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KF_in_Georgia

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Everything posted by KF_in_Georgia

  1. I'm so very happy for you and Monty that you've gotten this news. I'm sure you're going to have a lovely weekend.
  2. If she winds up needing her foot bandaged or splinted, make sure there's padding between her toes so the nail of one toe won't rub against the next toe. You can use cotton balls between the toes before bandaging. I have friends with lure coursing hounds. They say that breaks are less trouble than dislocations because breaks usually heal up well, while dislocations just occur over and over. A greyhound-owning friend of mine has a helpful post about bandaging/splinting foot injuries and things you need to watch for--even when the vet's office does the bandaging.
  3. I Googled "benadryl for dogs": http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_Benadry..._you_give_a_dog http://www.vetpets.net/animaltimes/humandrugs.html The dosage recommended here matches up with what I remember my vet advising...and you can give a lighter dose, of course, until you get a chance to consult with your vet.
  4. Can you make a video of your yard? Walk around and video fences, furniture, bushes, etc., and then post the video on You Tube? I'll bet many of us would be glad to lend an extra pair of eyes. Many of us have dogs who've hurt themselves in totally unpredictable ways, and we might be able to spot things that our own dogs have stumbled into. And which part of her leg? The side facing away from her body? Or the side that faces toward her other leg? Or front? Or back? Straight-ish cut? Curving around the leg? I've had Sam for six years. Several times a day for the last six years he's been successfully navigating spiral stairs in my house. Last summer, he lost his footing and wedged his foot under the metal stair riser, cutting the top of his foot. A blood vessel was exposed, and he needed four staples. My stairs now have PVC pipe tied to them so he can't do it again--home decor courtesy of Home Depot's plumbing department.
  5. Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm so sorry you lost your wonderful boy.
  6. In case your vet's office didn't mention it: When you take Ike in for a T4, he normally should have his regular thyroid meds--with food--about 4 to 6 hours before the blood will be drawn. At my house, if the dogs are getting blood work at 9 am on my day off, I've been known to get up at 4:30, give everyone pills and breakfast, then go back to bed and sleep till a more reasonable hour. In fact, I now do this for all our routine visits, just in case the vet spots something that warrants blood work, even though it wasn't on the schedule.
  7. I'm so sorry you've lost your lovely boy.
  8. My Sam was diagnosed hypothyroid at the age of 3--based on a low T4 and hair loss. Neither the vet nor I were concerned with his seasonal shedding, nor even with his bald-ish butt. However, Sam lost all the hair on his throat in a one-month period. No new collar--and it couldn't be collar wear since the loss extended way up under his chin, where his collar rarely goes. Sam's condition was pretty much what MSU mentions in step #10: the vet considered that his rapid and unusual hair loss was enough of a "clinical presentation" to justify a trial test--even without elevated TSH. My vet put Sam on a starting dose of thyroxine and had us come back in six weeks (exactly what MSU recommends). The levels in the new T4 were in the right range for greyhounds (on thyroxine, Sam consistently registers just slightly below the mid-point for greyhounds), and the missing hair on Sam's throat was growing back. Sam's been on thyroxine ever since (more than 5 years), and he gets a new T4 once or twice a year, depending on what else is going on with him. The original post doesn't mention where Ike's hairloss occurred. It's possible that Ike's vet is not being misled by seasonal hairloss or the greyhound's common occurrence of baldbutt, but is reacting to patterned losses that correspond to hypothyroid symptoms. If so, it sounds like the vet may be following MSU's own recommended protocol: "An objective case review should be conducted after 6-8 weeks of therapy for evidence of clinical improvement. Thyroid supplementation can be discontinued if no improvement has occurred in that time, and the diagnosis reconsidered." Edited to fix wonky grammar.
  9. Well, I was dumb enough to just taste the Bitter Apple to see how bad it was. Plenty bad.
  10. Dogs with hypothyroidism often are a bit overweight. Both my dogs are on thyroxine. When one or the other has an unexplained weight gain, I get their thyroids checked again. (If both gain weight, I'm overfeeding.) It took a while to get Jacey's thyroid output stabilized, and when we did, she dropped the 6+ pounds she had put on. So--to your original question--a weight loss on thyroid meds is not unexpected and is not a sign of a problem. ETA: And please check with your vet before you stop the pills.
  11. Guessing it's prolly along the lines of how I can confirm how Bitter Apple tastes? Don't you hate it when spray bottles leak on your hands?
  12. What a lovely lad! I'm so sorry for your loss.
  13. Oh, hooray hooray! I'm glad she's feeling better and you're getting better news.
  14. KF_in_Georgia

    Pa Coach

    I'm so sorry you've lost your baby. You gave her a wonderful life.
  15. I'm so sorry for the loss of your girl.
  16. I agree with the folks saying "no licking." She'll pull stitches out and you'll wind up with a mess. (Don't ask me how I know.) A muzzle with a guard will prevent the licking. And if you don't have a guard, you can put duct tape on the bottom of the muzzle, at the place she'd try to lick through. A sock over the wound will help keep her from rubbing her muzzle over the area of the stitches when the wound starts to itch. I know she's listening to you when you tell her to stop, but don't rely on her to leave it alone when you're not there to supervise. (Again--don't ask.) There's a spray called "Bitter Yuck." This is not the same as "Bitter Apple." Bitter Apple is alcohol-based and can't be used on wounds; Bitter Yuck is water based and can be used on wounds without stinging. Bitter Yuck might help, but the problem is that it's only so-so yucky; once the dog has licked it, subsequent licks don't taste as bad. (Really--don't ask.) Good luck.
  17. After a couple of bad experiences with dogs and anesthesia, I was a nervous wreck when Sam and Jacey both needed dentals. I scheduled both procedures for the same day (so I wouldn't have to go through it twice). When I dropped the dogs at the vet's in the morning, the tech said they'd probably be done about 3. I showed up at the vet's office a little after 3; Sam was barely done (still waking up) and Jacey hadn't even been started. I just sat there in the waiting room and cried. I apologized to all the staff and other patients waiting, told them not to worry--that I was just a nervous wreck--and I cried like a crazy woman. Finally stopped crying, but kept sitting there. After a bit, my cellphone rang. It's the vet, telling me the dogs are ready to go home. "I'm in your waiting room right now," I told him. His staff hadn't told him I was there--and I'm glad he didn't have the feeling that I was breathing down his neck the whole time he was working on Jacey. It turns out that this vet likes to do "iffy" cases--dogs with health issues--first thing, and he saves the "no problem" dogs for later in the day. Thus, my two got bumped to the end of the day's list. These days, because the poor guy has to drive 40+ miles to get to work, the vet comes in at 5 am on days he does surgeries, so he likes to have dogs stay overnight the night before the surgery. Fortunately, though, he's okay if an owner--like me--doesn't want to do that. I flat out told them: I haven't slept in an empty bed for more than seven years, and if you keep my dogs overnight I won't sleep at all. This year, Sam doesn't need a dental (hurray for raw chicken backs). Jacey needs one to clean up her front and side teeth, but her back teeth are wonderful (I started feeding them chicken backs in October). I might let Jacey stay overnight at the vet's since I'll still have Sam to hang onto. *** If Twister has extractions, they'll probably send her home with pain meds. Expect her to be sleepy and groggy all night. Also expect that her gums may bleed some, so put something under her head when she sleeps (an old towel or something) to protect your carpet or her bedding. And she might appreciate a gel cold pack. (When Sam was hurt, I put a cold pack on his foot and left it up to him whether it stayed there. He carefully kept it in place for about 15 minutes. Twister will let you know if she doesn't like it.) If you don't have a gel cold pack, you can try a bag of frozen peas, but the stuff has to be something that mushes around and conforms to her shape, so no big ice cubes or anything like that. Limit Twister's food and water, even if she seems to think she wants both, at least for the evening. Often, the anesthesia can leave a dog with a queasy stomach, and food and water won't settle well. Twister can have what my mother called "sippin' water"--just not a huge bowlful. ETA: Please let us know when she's home.
  18. Maybe just take the bowl out of the station, so there's nothing for him to linger over. I drove Sam crazy after Oreo's death because I'd just grab him, hold on, and bawl like a baby. (Her death was completely unexpected--a pulmonary embolism during orthopedic surgery.) Sam would tolerate the hugs and crying for a bit, then he'd pull away, get up on the sofa ("All mine!") and sleep. There's no question that I got Jacey as Oreo's successor for my sake, not for Sam's. Just one thing changed in Sam's behavior: he started fishing tissues out of the trash can and chewing them. He'd never done that--in three years!--but he started doing it then. At the time, I thought it was just because the tissues were salty with my tears...but he's still got that bad habit today.
  19. I wish I could help. Maybe just put away anything that was exclusively hers, especially her food dish. Maybe that will make sense to him. When Oreo died, Sam didn't even blink. (They'd been here together for three years.) With Sam, it was "My bed, my mom, my sofa, my food." Nine days later he had to learn to share with a sister again. (And another sister who's tougher than he is.) Boy was he ticked... FWIW--Months earlier, Sam had exhibited a bit of what I thought might be separation anxiety: he screamed himself silly when I started to go out with Oreo and leave him at home. It turned out not to be SA, but pure jealousy. The day after Oreo died, I left him at home for about half an hour, came back and parked down the street and tiptoed to the door to listen: not a sound. So he didn't care if I left him at home alone; I just wasn't allowed to leave him at home and take her with me.
  20. I know how devastating it is to lose your baby without warning. I'm so sorry for your loss.
  21. Feel his feet (and his legs). Does one feel hotter than the other? If you gently squeeze his pads, does he object? And does the limping seem to be a foot? Or a leg? Or just a hitch in how he walks? And how old is Anubis? He could have a corn starting to develop: totally non lethal but certainly warranting a limp. And check his toenails--make sure one isn't cracked or otherwise annoying him when he walks. My Sam is nearly 9. Every now and then, he limps a bit. He usually shakes it off quickly, and it's not a limp I can pin down and say "foot" or "knee" or "shoulder" or whatever; it's just a sort of "hitch" in his walk. The vet saw Sam last month (annual checkup) and saw no signs of arthritis, spinal trouble, or anything else for me to worry about. And then I remember that I'm fifty-*mumble* years old...and when I get up after a couple of hours on the couch, I'm not moving too gracefully, either. I'm not saying, "Don't call the vet." I'm just saying, "Don't panic."
  22. A few things I've heard about bandaging-- 1--Don't bandage too tightly. 2--Stick just a little of the sticky bandage material to his hair (to keep the bandage attached to him); most of the sticky material should be sticking to the gauze bandage that's over the wound. 3--If the sticky material sticks too well, tease it off with some mineral oil on a cotton swab; next time you bandage, stick the sticky bandage to your shirt first, so the sticky stuff picks up some lint and becomes a bit less sticky. If he's slinging his tail around and thus tossing the bandage across the room (or whacking hid tail into the furniture), you can try attaching a bit of gauze to the bandage and tying the other end of the gauze loosely around his leg. If he'll tolerate this (and many dogs will), you can limit the range he's got to swing his tail in so he doesn't sling the bandage across the room; but if the gauze "tether" annoys him, just remove it before he starts chewing his tail to get the gauze off.
  23. We'll be keeping Spencer (and you) in our thoughts. All of us know how our dogs are so stoic, and when they're sick enough for us to see they're sick, it's really frightening. Take care of yourself...and both your boys.
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