PrairieProf

Yes, the vaccine requires an annual booster. I'm not clear on the rest of your question -- my dog did not have any reaction to the vaccine nor does she have Lyme. My vet is very up to date so I'm sure he used whatever version is considered the best and safest. A complicating factor in all of this is that once the dog has had the vaccine, I believe they titer positive for Lyme on any blood tests, or at least titer differently than a dog never exposed to the vaccine. No doubt someone else can clarify this. I do remember asking my neighbor if her (asymptomatic) dog diagnosed with Lyme had ever had the vaccine, say with a different vet, and whether that could be what the test had registered.

I'm rather confused too -- I'm not in a super high Lyme area but I take Beth to an area in NY which is. I had her vaccinated in the summer of 2009, then read about the vaccine and regretted it and didn't get a booster in 2010, but then our neighbor's dog in NY tested positive for Lyme, so I thought maybe I should reconsider ... HOWEVER, I've also never found any ticks attached to Beth in the 2+ years I've had her, and check diligently especially in NY, so her risk is pretty low.

I'm a human who regularly gets thyroid tests and fasting is not required. Food does not affect thyroid hormone levels in the blood.

Oh, their staff vet will respond, she always does, though the responses are typically pretty standardized.

I'm so sorry! If it were my dog, I'd get some Deramaxx from the vet, at least, and maybe get him checked out. Beth tended to pitch off the back seat if I stopped short and fall into the foot-well part or onto the console with her front half ... I got a back seat dog hammock to prevent this, and it works really well.

I've noticed size/shade variants quite often in my TOTW Pacific Stream. Also when I buy it in NY vs. in Iowa (manufactured at a different mill). I think I did inquire once about it and I think they said it was an issue of the processing equipment or something. I haven't had any problems with it from the eating/digestion side so have decided not to worry about it.

We've noticed a big improvement with the Petzlife products, too. We have the minty spray and the salmon gel. The salmon gel is pretty darn funky - smells like a weird mix of mint and fish. Bang's not thrilled with it either, but we're trying to use it up. +1 I got the salmon gel too, and yuck. It stinks horribly on your fingers and Beth seems to dislike it considerably more than the minty spray. That's not gonna be a repeater for us either.

NancyB sells gorgeous martingales for very little money! http://community.webshots.com/user/nancybnj Don't buy a martingale before you know what hound you're getting and can measure his/her neck, though! For example, a lot of standard martingales are sized 14"-18" and they're too big for my average-sized female grey, whose neck is about 13" at the narrow part. Most adoption groups will send a hound home with a martingale and leash set anyway, so you really don't need to purchase anything in advance. The nice thing about the fancier martingales is that most of them are custom-made when you order them, so the maker can adjust if you need something outside the standard size.

Acupuncture seemed to help Beth when she had a (much less severe) muscle-based neck problem last year. A lot of other GTers have had great response to it as well.

Beth has been on melatonin since the spring? early summer? and her weight did jump up about four pounds somewhere around August, but I cut back her food and it's all the way down again. I don't think the melatonin had anything to do with it, though I never even considered it before.

What a sweet, wonderful story and such a gorgeous girl! Congratulations!

I'm so so sorry for your bad news. I hope you have some time yet for her to enjoy being spoiled. (On a side note, I did enjoy learning how you got your first greyhound ... and I never knew you met your husband through GT, wow!)

I'd find a good, positive reinforcement based beginning obedience class and take it. So much fun, and it's good to work around other dogs -- the socialization (and distraction) is part of the process. I find it helps me remember to practice with Beth more too when I know we're going to be "performing" around others once a week! People here will say the trainer should have experience with greyhounds, or recommend a greyhounds-only class, but I certainly don't live where such things exist. I actually had a great experience going through all the classes at PetSmart, had a very experienced trainer there, and I've done classes with a different trainer too subsequently, and Beth has done very well indeed. A couple of weeks ago I posted about how this member of a supposedly non-sitting breed won a "musical hoops" sitting contest in our class.

Someone I know called the doggie window smears "pupkiss," and that's what I've called them ever since. It's funniest if you are familiar with "bupkes" in Yiddish and pronounce it the same way.

Don't know when the pic was taken, but if that's what he looks like now I wouldn't see him as needing to gain weight -- he doesn't look underweight at all.

Your Beth might LOVE the Sam's Yam's products, if you only feed grain-free. Mine LOVE all of their products! I also like the Sam's Yams Veggie Rawhide for their teeth! Love to your little girl! :-)) Thanks ... I gave her some kind of dried sweet potato treats but they produced very loose poop, so most of the expensive bag is still in the cupboard (probably rock-hard by now!).

Beth likes anything, but I only buy grain-free treats for her... she never seems to get tired of Merrick Beef Training Treats, which are like "popcorn" made out of dried beef lung. They also can be kept in your coat pocket without stinking it up! Rattling the bag of them in the kitchen is one of the guaranteed ways I can get her up off of the bed.

Take a look in the food archives, there are zillions of threads on raw feeding. I'd walk him more too -- I walk my girl 30-40 minutes or more twice a day (unless we're going to the dog park -- I make sure she has a chance to run at least four times a week). Assuming his feet have toughened up, 15 minutes is next to nothing for a young dog. It doesn't sound like he's getting enough exercise, unless he's running in a yard a lot.

Grain free does not mean carb free! And the idea of protein stressing healthy kidneys is a giant myth for humans and dogs. (Human low-carber speaking here.) But I agree that protein/fat levels have nothing to do with calories, and adding carbs might help with the weight (but I think non-grain carbs would be healthier). It's not just racing to retired that causes weight loss via the exercise issue, though; doesn't neutering also have a significant or greater effect on muscle mass (especially for those super-muscly male dogs, as apparently Hermes was)? But if others think that's too much weight loss too fast, I'm sure they're right.

Loose stools means you haven't found the food that best agrees with your dog ... this is quite a lengthy process for many of us! I encourage you to read around in the Food section archive (I swear I read 75% of the threads in that in the months after I brought my dog home, and went through a lot of food experiments in the first year -- TOTW Pacific Stream is also what I settled on). **Not many here would see Nutro as a good quality food, though plenty of not-so-great foods work well for plenty of hounds. **You are feeding an awfully elaborate array of stuff; it's very hard to tell what helps or doesn't. Canned food could be a big contributor to loose stools. If you want to do add-ins, you'll find lots of threads with people talking about what they use. **The oil could also have an effect on that. I think fish oil is good for the Omega 3s, but olive oil is just fat with no particular benefit, so I wouldn't add that. I'd probably take out the oil altogether until you get the stool issue fixed. You sound like someone who really wants the best for your dog and isn't afraid of a little complication, so you probably want to do some reading about raw feeding as an option as well. Quite a lot of people on this forum feed completely or partially raw.

Wow, got a siggie already. He is handsome -- we need more picture posts! Blue hounds are quite rare, we all will want to ogle him lots!!

Welcome! So... your first GT assignment is to learn how to post pictures (there are instructions in the Technical section) so we can see your boy with the unusual name! Everyone here is full of advice -- just ask a particular question or two to get us going!

I've known about it for weeks, and might give it a try (though I expect to find Beth does better on the Pacific Stream) but Tractor Supply doesn't stock it yet, which is a bit annoying.

I don't think you'll find many here agreeing with the less than 22% idea -- what's the authority for that?? If it's not protein, fat, moisture, or fiber, it's carbs, and dogs certainly don't need more of those. Remember greys at the track are getting kibble + raw meat. I wouldn't even think of something as a higher protein food until it gets above 30% protein. Lots of folks here have had good results with TOTW, which is 25% protein for Pacific Stream, and what, I think around 32% for the others? Most people here also think Science Diet (that's what TD is, right, their dental prescription food?) is about the worst crap you can buy, unless there's a really specific prescription diet that is needed for a medical reason. But no kibble is going to do any kind of meaningful good for cleaning teeth, vs. brushing, using Petzlife, giving raw bones, or a zillion other things.

Welcome to GreyTalk anyway! Amber was beautiful, but I'm sure you'll find another beautiful wonderful grey soon! I think if you spend some time looking around this site you'll learn more than you ever dreamed about what it's like to be a greyhound owner (just bear in mind the caveat that applies to all online forums when reading sections like Health and Medical or Training and Behavior -- it's people who are having problems who tend to be the ones who post; it doesn't mean that those problems are happening to everyone). It might be easier for people to give you advice if you could ask a couple of particular things you're wondering about. Oh, one thing -- greyhounds are going to want to be where you are, not separated in a laundry room. So you probably would want comfy dog beds in the main rooms where you spend time. Of course the greyhound may well end up preferring your bed or the couch most of the time. Generally you also want a crate to start off (typically 48" long) -- not all greys do well in crates but many do, it's what they're used to, and for many people it really helps in getting them acclimated. Whatever adoption group you work with will guide you in this. Key books to read: Livingood, "Retired Greyhounds for Dummies" and/or Branigan, "Adopting the Racing Greyhound." The first has more detailed information, but the second I personally found more readable and it was what made me feel (as someone who'd never even had a dog before) "Yes, I can do this."