KF_in_Georgia

It will work if you spread out the pills. She'll have a lesser amount of the drug in her system for a while, but at least she'll have some of the drug on board, and if you can time it so the lowest dose of gabapentin is while she has the highest dose of tramadol, that will help. The twitching tonight might be normal--or is she not one of those dogs who runs in her sleep? (I have one quiet sleeper and one who talks and runs marathons in her sleep.) Gabapentin, methocarbamol, and tramadol all can be obtained (with prescriptions) from people pharmacies, usually for less than the vet will charge. Check www.goodrx.com for prices and availability and killer-coupons. (Really. The price for 25mg clomipramine capsules was $600+ for 90 pills; $73 with the coupon.) Rimadyl will be available from your vet or from an on-line pharmacy that does veterinary drugs; it's not a people drug (but it's often listed on goodrx.com also). (I printed coupons from goodrx.com and took them to my vet so he could figure the best way to write the script so I'd get a good price.) If you have a video camera, video Betty getting up or trying to lie down or walking (if her movements are "off" in the morning) or sleeping. Lots of dogs will hide problems while they're at the vet's, so a video of what's happening will be helpful. Don't be surprised that this came on suddenly. Similar trouble started suddenly with my old angel Sam--late on a Friday night. Then he'd be better for a few days, and it would flare up again--on a weekend. Made me crazy. He cried every time he tried to lie down, then yelped as he got back up. After this is cleared up with Betty, expect that it might happen again, and keep drugs on hand or at least a prescription on file at the drug store. Aside from the cheaper price available at a people pharmacy, the hours are better if you need drugs on short notice. And if you get drugs from a chain drug store, you usually can find a 24-hour location in an absolute emergency (like 1am on a weekend morning).

Robaxin (methocarbamol) is a muscle relaxer. If she's tensing up every time she feels a twinge of pain, the tensing up may cause more pain, more tensing, more pain, etc. And it can safely be used with tramadol, rimadyl, and gabapentin. Gabapentin may take 48 hours to get up to full strength, and it's safe for her to take a larger dose than the 400mg/day she's getting. Be advised that it wears off in less than 12 hours, too. Perhaps you can stagger some of the meds so that the tramadol is at its strongest when the gabapentin is winding down or something like that. Or maybe her vet will be okay with going up to 200mg every 8 hours. Make sure she eats. Some of these meds really should not land on an empty stomach, so get something into her before she takes the pills. (Much less distressing for both of you than if she takes the pills and then refuses to eat, so that you're risking more trouble.) Elevate her bowl so she doesn't have to stress the shoulder to eat. Tempt her with cooked chicken (no bones). Also, oddly enough, oatmeal is popular in this household. You can make some up in advance, then refrigerate it to cool. My guys love the yucky, cold, congealed stuff. None of these pills taste good. I always rolled them into a piece of turkey lunchmeat and poked that into the dog's mouth. When pills started falling out of the turkey (or the boy started trying to find the pills), I glued them into the meat with a dab of peanut butter. I don't think that fooled my old boy, but he put up with the pills in order to get the PB and turkey.

He developed SA in 2012, after he'd been in a home for 5 years? (Was it really SA? Or was he showing intestinal trouble that they attributed to stress and SA when it really was IBD?) And was he on thyroxine when you got him? It looks as if they'd started thyroxine in October of 2012 (but there's no evidence of lab work to justify that). He lost 8 pounds between January 2007 and September 2009 (which might have been deliberate slimming down of a dog that had put on weight), but there's no useful weight info (that I can see) after that. I'd think he had some upset in his home situation by late 2012, and they tried Prozac and Thyroxine, although it's not clear how much testing might have been done or whether those drugs were appropriate for his problem. But Sarge was 12 years old, and he managed to fight for eleven months: you gave him that much. I had an 8-year-old girl go from healthy at a checkup (with lab work) on a Tuesday to hospitalized three days later and put to sleep three days after that, with a platelet count that dropped from 200,000 to 17,000 in the first three days. We had a diagnosis as unsatisfactory as Sarge's diagnosis of IBD, but no actual cause for the problem and no way to turn it around. The odds were in her favor, but I lost her anyway. It's not likely Sarge grew into full-blown IBD in four days with you, and it looks as if he was starting to have trouble in late 2012. You did what you did out of love, and you gave him what he needed--peace and your love--at the end.

Oh, no! Talk to us about what's wrong when you can. In the meantime, know that we're all wishing you and Huston the best...

Of course there's a chance. After you hear from the radiologist, send the x-rays to Dr Couto for another opinion. An irregularity on the bone is an irregularity on the bone--and that doesn't have to be a tumor.

Brown ticks may not be native to you guys, but is it possible you've "imported" some on your boy? If the ticks fell off or were shed outside, they wouldn't just die from being in new territory. Seriously cold weather typically sends ticks into hibernation (wish it would just kill them off), but you could conceivably have a new colony outside now that the weather is warmer.

Comb your dog while he's standing over a newspaper. Comb out any dirt, collect it from the paper, then get it wet. If it turns blood-red, the problem is fleas. If the dirt stays "dirt," it's some other problem.

It may be possible for the vet to draw blood to check potassium levels (I assume that's what you're worried about--the article here), then proceed if the levels continue to look okay. Also, your vet can check with Tufts before the surgery, to find out more about countering with calcium. You're a good mom, just a worried one. I was, too. I lost two girl greyhounds before they turned 9, and I had to have my 8-year-old's teeth cleaned in April--with one extraction. She was fine, but I watched my vet read that article the week before the dental. (One of the two dogs I lost died under anesthesia.) Don't forget the amicar...

If you can, video your girl walking around so you'll have something to show your vet. Maybe a neighbor can walk her while you film, or you can walk her on a long leash. Try to get it from several angles. Take the camera/cellphone every time you go out with her, and be prepared to shoot whenever the limp appears. Also try filming her inside--anyplace where the problem occurs. Is she limping worse on certain surfaces than on others? If she limps more on hard surfaces (tile, asphalt, concrete) than on soft (carpet, grass), then it could be a corn, although corns generally make an appearance much earlier in a dog's life than this. Also, don't push her to get in and out of the car--you don't want to risk a real injury--but if there's occasion for her to get out of your car before her vet visit, be prepared to film that, too.

Make sure your vet checks her neck and spine as well as her leg. If she's having a back or neck problem, she may move strangely when she first gets up in an effort to avoid tweaking the sore spot.

I fed whole ones. They're less than a dollar apiece from Amazon ($15.21/bag), and I have Amazon Prime, so I don't pay shipping. (They're also available locally, but I don't know how much they cost.) But yeah, that would be $45/month for my two dogs. I might try buying the smaller bag rather than dealing with cutting them. And if I freeze some, I hope it will slow down Tigger. Less expensive and less messy than turkey necks, though. (Turns out the woman at Ark Naturals thought I was asking about a different product. She's apologized, and she's sending a bag of the mobility chew she thought I meant.)

Karen was right: 21 of the Ark Naturals treats in my 18oz bag of the large size. The pieces are approximately 3 inches long, and a little over half an inch in diameter. Hard/chewy green exterior, toothpaste interior. They smell rather nice: chlorophyll, cinnamon, etc. The smell is much nicer than that of bully sticks. (When I opened the bag, the smell made me think "broccoli.") Silver took about 30 to 45 seconds to finish her treat. Tigger polished off his in less than 15 seconds (including licking up crumbs). Maybe I'll try freezing his...

Hmmm, I used the "contact us" link on the large size when I queried them. I've ordered a bag from Amazon, so we'll see. Some of my dogs--fosters and regulars--have been slow to dive into the turkey necks at the start. I think the dogs aren't sure they won't be jumped by the other dog. When I've taken the dogs outside one at a time to eat, things have gone better, But yes, Silver's first time, she licked the neck in the bowl, then laid down by it and just stared at me. I finally put her in her crate and threw a blanket over the top so she had some privacy. A minute or so later, I heard that telltale crunching. These days, no one hesitates.

You feed turkey necks raw. The bones are soft(ish) and chewable and won't splinter. They're far safer for his teeth than the harder beef bones (which could be dangerous to his teeth, never mind his digestive system). Necks are a bit messy to eat, so you want to feed them outside or inside only if you have something you can put down. (I have a friend who feeds them in the dogs' crates and just wipes down the bottom of the crate with a disinfectant wipe afterward before she puts the bedding back in the crate.) Because I need to feed them outside, my guys don't get them in the winter or in bad weather. When the weather is good, my guys might get them once or twice a week.

How long after a meal is this happening? I'm thinking the omeprazole might help if he's tending toward acid reflux. I know my digestive system isn't happy if I go to bed (or just lie down) too soon after a meal; my system is happier if I let gravity help things settle.

I emailed to find out how many pieces in the bag (the website photos aren't much help in figuring out how big these are). The product is packed by weight, and the 18 oz bag is approximately 73-76 pieces. They used to say that on the bags, but the NJ Bureau of Weights and Measures got difficult because the number was an approximation. In my area. these are available at a lot of small pet boutiques and also at Whole Foods stores.

I learned to take the dangerous garbage outside immediately and put it in the outside can. I had a boy that could get into anything, and my cabinets weren't tall enough for me to put in a can and bungee cord the doors closed.

How long after mealtime is it happening? Does it happen the same length of time after other meals than dinner--maybe during the day when the family isn't home to observe it? It could be gas or indigestion or acid reflux. A Pepcid before dinner might help. (Either that, or a snack before bedtime, if this is a case of empty stomach discomfort.)

I printed the article and gave it to my vet before Silver's dental last month. He actually called Tufts to talk to them about counter-measures if trouble arose. (She was fine.) I love my vet.

Whole Foods carries (or did carry) Manuka honey rated "Bio-Active 15+" Just one caution: If you use it and a wound looks worse, stop and consult a vet. I had a friend who used manuka honey on her grey's scraped toe, which began to swell almost immediately. Turns out, the dog is seriously allergic to bees.

It's flea collars that greyhounds can't use. Different ingredients. But Preventic collars generally are fine.

Maybe the foot portion of a pair of panty hose? That might be light enough to not attract too much attention. And maybe a panty liner inside the hose for the blood? And you might want to consider a muzzle; perhaps the strap would interfere with her ability to get the snood off her head. Keep a towel handy. If you wake up to more bloodshed, the towel gives you something you can quickly throw over her head while you move her to an easier-to-clean location--and prevent her from the big head shake (or at least soak up the damage).

You often can find it in health food stores. Here in the U.S., Whole Foods carries it, and I think they have locations in Canada.

Probably not an allergy, I think, because of its limited location. Diagnosing the fungal infection on my girl required the vet taking a biopsy (I think they called it a punch biopsy--took a plug of skin and other tissue from a couple of different areas on her leg). She was a cooperative girl, and this didn't require general anesthesia or anything like that. The tissue was sent to a lab and cultured to see what grew--then what would kill whatever grew. She wound up taking ketoconazole (antifungal) pills and cephalexin (antibiotic). Very quickly--within a week of starting the ketoconazole, I think--it was obvious that this was working. After everything appeared cleared up, we did one more fill of the ketaconazole, just to be sure. The rash has been gone for more than a year now. The fungal infection was just a form of ringworm, but because it was below the surface of her skin, it didn't show in skin scrapings. Can you and your vet consult with the nearest veterinary school? Someone there might be able to talk your vet through the biopsy part, and then a lab would handle the cultures.

Has he seen a veterinary dermatologist? My girl had a problem on her leg and skin scrapings showed bacteria, but that was mostly from her chewing/licking it. (It would get better very briefly with various antibiotics but it never completely cleared up. And it itched tremendously, judging from her chewing and learning to scratch the affected front leg with her back foot.) Her problem was a fungal infection below the surface--never showed on scrapings--and it was diagnosed only with a biopsy.