KF_in_Georgia

Advantage makes multiple products. Some aren't cat-safe (i.e., K9 Advantix), others are. Advantage Multi comes in a formula for cats as well as one for dogs. Advantage Multi is prescription-only because it includes heartworm preventative as well as flea preventative in a single, topical dose. The topical does not control or repel ticks; people with dogs in tick-prone areas often use a Preventic collar to control the ticks; it's the one collar I've known of greyhound owners using safely. (The ingredient in Preventic collars is dangerous to cats if they chew on the collar, but reportedly is safe to use around cats that leave the dog's collar alone.) So far, I haven't had tick problems with my guys (knock wood), but they're only leash-walked in the neighborhood or the park; no one's going into the deep woods or rolling in high grass. The Advantage Multi topical is stinkier than Frontline Plus; but it works the same way, and by the second day after application, it's pretty much been absorbed into the hound's coat. (I put bandanas on freshly-treated dogs to remind me to be careful where I pet them.) I also time applications for the first Monday of the month rather than just "the first of the month"--a Monday application will be safely absorbed and no longer smelly by the next weekend's meet and greets or therapy dog visits. I had my dogs on Heartgard Plus until last summer, but I got tired of the inevitable diarrhea the dogs had after the oral med; I never wanted to try Trifexis, given how sensitive everyone around here was to the gentler Heartgard Plus. My newest dog got his first dose of Advantage Multi this month, and he was fine with it; Silver has been getting it since August. But for Christmas--in case of other medical issues--my family gave me the pill gun I had on my wish list on Amazon.

You might want to print this and give it to your vet tomorrow: http://greytarticles.wordpress.com/medical-first-aid/anesthesia-surgical/high-potassium-during-anesthesia-causes-greyhound-sudden-death/ It's not anything your vet needs to do differently unless something seems "off" during the dental. Good luck with your babies.

Waterless shampoo. It comes in a spray bottle at pet stores. Spray it until she's damp, then towel her dry. It'll get off dirt and it's pleasantly scented. I've used it when I had a stinky dog who got sick after her spay and barfed on herself.

I didn't change my earlier vote, but all's well just now. (Knock wood.) Silver (fka Silver Hornet), who'll be 9 next May, has occasional back pain, has a permanent corn and a gimpy back leg, all of which she ignores (unless she wants sympathy and cuddles). She keeps the newest boy in check. Clem (fka Flying Clemenza), adopted last month after 11 weeks of fostering, will be 7 this April. May have occasional back pain--unless he just periodically yelps for attention. Notorious for hauling on the leash as hard as he can, then yelping and turning an accusatory eye on me because, you know, I was supposed to let him pull me down the 15-foot drop and into the creek. I lost my first two girls unexpectedly. Both were 8 years old. I'm relying on Silver to break that curse. And I lost my old man this summer at 13 years.

Is he still getting neomycin? I'm allergic to the stuff, and any problem just gets worse if I use it, so I wonder if he could just need a totally different med.

At the risk of scaring the bejeebers out of you, please print the article at this link and give it to your vet: http://greytarticles.wordpress.com/medical-first-aid/anesthesia-surgical/high-potassium-during-anesthesia-causes-greyhound-sudden-death/ If everything goes well, your vet won't need this info. Most greyhounds come through a dental just fine. But it would be well for your vet to have this situation in mind, especially if Mason has to be under anesthesia longer than expected with an extraction. This information has just arisen very recently, as far as I know, and there's not anything you need to do differently before surgery. It's just something for your vet to have in mind. (My girl will be going for a cleaning in the next month or so, and her vet is going to get a copy of that article.) The other thing to know is that you should get a just-in-case prescription for Amicar if your vet has to remove the tooth. Amicar scripts can be filled at people-pharmacies. Amicar is used to help blood clot in greyhounds. In your case, since there's a weekend coming up, you might want to take this precaution rather than have to deal with an ER over the weekend if there's a problem. (And make sure you know your own vet's weekend hours and have the vet's recommendation for an emergency.) Where to find amicar. What amicar does. That second link goes to an Ohio State article about bone cancer. The specific statement that's relevant for Mason's dental is, "Aminocaproic acid (AA - Amicar®) is a commercially available inhibitor of fibrinolysis (procoagulant) commonly used in humans with postoperative bleeding that can be administered IV or by mouth." Greyhounds usually don't have a problem forming clots after surgery (and a dental extraction counts as surgery). If a greyhound's blood is tested before the surgery, it clots just fine. But their clots are weaker than the clots of other breeds and sometimes can fail, triggering post-op bleeding. This is something greyhound-savvy vets usually know. But a lot of vets don't know about this, and another greyhound owner recently went through hell trying to get the bleeding under control on her dog in the face of ER vets who told her to stop making a fuss ("It's just a bruise") and just take her dog home. Her own vet was out of reach, and the ER vets refused to consider online publications or Dr Couto's published recommendations. Amicar isn't cheap, and sometimes it can be hard to find (I don't know if you're in a big city or a small town). If the major drug store chains where you are don't have it, they often can get it overnight. If Mason needs a tooth removed, you could get a script from your vet, but just not fill it unless Mason has a problem. (A Greytalk thread about Amicar--including dosage info--is here.) Finally, if Mason has been taking a fish oil supplement, discontinue it until he's safely past all this stuff. Fish oil can act as a blood thinner. And that's it. That's the scary stuff you don't want to read or have to think about. But I lost a girl during orthopedic surgery. The amicar and fish oil wouldn't have made a difference, but the potassium might have--and I'll never know.

It should be fine for Chloe to get 900mg of the gabapentin a day, but you want to spread it out. It doesn't last more than about 12 hours in the system, I think, so small doses more often are better than large doses just once or twice a day. You might want to see if your vet can give you a script for 100mg capsules (available at reasonable prices from people-pharmacies). That would let you break up Chloe's doses. My boy was taking 2 of the 100mg capsules four times a day, with an extra 100mg we could use in a bad patch (such as after he'd had a fall).

Start with this blog post: http://hikinghounds.blogspot.com/2011/03/zephyr-has-been-sick.html Then this one: http://hikinghounds.blogspot.com/2011/03/not-good.html Then keep going. There are explanations of what they tried and why, and I think info on the doctor involved is there, too. Zephyr survived, but it was scary. Also, Zephyr's mom, Hiking Hounds, is here on Greytalk. Try PMing her through Greytalk or through her blog posts.

I have never been able to obtain it as a capsule--only as the loose powder. Around here, it was a piece of turkey lunchmeat, with a spoonful of peanut butter (crunchy) flattened out on the lunchmeat. Sprinkle the tylan on the peanut butter, roll the whole thing into a tube (and squeeze the tube a little, so that the powder really sticks to the peanut butter and lunchmeat), and pop it down the victim's--er, patient's--throat.

Are you sure your guy isn't picking up new ticks outside? Ticks will still be around in cold weather. I think you won't see much of them when the temp goes below freezing and stays there, but they can pop out again if you have a single warm day. And, if I remember correctly, ticks are attracted to warm bodies (and to moisture), so if it's chilly outside, the critters will be attracted to a passing dog (or owner). I think tick preventatives on the dogs usually don't repel the tick; they just kill the feeding tick.

Doctors generally need good, fresh edges to suture, and these edges will be drier by morning. Whether they'll be too dry to stitch is another matter. Also, the location is part of the question: will they stretch and gape open if they're not stitched? If they are stitched, will the stitches hold? The e-vet said it sounded as if it could wait for morning, but I think you'll want to be there first thing. (Confession: when a new mom, I took my boy to the e-vet at 10 at night for stitches. The cut might have healed on its own, but 1--the cut went all the way to the bone, and 2--it was a Saturday night, so he'd have had to wait nearly 36 hours to see his own vet.)

I think you're good to wait--and I'm not normally a waiter. If she starts messing with them, try putting a t-shirt on her, and be prepared to muzzle her if necessary. Don't give her any drugs, even if she should seem ouchy. If you give something, it'll impact what the vet might want to use. ETA: I agree with PatricksMom that if you want stitches you need to go tonight. But I think these will heal well without stitches...

Yes, switching from one NSAID to another requires a wash-out period for the first NSAID. It's why people whose dog has a minor sprain should not dose with aspirin at home; aspirin (an NSAID) has such a long wash-out period, and it will be days before the dog can take a stronger NSAID.

Home-made belly band time. A smallish towel (hand-towel or kitchen-towel size), wrapped strategically and safety-pinned at his spine. You can fold a wash cloth into the right location on the towel for extra absorbency, if needed. I don't know about drinking baking soda. But you want him to drink as much as he can hold, even though that's extra trips outside. And you want lots of trips outside to flush out his system. (The shirt version of the belly band is fine, too. Just improvise.)

I never saw any ill effects from the drugs in Sam. Of course, he was already so wobbly that it's possible the drugs didn't make things worse. The problem with tramadol is that too high a dose may make the dog exhibit symptoms of anxiety--panting, pacing. At that point, you think the pain killer isn't working, when in fact it is. Easing back on the tramadol gets you the pain relief you want without the bad side effects. It's why I never gave Sam the full dose of tramadol that his vet said he could have. I just pulled out Sam's last bottle of tramadol: "Give 1 to 2 tablets by mouth up to three times daily or as needed for pain." The tablets are 50mg, and Sam weighed 65 pounds. Also, with the quivering muscle, I'd ask your vet about methocarbamol (Robaxin). Sam got it--and Silver takes it--because with their arthritis, they were skewing their normal movements when they got up and laid down--tensing up muscles and making themselves yelp. The methocarbamol instructions were "Give 2 tablets by mouth for the first 3 doses, then 1 tablet two to three times daily or only as needed for muscle spasms." The methocarbamol tablets are 500mg. Silver is still taking about 1 a day of these, and she weighs 55 pounds. All three of these meds--gabapentin, tramadol, and methocarbamol--are available at people-pharmacies for much less than the typical vet's price. And people pharmacies are open on weekends for refills when your regular vet isn't. (I use Walgreen's, and I have their Prescription Savings Club card for my "family"--currently, Silver and me. That got me discounted prices on the dogs' drugs and on my flu shot. The card is $35/year, but I think you can get your money back if it doesn't save you that much.)

Heather, I'm so sorry to run into you and Seka in this forum. Yes, you need a higher dose of gabapentin. Sam had arthritis and disk pain down his back. His stomach couldn't tolerate NSAIDS, so he was taking tramadol and gabapentin. (Also methocarbamol, a muscle relaxer.) Sam's vet had okayed 900mg/day of gabapentin. I started with 1 100mg capsule, three times a day for a couple of days so he could get used to it before I stepped it up to a higher dose. (I also restricted his access to the stairs at my house. He was too wobbly to take them safely, even when he wasn't drugged.) Note that it sometimes can take 48 hours before the gabapentin gets up to full strength. I typically gave Sam 200mg of gabapentin, four times a day, reserving that last 100mg for bad days (bad weather, or he'd taken a fall). And 50mg tramadol at each meal (vet had authorized 50mg/6x a day, and Sam normally got 4 pills). Sam had gotten too wobbly and shaky to stand long enough to eat a large meal, so he got four small meals a day (happy dog!), with pills at each meal. I made sure to wake him up late at night, potty walk him, give him half a cup of kibble, and give him pills. If he fell asleep about 10pm, he'd be miserable by morning if I didn't give him the bedtime dose.

I'm not going to be much help, except perhaps with this suggestion: Grind the offending kibble and mix it into an add-on that she can tolerate. I had to do that for a few months because my boy licked all the add-on yogurt off his kibble and left the kibble in the dish. I sent three cups of kibble through the food processor every morning, and I was relieved every night that we'd gotten through all three cups; at least I could be sure he was getting balanced nutrition. If she can tolerate something like Ensure (it's sweet), that might work. Sam adored Ensure. He also liked fruit-flavored yogurt, and it didn't give him problems.

Just increase his normal kibble. You know that won't upset his stomach. You can give an extra meal at bedtime, if you like. But he doesn't sound underweight. Both my dogs weigh less than their racing weight--the girl is under by a pound or so, the foster boy raced at anywhere between 67.8 and 72 pounds, and currently weighs in at 66 pounds and looks great.Race weight includes a lot of muscle, which weighs more than fat, so if your boy has dropped a bit of muscle by being less active, you'd expect his weight to drop some, too.

Muzzle her with a stool guard. And you may need skin biopsies. I had a greyhound with a skin infection. We did repeated rounds of Cephalexin without success. Finally did biopsies and found a fungal infection below the skin (so it never showed on skin scrapings or under black light). Although toys to refocus her attention are a nice idea, you can't rely on her to ignore the irritated skin. A muzzle is painless, she'll still be able to drink through it, and it's much less annoying and less hazardous than the e-collar. She needs to be muzzled any time she isn't under your direct supervision. And even then you might have a problem with her rubbing or scratching the infected legs (Silver learned to scratch the front leg with her back foot). But clearly a cone has been useless--and it's a nuisance--so please use the muzzle. She'll be annoyed by it, but not harmed.

It could be an honest-to-goodness UTI--especially if she's actually peeing rather than leaking. If so, that'll be antibiotics.

Thunder shirts: put them on him for a while (30 minutes or so) when he isn't going to hear scary noises. Take it off. A few hours later, back on for 30 minutes. Then off. Next day, on for a few minutes--and make your espresso. You want the thunder shirt to be a "hug" for him--but one that isn't linked to the espresso machine, so vary how long the shirt is on him before you crank up the noise-makers. You can start leaving the shirt on him for longer when he's comfortable with it. And one silly thing you might try: cotton in his ears long enough to make your drink. Sounds ridiculous, but it will change the pitch of what he hears. (In the days when I was a dog groomer, I had to do this to a dog--and myself--when we had a broken fire alarm and were waiting for the fire department to come reset it. Longest twenty minutes of my life.) And talk to your vet. The vet may recommend clomipramine (Clomicalm) or something along those lines. It wouldn't make him groggy or zonked; the idea is that it just takes the edge off the stress long enough for the dog to realize he's not actually, truly, honest-to-goodness dying from a noise. At least you have the advantage of having mostly controllable triggers--unlike folks with thunderphobic dogs.

Your vet might want to x-ray her spine. A chiropractic adjustment might help, but don't let a chiropractor work on her until you have x-rays. And your vet might prescribe Robaxin (aka methocarbamol). It's a muscle relaxer, and she could take one once a day to help ward off episodes.

I would ask your vet. Often, heartworm preventatives help prevent other parasites (chart here), but I don't know that hookworms or whipworms or any of those guys are a problem in your area...or whether Chance might have brought parasites with him. Also consider whether you plan to travel with Chance--take a vacation someplace where it's warmer--or perhaps be around other dogs at home who are from southern regions and might be carrying parasites. Some of the parasites can cause serious, long-term problems in pets (like intestinal inflammation).

I think you want to plan ahead: It's Wednesday night/Thursday morning now. If your specialist is available on Saturdays, you might want to call in the morning and set up an appointment for Saturday. If they're not open on Saturday, try to get an appointment for late Friday. If he's suddenly better on Friday, you can cancel the appointment early that morning. But if this hasn't turned around, you don't want him home and sick on the weekend, with you maybe facing an ER visit.

Did his vet okay the Missing Link? Amicar is to promote proper clotting, but Omega 3 can work as a blood thinner... (I'm not suggesting the Missing Link has anything to do with the discharge. I'm just surprised that Missing Link is okay so soon post-op.)