kudzu

Am very sorry for your loss. It hurts so much even when we know we must let them go. Run free, Mr Spock, on legs made swift & strong again. God speed.

Jerilyn, thanks for the tip on Swanson’s stock. I had not been using the broth for the reasons BeachBum1 mentioned. Su loves the stock, for now. To me it smells so much better than the broth. Good stuff.

Well that didn’t last long. Sadly, the homemade honeymoon is over. Just bought a dozen assortment cans of dog food. Am hoping to entice her through novelty.

Such sad news. My heart aches for you. In time, may the good memories of her be the first top come to mind. Farewell, lovely girl. Run free

Is this the disorder that may lead to post operative bleeding? It has something to do with fibrinolysis, right? Clots form as needed, but then break apart too early, leading to excess bleeding. Is this what you are referring to? Only, I do not know the actual name for the disorder. If you had that, you would better be able to find information in German. Maybe try hyperfibrinolysis or hyperfibrinolytic?

Glad you are doing better Aiden. Don’t let anyone steal your chicken.

Such a cutie! She looks cozy.

Kira was like this. She just sort of hit a tipping point, lost just enough strength she couldn't prevent slipping on surfaces with less traction. Keeping nails as short as possible helps, of course. At a certain point though, we had to put down area rugs to help her. We're getting to that point with Su now. Kira did have spinal issues that we knew about and I'm sure that was a main contributor to the slowly increasing weakness. Treating her for pain actually reduced the slip sliding for some reason. Happens to me also, actually. For some reason, the pain seems to make weakness worse. Not sure exactly why, it just does. Sounds like that isn't Jeter's problem, though.

Okay, recheck was this morning. Vet says ECG was done at e-vet & normal. She really doesn’t think enlarged heart is an issue but no problem consulting Couto if I want. Plan right now is: 1) Switch from Valium to CBD oil. I’m sure my expression was priceless when she suggested it but it’s fine by me. Worth a try. 2) Continue with gabapentin long term. 3) A few days after last dose of pred will switch to galiprant. 4) Appetite is slacking off. If needed, we’ll add Entice. 5) No help with diet. (Not a surprise.) So I’ll just do the best I can there. 6) We’re still unsure as to cause of discomfort/pain. [sigh]

Looks normal to me. Annie, dear, no offense but you need a bit of tongue moisturizer. This reminded me of adopting my first Grey. We’d had a series of super shredder mutts. The last had GI issues that too often resulted in clouds that, in BF’s words, “smells like an overturned garbage truck. Greyhounds “shed very little” and “don’t smell” so this was going to be a nice change for us. Then we had the ride home from the adoption group with a fresh from the track, very nervous Grey. The first cloud of pewy hit us & we rushed to roll down the windows. That earned us a dog hair tornado. BF asks me where on the Internet I got my breed info? Reputable sources, of course, but I added “They lied!”

That's fascinating. So glad it worked. Will remember this & pass it this on to my sister as she had dogs more prone to eating stray objects. In the past I had dogs that might happily eat sauerkraut, but it sure wouldn't be Su. Now if corned beef and cabbage would work as well, we might have a winner. And if the dog didn't eat it, the humans certainly would. (I don't like sauerkraut.)

Thanks to all for your comments. The joyous news is she is still eating well with the mix of homemade food & ground up kibble. Am surprised & very, very pleased about that. Am playing with proportions based recipe from the tool on the BalanceIT site. Have added sardines to the homemade recipe. And next try will be spinach, but not yet. Will give her another week without that in hopes of keeping her eating well before doing that. I like the chicken necks idea to get some more calcium & cartilage into her. That would be a good add in. Will later add other veggies, one at a time, to test her tolerance. Su seems to think of herself as an obligate carnivore. So far oatmeal is the only carb she likes, but really mushy rice can be swapped out sometimes. I know this from prior experience over the years. If her eating continues on homemade, I will probably order the BalanceIT vitamins. That would be after a discussion of diet with the vet.

The good news is that she's not shown had any panting for days and only a few, brief shaking episodes. She is down to pred every other day. And yes, the appetite was better at first and then declining. The switch from canned food to homemade got her eating again. For now, it continues to tempt her enough that she may actually slowly gain back some weight. Praying that continues without pred. After having a Cushing's dog, I am not going to pred as a first choice or second or third or... However, I am not totally opposed. It has it's place and a low dose for a senior dog can be beneficial in some circumstances. At this point in the weaning off process, the excess urination has slacked off a lot. It's 24 hours since I've had to wash her bedding. The cat who likes to steal her bed is relieved as well. So the list for our Tues. visit includes verifying the ECG/EKG was done and normal, asking about LP, weakness in hind legs (that's mild & I'd previously chalked it up to age), esophagitis, NSAID for arthritis, possibility of anxiety and treatment for that. Am just remembering I think I have leftover trazadone prescribed for another dog. Heck, I could have used that for me over this past crazy year!

In my household, we are all very nesh. I admire the un-nesh. [Nesh is a new word for me & now that I know it I will likely use it a lot. 🙂]

Well, I'd forgotten about Couto. He's helped with a couple of mine. Will gather the info at our appt next week. I do have copies of the rads from the e-vet and they supplied Idexx weblink to view bloodwork. Regular vet did rads also to compare to those at e-vet. The inflammation was greatly reduced. Both vets noticed some narrowing between cervical vertebrae and think there is arthritis. It is quite possible there is some neurogenic pain from disks. That is one reason for the gabapentin. Both vets did chest x-rays to look for pulmonary embolism. They didn't see anything, but didn't completely rule it out. That's kept us on eggshells for the past week. Su is a sensitive girl but had not previously shown anxiety under normal circumstances. She shows stress the first few days when we travel. That only expresses itself with anorexia. After a few days, she settles into the traveling routine and goes back to normal. However, what she displayed last week was definitely anxiety. Did something trigger anxiety and then that anxiety started the episode? Or had the start of the episode triggered the anxiety, magnifying the episode? We don't know.

Yes, in the short term, I'm not worried about micro nutrients. But I do feel optimistic that this will be a long term feeding project, so worth doing some research. Life is uncertain though, and one never knows with a 12 year old. Maybe the texture of the kibble is a problem. Makes me wonder if I could grind up some kibble to use as a mix in. Am now imaging the terrible sound of kibble whirring through the blender or food processor. That'll be a nice sound. lol Mixing kibble in whole has been a no go, even with "small bite" type of kibble. Have soaked kibble to get it soft and mixed it with canned food. That doesn't fly. Actually added in dry cat food with the canned dog food for a couple weeks. She will eat some, but under duress and not enough to stop weight loss. Decent canned food isn't cheap, but I happily fed that until the precious, picky, princess protested processed food. Turns out a senior Grey can be harder to please than a cat. Come to think of it, our cats act more like dogs and a couple of the Greys have been more like cats. ETA: Had to give it a try. Just ground up a cup of dry dog food. Yes, it was loud and not going quickly until I added water. That created a dog food slurry into which I added half a can of cat food. Placed it in Princess Picky's bowl and presented it to her Highness. She slowly approached the bowl, stretched out her neck, gave it the sniff test, and then turned her head towards me. BF deadpans, "Well she doesn't seem enthused." Then he speaks for Su, "Where's my oatmeal?" It fit her expression so well we burst out laughing. Yet, Su crept up on the suspicious concoction, did a small lick and then proceeded to eat almost all of it. SUCCESS. Probably just a brief success, but it got another meal into her so I call it a win.

My girl, Sunita, is 12 years old now. She has been the healthiest dog I've ever had. Now though, we are facing a still to be diagnosed problem. She recently had an emergency that involved lost of shaking, panting, and clear signs of pain/discomfort. It was bad enough that I took her to ER. Once there she quickly went downhill. We do not know what triggered it the problems, but the result was an episode that looked very much like a dog with serious laryngeal paralysis that then caused collapsed esophogus. They found a lot of inflammation in the larynx/esophogus areas. (Suddenly I can't remember which.) She had to be put on oxygen and they came very close to intubating her. They had me signed papers, twice, stating my desire for or against resuscitation. It was a real horror show! The emergency vet really thought they'd lose her. However, with meds and oxygen they got her through it. In the midst of all that the vet mentioned an enlarged heart. I asked, "Even for a Greyhound?" She said Greyhounds have large hearts but Su's looks enlarged beyound that. So perhaps some chronic heart failure is involved. When releasing her to me the next morning, the emergency vet said, "I cannot really tell you she is any better than when you brought her in last night." While riding in the car, the sedatives won out and Su was relatively calm on the trip to her regular vet. However, as soon as the car stopped, she got excited, stood up and started with another episode. And the regular vet really thought they were going to be dealing with the same problems again. This vet used a different sedative, Valium, than the ER vet chose. That might have worked better for Su. They got her calm and slowly her breathing went back to normal. They released her that evening with a serious med schedule of valium, gabapentin for pain and prednisone on a tapering dose. Su has been home ever since. We had a couple scares in the first days home, but now she seems mostly normal. Once the pred is out of her system we will discuss NSAIDs with the vet because we all feel there is underlying neck pain that may or may not have trigger the incident. Also, regular vet is not sure the heart is enlarged beyond normal Greyhound parameters. We'd need to send rads to a radiologist. At her recheck next week we will discuss that more and also discuss possible LP. Su's bloodwork is normal for a Greyhound. She has had an issue with appetite, always been a picky eater. Now she is dropping weight quickly. It is likely not directly related to the episode, but is certainly a complicating factor. Any stress can put her off food and this has been very stressful. Does anyone have ideas on this? Am looking for suggestions on what I need to ask/discuss with the vet now that Su seems stable.

Does anyone have a good, nutritionally balanced, homemade, dog food recipe? Has anyone heard of Balance IT? It is a supplement, vitamin/mineral mix, designed to make homemade food nutritionally complete. On their website is a function to help you design a custom diet, indicate, in a very general way, deficiencies, and then tell you which of their supplements and how much is needed to make the recipe nutritionally complete by AAFCO standards. That function is here: https://secure.balanceit.com/ez/index.php I came across it via a recipe on the MSPCA/Angell website. Am curious what people think. Now here is the more detailed version. Sunita has always been a picky eater and often skipped meals. One vet described her as "runway model thin" and someone else called her "art deco" because of her very svelte figure. Think this: or this (That woman is totally not me. I'm short & fat, but a girl can dream.) Despite that, she was always at a health weight, even if it was the lowest part of healthy. Over the past year she has gotten pickier and pickier. She doesn't want to touch dry food and now she's just picking at canned food until she's finally so hungry she dains to eat a just enough for a stick figure dog. To be clear, she shows signs of hunger but it is not enough to overcome her pickiness. At this point, you can see all her ribs, most of her vertebrea and has prominent hip bones. I'm an advocate for keeping dogs on the thing side, but not skeletal. Right now she looks skeletal. We are going through diagnostics with the vet to check for underlying health issues. (Her bloodwork is normal.) In the meantime, I've got to find something Little Miss Pickybutt will eat reliably. Right now that is a concoction of oatmeal, chicken and eggs with either canola or olive oil. In the short run that is healthy enough, but I need to get a balanced diet for the long term. Su is my only dog right now so homemade is doable, as long as it can be cooked in the pressure cooker. No raw. I've tried it before. It's not workable for my circumstances. And Su didn't like it. I need to get her back from stick figure dog to art deco. At the very least, I need to stop the weight loss while we figure out what's really causing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Agree

Yep. Despite her name, she’s yet to become a Greyhound snack. Though that’s clearly not from lack of trying.

These two are always graceful and dignified... ... or maybe not. And this was the scene for at least a couple minutes.

I can’t help either. And I am not a puppy person, unless it’s someone else’s puppy. If you want a puppy though, then go for it. At one point I was very curious about AKC hounds & strongly considered getting one. Through AKC I found several breeders to talk to (sorry, can’t remember who) but found them to be friendly & open about strengths & weaknesses, methods of rearing, health checks & all that. But then a staghound pup who was half deerhound needed a home and I couldn’t resist. She was my second & last puppy. She wasn’t any more trouble than the retriever pup. She was just faster at getting away with her stolen goods! She was also much smarter. Fast & smart make for a challenging problem. All my Greyhounds have also been smarter than my retrievers. So basically, I’m no help at all but I’m certainly not going to discourage you. WELCOME!

Happy monthly birthday! You deserve a celebration every month. Heck, everyday!

What a good boy & lucky, too. Wonderful way to start the new year. Hope yours is happy.