Time4ANap

Kate Petunia It's a chilly morning in the desert!

If those are misfits, sign me up! Rita, you just won the lottery! Welcome home gorgeous girl!

Glad to hear you have some more time with him. Give that sweet boy some ear rubs from us. Love his pic with Miss Donna's pimp hat. We all miss her very much and there were a lot of hounds around here with some pretty fancy hats in many styles thanks to Miss Donna.

I love Annie. Send her over here anytime.

That's awesome!

I'm so sorry you are facing this. We had pretty much the same situation with Rocket. We tried an assist harness and he wouldn't even let me put it on him. We got to a point where we knew that even if there was something that would make him feel better or walk better for a short time, I didn't want to risk having him get injured and have to leave unexpectedly. We decided not to put him through any more "fixes" and his pain was under control, but he was struggling. He would only get up to go out once or twice a day and had to be told it was a walk to get him to get up. Upping his Gabapentin made him loopy. We made the decision on a Saturday to spend the weekend spoiling him and having his hound friends over to visit. His friends brought French Fries. We spent the weekend with him snuggling up against me and holding paws (this was the boy who had major space issues). The vet came on Monday afternoon and he left us without being injured or having something catastrophic happen. Probably a day too soon or maybe not, but no pain or injury. Is that a "Miss Donna Pimp Hat" that Spirit is wearing? Rocket was also a member of the Pimp Hat Club. All the best to you and Spirit as you work through this.

Awesome trip! A deserted beach seems so far out for us still. Milo, Kate says that the leg bouquet is our indication that she doesn't wish to be disturbed.

Thanks!

Kate's black shiny coat all of the sudden got flaky with no other changes. We are monitoring for now and have made no changes just in case it's more weather related. It finally cooled off here and is no longer reaching the 90's, so she is sunning herself outside more than she was. She will be getting her annual bath soon with a good shampoo to address the flaking and go from there. It's not major, just noticeable.

Even with 2 hounds with hooks we didn't have any recurring infections based on the dogs going in the yard or sharing beds so I think you will be fine as a long as you pickup the yard after she goes. There is a solution of diluted bleach you can spray on areas if needed, but our yard is rocks and astroturf so we didn't have to worry about killing any grass by doing so.

It will take a little time to be sure they are completely gone. The first negative fecal is not the final say. most people do 3 tests over several months to be sure they are gone. Both of ours took a full year before both the hooks and the hookworm antigen were negative, but you will see such an improvement in your dog overall when the hooks are gone that all of the treatment and attention to poop is worth it.

I think one of those needs to be on the CG tree from here on out.

Another GT Royal... We miss you, Cletus.

Didn't you just post the 8th anniversary? I still remember all of us following these events waiting to hear that the handoff was complete and that no one was in the custody of the Border Patrol. Happy Gotcha Day, Lily.

it sounds like you are doing the Hookworm Protocol. We noticed that one of the hounds was a little more hyper with the Drontal Plus on the day we gave it, but it wasn't at a level that caused issues, she was just awake and all over the place, mostly hyper. We ended up spacing out the doses between the two drugs to help with that. You need to remember that you are throwing a lot of chemicals into the system in a short time period, so it may be more of an interaction between the two than an issue with the Drontal Plus itself. Let your vet know what is going on and see if you need to space out the administration of the meds to a longer interval between doses. The protocol does work. We spaced it out due to our girls being seniors when they arrived (11) and it took each a year to be completely rid of the hookworms. It was time well spent as they are both doing so much better now that the hookworms are gone.

Lots of tears here for a hound I never met. Lila was one of Rocket's "sisters from another mother." The similarities are all there and have been in all of the Lila posts over the years and Lila has always seemed like family. Your tribute to her was beautiful. There is no other experience like having a Dodgem hound. I am so sorry. I know that Rocket, Lexie, and the whole GT crew will welcome her to The Bridge and show her around. Run-free, Lila.

This is a tough one to try and overcome. I'm replying mostly to bump this back up to the top on the front page so that others will see it in the morning and be able to offer some help.

Happy Birthday Annie

It's not unusual to even find multiples over the course of a couple days when a dog has been around ticks. Be sure to check between the toes. Also, check and launder any blankets and beds used since the exposure including blankets in the car if you traveled. I don't usually worry about 1 or 2, but if I think they got them in our yard, then I treat the yard with the Adam's tick spray that you hook up to the garden hose.

I was finally able to zoom in on it - not sure why my browser wouldn't let me zoom earlier. It does have some similarities to a tick bite when comparing to some other images found online, but it could also just be a scab. It it super hard to tell from a photo, so you may want to watch it for a bit and then have the vet look at it if it doesn't clear up in a reasonable time. if you see the red ring area getting larger then i would get her in sooner rather than wait. Mark the outer edge of the red ring with a Sharpie by putting a dot in a few different places on the edge of the ring (it will come off eventualy) and watch to see if it grows larger. Sorry I can't be more definitive, but i can totally see why you think it could be a tick at first look.

It's tough to see close-up and I can't get the photo to blow up any larger. You might want to try zooming in on that photo and see if you can post a larger view of it for a little more detail.

Just to add to my post above, we basically modified Dr Ng's "modified prorocol" due to the age of our girls.

Checkout this thread - Any treatment using combinations of deworming meds should be coordinated with your vet. You might want to take a copy of the Prison Protocol for the vet to review if the hookworms persist. If you are in the US, the dogs coming from the tracks and farms have a strain of hookworms that have become more and more resistant to the standard meds, and it takes the combination in the Prison Protocol over many months to eradicate them. Our two broodies were each 11 years old when adopted, and had ridiculous amounts of hookworms. We did a modification of the protocol in conjunction with approval from our vet. Each dog took a year to get rid of the hooks using twice monthly treatment. Due to their age, they got one part of the med combination of the first of the month and the other half on the 15th to spread it out and not overload them. For the first few months, you may need some flagyl or other stomach meds to help with diarrhea and stomach irritation after each treatment. One of our dogs was so infested that there were huge amounts of blood in the stool after the first few treatments, so we had to monitor her carefully for blood loss, dehydration etc. The process takes a while, but you can get rid of them with persistence and time. Also note that a negative fecal is not conclusive that they are gone. It only means that the particular test was clear. You need at least 3 clean fecals in a row to declare them to be under control. Good luck!

First Grammy and Batman, now Seamie. It IS Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving!