kolarik1
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Posts posted by kolarik1
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Fletcher has lost some weight/muscle mass over the last couple of years, he is down to a mere 85 lbs
He will be 11 in a couple of months, and in his case it is definitely related to his arthritis which has gotten progressively worse in the last 2-3 yrs. We go for short walks, but I don't know that there is much you can do about it. Fletcher still races around the yard and plays like 2 yr old, which causes me heart failure on a regular basis, but that hasn't stopped the loss of muscle. I guess I don't have any advice for you, just know you aren't alone edited to add, you know eating poopsicles is like eating ice cream, has nothing to do with hunger
edited to add, cause I forgot, Fletcher has "played" with the dog door for as long as I have had him, I just ignore it.
Thanks
I feel bad because I can't stop the old age symptoms that Pop is having, although my friends keep telling me I'm a good pet mom. While he pushes my buttons constantly, I'm still not looking forward to when he goes to Rainbow Bridge in the future.I guess I'll just have to ignore his dog door antics...
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I should add, he's only lost the weight and muscle tone in the last couple of months. He wasn't too bad at Thanksgiving, but at Christmas I wouldn't take him out on the slippery roads for a walk at my parents house as I was scared he'd fall on the ice. I've also noticed that if he's not paying attention while standing, his hind end will start to sink towards the ground, then he'll remember he's standing and upright his hind end. Sometimes I wonder if his mind isn't going...case in point, he had food in his dish (he has started free feeding the last few months, but still eats a good 6 - 7 cups/day) and I looked outside and he was LICKING A POOPSICLE!!!!
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We don't have a dog door, so no advice about that issue other than to ignore the behavior (it sounds like he wants attnetion or wants to play with you??)
On the other issue, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss other factors. My Toni had muscle wasting of one hind leg, and fairly severe limping, still with good reflex response. She was ultimately diagnosed with a neuroma in her thigh. I know she was in pain from it because she was crabby and short-tempered (not to mention the limping). Now, with an nsaid and gabapentin, she is back to her old self - sweet and with no limping, even after hard exercise.
At your boy's age, he may be starting to have some arthritis or spinal issues that have caused the wasting but yet don't cause any other clinical signs. Also, if he's having some pain or stiffness, this could be contributing to his dog door issues.
That's what I was wondering. Although, he does have Discoid Lupus which is why he's already on Prednisolone along with Hydroxychloroquinone (sp?). That's why I'm hoping that maybe walking him will help improve some muscle tone since he basically lays around 24/7 except when he plays with toys. He doesn't run in the yard, unless Zelda takes off after something. When Zelda runs I try to get him to go chase her but he trots around in a little 5 foot circle wagging his tail with his tongue hanging out (I can see why he wasn't a good racer
). I have noticed that he is getting more iffy about doing the stairs coming up the deck...and I was honestly ready for eventually having to put some type of ramp up as the pups got older...but I'm really thinking it's the muscle wasting in his hind end that is causing him to be unsure on the steps.I'm going to try ignoring him with the dog door, even if he makes himself sit outside forever! He's not one for playing outside, he just wants my attention...Zelda is the one who plays outside.
Sorry I don't have any thoughts or advice, but I do want to say I just LOVE the name Pop!! I would love to keep that in mind if I ever adopt a sweet boy.He came with the name 'Popcorn aka Pop'...he had a littermate named Nacho...
Just mentioning that steroids (prednesone) causes muscle wasting. No advice but best wishes on the other stuff!Unfortunately I have to keep him on prednisolone due to his Discoid Lupus. I've tried going down to just a very small dose every other day but then he flares up, so he tends to need a small dose daily to keep his Lupus in check, along with Purina Dog Chow and his anti-malarial human med.
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Ok, so first Pop has lost muscle mass in his hind end. I took him in to the vets and his reflexes are fine...they think it's a matter of 'if you don't use it, you lose it.' So, any suggestions on how to tone up his hind end? I started taking him on short walks and I have added a cup of food to his normal amount (he had lost about 4 lbs).
Second...rather than walk through the dog door, Pop has always kinda swung his hind end through it. He has banged his legs a couple of times, but refuses to walk through it like Zelda does. Well, this week he has decided to start playing games in the door and I'm not thrilled...especially at 2 am when I want to put in the dog door insert. He can go in/out just fine, but whenever I'm home, he sticks his nose through and starts whining. At first, I'd go outside and push him through the dog door...I've tried coaxing him with threats, I've tried ignoring him. Last night when I ignored him, he was out there for 20 min in the cold playing with the dog door. This morning I was inside, put his martingale/leash on and just gave a steady pull and he jumped right through the door after 20 min of playing in it. So...any suggestions? I think from now on I'll just completely ignore him. I know he goes out when I go to work as he can't hold it for 10 hours (he's on steroids)....so he comes in all by himself when I'm gone. Any ideas on this one? He is literally driving me up a wall and stress isn't good for me (I have a genetic condition that is flared up by stress).
Thanks!
ETA, I don't know if he's going senile or if he figures he can do this as he's getting older...but he's really been pushing my buttons lately. He refuses to listen to the first command (and the next 3 times I tell him)...or else it's a matter of a male not listening to a female!
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Hmmm, can't wait to see the answers. My previous cat got so jealous that we were playing with Pop one day that she jumped up and hung from his neck (she had claws and he stood stock still in shock). The same cat would crawl onto Pop's bed with him while he growled as she knew he wouldn't do a darn thing (she was bit by dogs in her previous home). Now with Zelda, the cat went to sniff her when Zelda wasn't in the mood and Zelda snapped at her...needless to say, the cat never slept on Zelda's bed
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I'm so sorry for your loss, I loved Jilly Bean stories.
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Honestly, Pop only planted himself once...and it was full on greyhound statue...we picked him up, carried him off the porch he had planted himself on, set him down about 5' from the porch and he's never tried that again
Good luck!
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I have done Dr. Pitcairn's food before when trying to determine if my boy had allergies...the only thing was, he ate soooo much that I had to make like 5 batches at a time!
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Are the cats kept separate from the dogs? Are the dogs muzzled/crated when you are gone?
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Cut pieces of the duct just a bit bigger than the corn - don't cover the whole pad. Leave it on for 2-3 days. Remove and repeat. After a few times you'll take the tape off and the corn will pop out cleanly attached to the tape. You can't use the corn cream and duct tape at the same time and get good results.
Good quality duct tape like Nashua from Home Depot works ten times better than dollar store versions.
Would Guerilla Tape work even better? That stuff never comes off!
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When I saw this post I thought you were going to ask all of us for our cup size
That's what I was thinking!
I was like 'really, who created a poll about this?' :rofl -
I'm
because when I saw the title on the GT home page my mind went elsewhere...The measuring cup that came with my containers has the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 & 1 c. measures built in which is actually very nice
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Like rallyp said, DO NOT cook them. The pups eat the entire thing, bone and all...you may get a little vomit the first couple of times that they eat them which I'm told is normal (I had a foster do that, mine haven't done that). Lots of people give them 2 - 3x a week after their meal to keep their pups' teeth clean.
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I definitely hope it's not actually kennel cough, but at least you have antibiotics to help out regardless. I actually can't run the self-cleaning function on most stoves because the fumes make me sick. When we bought the new place and ran the stove on broil for the requisite hour to burn off whatever chemical coating was in there, I started coughing and hacking and ended up having an asthma attack. It took about three months for my lungs to calm down between the fumes from that, the VOCs from the paint, and the new carpet. It's too bad you can't give Pop a cup of tea with honey.
Actually Pop would LOVE tea w/honey because he thinks all human food is his...he's never had it though.
He's still coughing, but it very well could be the self cleaning feature on the oven...I'm wondering if I should still run it for 1/2 hour to hour on 500 degrees to burn off any more residual or not...he didn't react to the primer/paint so far and the Duration paint was pretty strong smelling.
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Could he have caught Kennel Cough? They often dry-wretch when they have that.
Gently pinch along his windpipe... they will usually give a gag response if it's KC.
Dogs with compromized immune systems often require antibiotics with KC to stop secondary bacterial infections taking hold.
Actually this is what the vet thinks since we went to a dog park (for the very first time) 2 weeks ago...we won't be going back.
They gave him some antibiotics, but the fumes from the stove could have irritated his airways as well.
They did x-rays of his abdomen/stomach area to rule out pneumonia (since he does have a compromised immune system) and they look great. So I brought him home, went and got his meds from Sam's Club, then fed him a really late breakfast which he scarfed down.
BTW, good thing he doesn't chew my stuff up! The stink eye he gave me when they put the thermometer up his butt!
I'd be dead right about now.ETA Zelda isn't showing any symptoms of KC, but she refused to leave my side when we were at the dog park. I'll watch her and if she gets the same symptoms I'll just ask them for antibiotics for her as well just to nip it in the butt.
I'm exhausted because he coughed every hour, on the hour starting at 3 am...by 5 am I drug myself out of bed, emailed my manager and then stayed up and did things around the house. Luckily my manager is understanding (he has dogs) and just said 'don't worry about getting in here today, go take care of Pop.' I had the afternoon off any way to wait on a service tech for the dishwasher.
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He just let a burp out as well
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After his 2 minutes of wretching, he is back to sleeping again. He's not restless at all...
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Oh and he has let a couple of smelly farts...
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Back story...Pop has lupus and I just got new appliances on Wednesday. I ran the self clean option on the oven and opened a couple of winows to try to air out the house, but it was still smelly when I went to work on Thursday. I came home from work and Pop was coughing and trying to vomit something up. He has now done that 2 more times. So...any ideas? Take note that they have a dog door and can let themselves out while I'm gone (& he likes to eat dog crap)...also, this only happens for a couple of minutes and then he settles down & sleeps/rests for a few hours.
Was it the smell from the new stove/oven (I've since been able to get the rest of the smell out of the house)
Did he eat something in the yard while I was gone (there's only grass/dirt/dog poop out there)
Is it bloat?
Some sort of complication from the Lupus?
He ate his food tonight like he usually does and is drinking water.
Thanks!
I should add that he's been extra gassy lately (see other threads in food)...I've been giving him digestive enzymes and they seem to have settled him down the last couple of days...
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I don't know about everything that you mentioned, but Zelda was just over 6 years old when diagnosed with arthritis in one of her toes. She was fine, then a couple of hours later after running she was holding her paw up in the air & the one toe was extremely swollen...at first I thought a bee sting but I couldn't find anything...I waited a few days and it didn't go down, so off to the vet. They x-rayed it and that toe is just about fused together, so now she's on arthritis meds twice a day and runs like she used to.
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Gas X breaks up gas trapped in the stomach or intestines (what gives you gas pain) -- it actually encourages the gas to come out. You could also try actual probiotic pills if he doesn't tolerate the dairy in yogurt to see if they helped. But I agree that the food is the issue. Surely there's not going to be just one magic food that controls his lupus? You wouldn't have to go grain-free to try other foods. What is he getting now and what do you believe to be the key present or absent ingredients that help him?
Honestly if I hadn't seen him improve with my own eyes on the food, I wouldn't have believed it. It's the WORST possible food out there, Dog Chow. His symptoms actually got better on it.
I'll try the probiotics or beano...cuz the boy is gassy at times, but it seems to have come on in the last couple of months and he's been on Dog Chow for a year now
Nothing has changed so I don't know why he's getting gassy. -
Well I can't change his food, although I would LOVE too as it helps control his Lupus...
All the grain free food actually makes his Lupus flare up, the only thing that kind of controls it (along with his meds) is his food. I try not to give him anything besides his food, but I did recently give a milk bone that he used to get all the time...so maybe it was the addition of the treat. Although the gas was the day after the treat! With it being spring and warming up a bit, he's been going out into the sun some more so he is having a flare up...but once the hot days of summer roll around he'll stay inside as he can't stand the heat.
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Ok, so what is safe to give to greyhounds who are ungodly gassy? The digestive enzymes helped, but now Pop is just as gassy as he was before and I'm tired of my house smelling like dog crap (and hearing the farts every 10 seconds, no joke). Last time I gave him some yogurt he get really gassy from it...so what else? And I'm serious, will Gas X or something else help this dog?
Thanks!
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YAY!!! That's my gorgeous former foster
Oh and now you can tell that trainer 'yep, greyhounds really DO sit'
:lolI know, right? Her last class is on Monday, and I want her to show up and actually sit down; however, I'm not sure she'll do it on the slick floor. I was trying to start teaching it outside today, but uh...well, you can look at the window.
Also, your gorgeous former foster destroyed her crate pad last night. >:|
And thanks everyone!
I tried telling you that she's not innocent! She is the one who took everything out of my bathroom trash can twice and conveniently left it strewn throughout my hallway...and tried eating some of it too
:blink: She is the reason I now have a covered bathroom trashcan! My 2 never touched it.Wait til she starts barking at strangers as they walk past your house...she was giving you a honeymoon period the last couple of months
He will be 11 in a couple of months, and in his case it is definitely related to his arthritis which has gotten progressively worse in the last 2-3 yrs. We go for short walks, but I don't know that there is much you can do about it. Fletcher still races around the yard and plays like 2 yr old, which causes me heart failure on a regular basis, but that hasn't stopped the loss of muscle. I guess I don't have any advice for you, just know you aren't alone 
). I have noticed that he is getting more iffy about doing the stairs coming up the deck...and I was honestly ready for eventually having to put some type of ramp up as the pups got older...but I'm really thinking it's the muscle wasting in his hind end that is causing him to be unsure on the steps.
Nothing has changed so I don't know why he's getting gassy.
:blink: She is the reason I now have a covered bathroom trashcan! My 2 never touched it.
2 Questions About 10 Year Old Grey
in Training and Behavior discussion
Posted
Yeah, well you can't say 'I'm going to have some popcorn' as he assumes you're talking to him...so I haven't been able to say that word for 7 years now...
Thanks, that is what I'm going to do...it's that or I'll go insane LOL