it. Those are the ones I worry about & make an effort to dissuade them. I've found colloidal silver works well for things like this but there are plenty of other things. You can also just leave it be as long as it isn't dirty. Just keep an eye on it. If she's licking then whatever you put on won't last long anyway.

It hurts so much to loose them but giving them an easy departure is one of the most loving things you can do. My thoughts are with you & your wonderful Molly.

As long as it isn't expanding, like skin tears often do, then I'd start with standard wound care at home. Keeping it clean & preventing her from licking too much is probably all that's needed.

Poor boy. Very glad you caught it when you did. Hoping he will be more comfortable soon & recovery is as swift as possible.

Wow! I just pulled the first piece of duct tape off & the corn has raised up considerably. The edges are quite prominent & I just couldn't help myself. I took my fingernail & made a little pull at the edge. The corn or at least a goodly section of it pulled right out. He now has a small divot in his pad. Was not quite sure what to do next so I just put another piece of duct tape on it. It seems implausible for the corn to come out in just two days so that had to be just a layer of it. It's unexpected & quite encouraging.

So far the duct tape is staying on without a problem. We just happened to have Scotch 3M brand. Hopefully the adhesive in it will work the same as Duck brand. I'm compromising & will reapply every few days rather than waiting for it to fall off. Will have to pick up some Bag Balm when I'm at the livestock supply store. I'd like to keep the rest of his pads as soft & supple as possible. Will use it on the other corn that's on the edge of a pad, the non-weight bearing area of that outer toe. Ouch, ouch ouch!! Glad you were able to help him. Poor baby.

Sure sounds like good news to me. It's an odd sort of good but beats the heck out of cancer.

Some heart problem was the first thing that went through my mind when you mention cough after exercise. Am not saying that's what it is but that is why I suggested a vet visit wouldn't be out of line if this is a new issue. Every dog I've had with kennel cough does something like reverse sneezing ending with loud throat clearing. If that is what your dog is doing then it might be kennel cough. If I have an otherwise healthy dog who gets kennel cough I normally do not seek vet treatment as long as it doesn't get worse & improves in a few days. My parent's dog does a lot of reverse sneezing related to allergies.

Good thoughts for your adorable boy. Hope all goes well with good results.

My girl, Venus, would reverse sneeze when she got really excited. However, it never ended in a cough. What gives me a bit of pause is the comment of this happening after zooming around. I think if this is new for Padfoot it may not be a bad idea to schedule a vet visit. This certainly doesn't sound like an emergency but to me it'd be worth the price of the exam to make sure the vet doesn't find something obvious. After that it can just be a wait & see thing. Hopefully it then just becomes the new normal.

For the first time I have a hound with corns. He has two toes, with one corn each, on the same foot. I've decided to try the duct tape method first using the weight bearing corn as the test toe & the non-weight bearing corn, on the outer edge of the outer toe, as a sort of control. In my reading so far it seems there are a few different approaching to using duct tape for corns. So I thought a quick poll may help with ideas. Feel free to post your method. Thanks,

That is very, very good news. Good boy, Henry!!

While they can usually see evidence of UTI just looking at a urinalysis, sometimes it does take a urine culture. If it's always been a UTI in the past then I'd be inclined to request a urine culture just to be sure. Hope you can find the cause of the accidents. It's frustrating for the humans & clearly points to some problem for the dog, whether physical or some emotional/behavioral prob. Good luck.

UPC is urine protein:creatinine ratio. It is usually added to the urinalysis when PLN is suspected or a dog is being worked up for renal issues. BUN:Cre ratio is a blood test & can also be very useful in evaluating renal health but does not help diagnose PLN. Take a look at your dog's urinalysis to see if the vet added UPC. In my limited experience with PLN the hound never had accidents in the house. Is your dog drinking a lot? Or could weather perhaps effecting how often or how long your dog is spending outside? Sometimes my dogs pee a couple times when going out to potty. Just wondering if maybe she isn't staying out long enough to take care of all the business she needs to. When checking for the UTI did they do a urine culture in addition to the urinalysis?

Oh, my girl was first. I'm sorry she wasn't the only one.

Treatment is ivermectin but as what I felt was very scary high amounts. Thankfully for most breeds, Greyhound included, there is a really high safety margin. My girl was a longdog, a Staghound. She was Deerhound x Greyhound x Borzoi. She tolerated it extremely well. Had no problems. And it worked. Well, it worked for the most part. She was one of the rare dogs who ended up with chronic demodex but we never had to repeat the ivermectin treatment for it. It just showed up with a small spot or two when she had some major stress. We also had her spayed as hormones can play a big role. We did a full thyroid panel as thyroid probs can contribute. Really anything that can dampen the immune system can contribute to demodectic mange. My girl's was idiopathic. Back to treatment - It is not expensive at all. I bought a $50 bottle of Ivomec injectable cattle wormer & a bottle of molasses. I used a syringe to suck up the prescribed dose of Ivomec & then filled the rest of the syringe with molasses. The molasses is to cut the awful taste of the Ivomec. My girl, who was usually very pick about food, actually enjoyed having this squirted on her food. The priciest part of it all was the initial treatment of the secondary infection that had attacked before diagnosis & the follow up skin scraping to make sure the treatment had worked. Even that wasn't expensive as veterinary costs go. Here is my concern about dogs who develop demodex as adults. It is believed to be the result of some immune system problem. Sometimes it's never any more than the one major outbreak of demodex which is cured with ivermectin never to return. For other dogs, like my girl, it becomes chronic but more importantly it can be a harbinger of possible future immune related problems. You won't know until after treatment whether your dog is the unlucky one. The good news is that these dogs are the exception. The majority (I'd say the vast majority) of dogs don't have serious probs from the treatment, the demodex after treatment or immune system related trouble. Note: You do need to do the skin scraping for diagnosis before starting treatment. Also, you need to make sure the person administering the medication is careful with the dose & complies with the medication schedule. If I remember correctly, noncompliance can contribute to demodectic mange becoming chronic. (And yes I did wonder if I'd somehow messed up my girl's treatment. I don't think so but I'll always wonder.) And you must follow up with skin scraping to confirm the demodex is gone. If not gone you much continue the treatment.

Have only dealt with mange once so our experience could be atypical. However, my girl's symptoms developed slowly & in the order of localized hair loss in very small spots. The the skin in that area would get red. Then it would seem to clear up. Then it recurred in a new spot. It wasn't until it occurred on her hocks & she developed secondary infection that she was diagnosed with demodex. And it didn't look raw until the secondary infection set in. Up until then we had two different vets thinking it was likely an allergic reaction. In contrast the dog with allergies had red, raw looking skin around the eyes first then it spread to feet. I think the reason my girl with demodex didn't have raw looking skin was because it didn't appear to cause her any itching or discomfort. That is until the secondary infection set in. The dog with allergies spent a lot of time rubbing her face. But there was more than just the rim of her eye with problems. Then again, she was a foster & already had the condition. Who know what it looked like in the beginning.

Wonderful! Y'all have a good day today, too.

Thank you, Gemma. That is one of the possible misunderstanding I was referring to.