KF_in_Georgia

That thread is now 10 years old. It's 7 pages long. I have a three-year-old foster boy, neutered back in February. He's got quite a pair of olives on him first thing when he wakes up. Everything calms down after a bit. And if I look while he's actually sleeping, everything's quite tame.

Don't panic. And welcome to the historic, legendary olives thread.

This link showed up today on Facebook: http://speakingforspot.com/blog/2013/09/29/ear-disease-in-dogs-part-one/

I just put his info in my g-mail contacts list. Hoping I don't need it, but now I know where to find the info.

Also consider methocarbamol (aka Robaxin), a muscle relaxer. My Sam also had arthritis, and he tended to clench some muscles when the arthritis was bad. Sometimes, the pain was so bad he'd yelp when getting up or lying down. The methocarbamol worked miracles for him.

Muzzle in the crate, and duct tape over the holes that would let her lick the wound. The t-shirt is helpful, but it's not enough if she's bored or itchy. And while a little licking is fine, you want NO licking to occur unless you're there to supervise. My first girl had a 4-stitch wound at the inside of her elbow: she could reach it, even muzzled, unless I taped the muzzle. And one night, feeling sorry for her and knowing the wound was well bandaged, I let her sleep with me with the muzzle off--figuring I'd hear her if she started licking. I woke up about 3am with no dog in the bed. She'd gotten up quietly, left the bedroom, and gone to the end of the hall to lick in peace. She'd licked/chewed the bandage off and removed all her stitches. The wound healed, but it left a big scar.

Sam didn't have osteo--he had arthritis in his spine and half a dozen other issues--but I didn't wait until he was miserable. One night, maxed out on his pain meds, he didn't sleep more than half an hour all night, awake and panting. I sat up with him, talked to him, and promised him he wouldn't have to go through another night like that. In the morning, we stopped at McDonald's and he got to have two sausage/egg biscuits in the car when we got to the vet. Then he went in, counter-surfed in the exam room looking for cookies, and rooted through the trash can. And panted. The vet agreed it was time. It was very peaceful. The vet and I cried, and Sam just went to sleep. Sam was still "in there." He could still do everything he liked: eat, counter-surf, explore trash cans. Everything--except sleep pain-free. And that was enough. I'll be thinking of you and Tempo. Give him a kiss from me.

Learning how to cover his @$$ is not the learning experience you wanted that vet to take away from this experience.

Diarrhea is common with Heartgard Plus. It seems to be a problem with the flavoring, though, rather than the med itself. With my two dogs, I could predict the diarrhea would hit within 24 hours, so that I wouldn't give it on a rainy day, when having to deal with frequent, urgent trips outside would be more of a problem than normal. Now, my girl takes Advantage Multi, which is a topical preventative aimed at heartworms and fleas. My foster boy is getting a compounded capsule of ivermectin (I think; they mail it to me, I give it to him), along with topical Frontline Plus.

There's a PDF from the makers of Trifexis located here. The center column of the first page has side effects, but it's not in a form I can copy/paste.

I'm pretty sure lethargy is a known side effect of Trifexis, one that isn't limited just to greyhounds. If your dog is experiencing side effects--especially if they've been getting progressively more significant--I wouldn't continue to use it. Talk to your vet's office. They should be able to provide something on short notice.

I'm so sorry your girl is gone. I lost 8-year-old Jacey not quite that fast, but that unexpectedly. She was fine at the vet for a well-dog visit on that Tuesday; diarrhea and vomiting Thursday night; in the ER Friday morning, and we put her to sleep that Monday. They diagnosed her with idiopathic immune mediated thrombocytopenia, but we weren't able to find the trigger. Her platelet count dropped from 200,000 to 17,000 in about 48 hours. And I lost 8-year-old Oreo unexpectedly: she was fine at the vet on that Tuesday for shots, she broke her leg Wednesday evening in my living room, and she threw a blood clot and died in surgery on that Thursday. I've had to stop trying to figure out how and why. There are no answers. And leaving Jonelle at the vet's would have been no guarantee of a different outcome for your girl. Both my girls died there; Oreo actually died on the table and they did CPR and couldn't bring her back. I'm sorry.

My girl was 6 years old when she was spayed. The morning after the spay, I let her have a little water (during the night, she'd just licked ice cubes), and she immediately threw it back up. The vet's office called to check on her that morning, and when I told them she'd been throwing up water, they had me bring her back in right away for a shot of Cerenia (an anti-nausea med). I'd never had a dog with any post-anesthesia trouble, so this surprised me. But we came home from the vet's after the Cerenia shot, Silver took a nap, and she woke up starving. There's been no trouble since then, but when she eventually needs a dental, the vet will certainly be told about her post-spay reaction. It's possible that this boy's problem simply is nausea after anesthesia, and that he lost a lot of weight because perhaps he wasn't taken back to the vet at the first sign of trouble. If that's the case, you'd just want to be sure to warn his future vets to be certain he gets anti-nausea meds early on. And you might want to watch your own schedule with him: if he has to have a dental, plan to be home with him the day after so you can supervise; and don't schedule elective surgery (like a dental) for a Friday if that might leave you having to deal with an expensive e-vet on a Saturday.

Rhabdomyolysis might be unusual to see at a regular vet hospital only because most owners don't suspect it until the dog has collapsed and is in the ER and the vet tells them what's up. But it is by no means unheard of in high summer, and it's something that every single vet hospital should be considering when there's an emergency visit. For all they knew, it could have been "dog left in parked car" or a similar problem, and it's not as if that's an unheard-of event. In the summer, heat stroke really is a horse, and not a zebra. I agree that they should have sent you on to another hospital--but not when they first had you on the phone because if they believed you that it was heat-related, they could have done something to stabilize her. But clearly they didn't believe you about it being heat-related. And if they believed it was a stone, what did they think they were going to do in 90 minutes?

Jen, you didn't have the zebra. You had the horse he refused to look for. It was the end of August, for cryin' out loud, you told them it was heat-related, and whether they believed that or not, since that's the possibility that was more immediately dangerous than a possible stone, that was the horse they should have been looking for. They should have worked to eliminate that as a possibility rather than simply ignoring it.

Steve, I'm so sorry she's gone.

Is it possible he got something in the cut? A wood splinter from a tree branch? Something like that? In the meantime, you can try spraying Bactine on it. That won't sting and has a little bit of a numbing effect. And I've heard that sometimes, dogs that lick Bactine get a little numbing on their tongue that they don't like so they stop licking. If he's still licking, try his muzzle with some duct tape across the holes that are allowing him to reach the toe with his tongue. If there's something in the wound, he really will need the vet, though. And it will get more expensive because if the vet can't see something, he might try x-rays, although x-rays probably wouldn't show a splinter. But if there's something in the wound, I'd expect swelling or heat in the toe.

Some people (like me) are allergic to neosporin, and I'd assume that dogs can be too. Try polysporin, instead.

Silver is limping more than she ever has, and her corn is absolutely flat to the pad, with no definition. There's nothing that's clear enough to hull. And she won't wear a boot. If you put just one on her, she hops and holds her booted corn foot out in front of her. Mom! I'm broken! Put two boots on her and she still hops and holds her corn foot out in front of her, stopping frequently to try to get the boot off her good foot.

Yeah, minty chicken is a bit much, although the regular flavored toothpastes usually have sorbitol as the first ingredient, then the meat flavoring. (I tell myself it's like honey sauce on chicken nuggets.) I just don't use that much toothpaste. I put some on the round brush--about the same amount I'd use on a finger brush or normal brush--then smush it around with my finger before I put the toothbrush in a dog's mouth.

The deal with the round brush is that you put paste all the way around, then you don't have to worry about the brush turning at an angle while you're using it, so that you're really not brushing anything. And you can brush the insides of teeth with it if you want, without having to turn the brush to the proper angle. But only, of course, if your dog will tolerate the brush. At stores like PetSmart, you'll be able to find mint toothpaste, beef-flavored, and peanut butter-flavored as well as the chicken. I've been lucky: haven't found a brush--or a toothpaste--my dogs don't adore. Even the current foster dog seems fascinated by mint toothpaste. Has anyone tried Fragaria Vesca? http://www.elixirs.com/products.cfm?productcode=S33E

My vet doesn't know everything about greyhounds--but he realizes that. I've gone in and told him what I read here. He's willing to take that info and go Google and otherwise search the internet and ved-med sites and get recommendations. At a chiropractor's suggestion, my vet added Robaxin when Sam's arthritis put him in a lot of back pain. After Greytalk's suggestion, my vet researched gabapentin and prescribed it for Sam. (As much as 900mg a day for my boy, and my vet wrote the script for 100mg capsules so I could control the dosing better than with 300mg capsules I'd have to split--total amount and dosage as recommended here on Greytalk.) We managed to stay off prednisone completely for Sam (although we used it briefly for the girl dog who had a bad skin infection). Be careful about meloxicam vs metacam. Metacam is a liquid and is more expensive--and possibly not available at a regular pharmacy. Meloxicam is a pill version that humans take, but it's appears to be much rougher on a dog's stomach and can trigger ulcers, which happened with Sam. I'm pretty sure you can't use either meloxicam or metacam while your boy is on prednisone, but your vet might want to use one as an anti-inflammatory once you've managed to phase out the pred.

I'm so sorry you lost your handsome old man.

Try hooking fingertips through the dog's collar (from underneath), while cradling the dog's chin in your hand to keep his head from moving too much. Then brush with the other hand. You can slip that finger brush between his lips on the side of his head so you can get straight to the back teeth. (Use your thumb on that hand to part his lips, and your other hand is steadying his head.) If he's too squirmy for this, try putting him on leash and hook his leash to something. (I've used the handle on the refrigerator door--for pilling rather than toothbrushing--better light in the kitchen. Don't use the handle on a kitchen drawer--he'll pull out the whole drawer. Ask me how I know.) Also, let him lick some toothpaste off the brush (rather than just your fingers) before you start.

I'm so sorry you've lost Bebe.