Sundrop

I've posted for advice a few times here in the past weeks, as my dear sweet girl wasn't interested in eating anymore. We made her every imaginable meal and most things sparked her interest enough to take a bite or two, and then nothing. Last Wednesday, she started vomiting everything she got down, so I admitted her to the animal hospital on Friday afternoon and ordered an emergency ultrasound, blood-work, everything. They called later that day and gave us the tragic news - her immediate problem was acute pancreatitis (which, of course, we were making worse by feeding her) - but her ultra-sound showed many "major abnormalities" not the least of which were three large masses in her aorta (causing her left hind leg to grow numb over the last month or so), enlarged adrenal glands, enlarged lymph nodes, fluid in her belly and dangerously low blood pressure. Our vet kept finding more abnormalties the longer she viewed the ultrasound results. We asked them to treat her pancreatitis and get her stable, then we would tackle all of the other issues. Saturday morning they called to tell us that she was crashing. Her blood pressure was 80. There was more fluid in her belly. They did another ultrasound and found that the 3 masses in her aorta had moved - she was now paralyzed in her entire hind end. Every place they had inserted a needle there was terrible bruising, indicating clotting issues. And worst of all...our stoic girl, who didn't even cry when she broke her toe clean in two (while chasing a squirrel in the yard) was in visible, and significant, pain. We raced to the hospital to see her and it was awful. I can't even explain. I just sobbed when I saw her. This beautiful, sweet, precious dog was in so much pain but trying to fight her way through. It breaks my heart to even remember. The doctor gave her virtually no chance (less than 5%) of her pulling through and didn't feel optimistic about her even making it through the night. We couldn't bring her home because she was in too much pain. We couldn't leave her there, alone, in a strange place, in so much pain to potentially pass away without her mom and dad there. We made the excrutiating decision to help her to the bridge. She fought until her last breath. My husband massaged her feet as I kissed her forehead and said goodbye as she left us. She was our first dog. She was our first greyhound. She is the reason we adopted two other greyhounds and will continue to adopt this wonderful breed. She helped me through the darkest days of my life and has slept at my side, cuddled close, every night for 5 years. She slept on her bed in my office everyday as I worked and rushed to the door to greet me, even if I'd only been gone 5 minutes. She did little dances when heard the word, "Walk?" and almost exploded with excitement when we took her on car rides. Not having her here feels wrong... sad... unnatural. Thanks to everyone here who tried to help us. Kyshi changed our lives and I will miss her until I can see her again, God willing, in Heaven...

Yeah, our vet said an ultrasound is the next step. In her vet visit 6 weeks ago, she tested with some elevated liver levels (I can't remember the value), but it was very minor and our vet didn't recommend doing anything about it at that point. Yesterday and today have been kind of a nightmare in terms of getting her to eat anything - and today, the very paltry amount she did eat is gone because she vomitted about 45 minutes ago. I already left a message with our vet on what to do next. I'm just at a loss. I've tried so many things, my husband wants to force-feed her now and that just breaks my heart...I want her here, but I can't stand the thought that she is in pain and miserable.

Thanks, all. He's such a darling boy and when he's awake or just dozing, you can cuddle up with him in bed and he is SO soft and he just nuzzles with you and it's great! But he has a LOUD bark - I think that scares me more than anything because it's just so startling, lol. He's definitely not anywhere near as space-aggressive as our previous boy...nowhere close! Our girl sleeps with us now, but my husband doesn't think it's fair that he can't, too. I told him to go to the guest bedroom - hah! I'd rather not wake-up to a 200 decibel bark in my ear at 4:00 in the morning. I'll start trying to desensitize him a bit. He's such a goof, if I throw socks at him he'll probably just pick them up and play.

Thanks, all - I took her to the vet yesterday and since they just did a complete work-up on her 5-6 weeks ago (blood, fecal and urine) they just checked her urine this time. They started in on the "sterile sample" thing which requires a needle getting inserted to get a sample directly from her bladder which I promptly said, "No" to -- they've tried this on her before when she wasn't feeling so poorly and it never went well, so I wasn't putting her through that again. Instead, they just compared this sample to the one provided last time and they found bacteria in it, suggesting a UTI. So, she is on antibiotics now, as well as Pepcid twice per day and we got a probiotic for her. We just started the antibiotics and Pepcid last night, I'm just praying it does the trick. We're running out of food ideas now and last night we were laughing because I was downstairs cooking & preparing everything I could think of, and my husband was running upstairs with small "samples" for her. She kept giving us "the nose" and flipping dishes over. We started joking that we felt like cooks at the palace and I half expected to see dishes flying downstairs and hear, "Be gone with it! Off with your head!" - hah! In the end, she didn't want anything we prepared (oatmeal, pasta, eggs, mashed sweet potatoes, chicken breast or biscuits) - but got her to eat some cooked carrots, about a third of a bottle of vanilla Ensure and a couple pieces of beef jerky. She seems to some things on first bite, and then she rejects it. I'm PRAYING that she'll start feeling a little better soon and that will spark her appetite, or at least she won't give us "the nose" anymore! On top of all this, she has a pulled/sprained muscle in her right back leg (thigh). She was already diagnosed with numbness in her left hind leg (vet thought it might be nerve damage or spine issues) - so she isn't walking much or well. My poor girlie.

Our boy finished his racing career last spring and we've taken him lure coursing twice since then at a local adoption group event. He LOVED it and was a natural - he smoked all the other pups and his speed was clocked (he's very zippy). We heard lots of, "Why on earth did they end his racing career?!" Hah! We let him run the course 3x the first time and he was sore the next couple of days - we let him run twice the next time and he seemed better afterwards. My husband is also a runner and takes our boy for a 1-mile "warm-up" jog 3-4x per week, so he's still in great shape. We've talked a lot about getting him involved in more serious lure coursing since he seems to enjoy it and he's great at it. I'll pick up the book mentioned - thanks for the recommendation!

I work from home, so I spend pretty much all day with them. Yes, I'm spoiled! Before I got this job; however, I spent 8 hours away from home and I'd come home for lunch to let the dogs out and give them treats. Both of our hounds were fine with that schedule and honestly now that I am home working - all they do is sleep all morning, then I let them out around lunchtime and give them treats and then they pretty much sleep until dinner. So basically the same schedule as before, it's just I get to watch them while they sleep now.

Our newest addition has been with us about 9 months now. He's an amazing, happy, confident and loving 5-year-old boy. He's definitely loves to cuddle - if you even touch him when he's laying down he will just push his head into your hands and close his eyes. He's just a sweetie and he loves to cuddle. However - sometimes when he falls into a deep sleep and is awakened suddenly, he snaps. Now, we've always respected his space, our previous boy had major space issues and got nervous when people would just sit next to him - we gave him lots of space, always woke him by calling his name and never let anyone disturb him and we were careful. But our new boy will fall asleep in our arms, cuddle up and then (sometimes) snap 30 minutes later when we move and accidentally wake him. He doesn't bite, just barks loudly and gives an air-snap and it has only done this a handful of times - other times he's fine and barely even looks at us. It has happened when he has fallen asleep next to the couch and we move our feet or something. Anyway, our previous boy got "better" with us after a couple of years, never great - but definitely improved. In your experience, for those of you who had a dog with minor space issues, does this improve or go away in time when your dog has settled in totally? My husband keeps wanting to put him in bed with us at night and I'm not doing that, lol. I can't imagine waking up to a big bark like that and an 86-pound-dog snapping at me!

Oh thank you so much, everyone. They did do a complete work-up on her (blood, urine and fecal) a month a half ago, but I will definitely get another sample to them ASAP. Thanks for all the advice - I'm just so scared for her and I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to make her happy and healthy. I just got her to eat a small omelet, so at least she's had something for today. She LOVED those satin balls on the the first day, now she wants nothing to do with them. Arg!

Very well said - and for the record, our girl is 13.5 and has never had cancer or even a cancer scare. Right now she's suffering from symptoms of that dreaded illness... old age. And Onie Jones is 4 generations back for her... on BOTH sides of her chart.

Our girl is 13.5 and we've had her since she was 8 (she was a brood). She is the sweetest gal on the planet and was our first greyhound, so she's especially close to my heart. The thought of losing her makes me feel physically ill... For the past couple of months she's grown picky about her food. We kept switching her around and took her the vet about a month & a half ago and she gave us a recipe for home-cooked stew. Our girl liked it for a couple of weeks, but now she won't touch that, either. We made satin balls, but after a couple of days, she's not interested anymore. We're basically giving her anything she'll eat - scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, bread, chicken breast, etc. -- and she'll eat it at first, but then grow tired of it after a day or two. The vet said she looked fantastic other than high blood pressure, which she now takes Enalapril for and we've got that under control. No signs of cancer, all systems functioning normally, minor cataracts, some minor COPD (but no infections/tumors in her lungs) - otherwise, she's fine. But, she's now lost 6 pounds and she's getting a strange diet, which of course, is giving her the big-D when she goes. She's sleeping a lot more and she's drinking a lot more water than usual and she doesn't come up the stairs anymore (we carry her up). When we put food in front of her, she uses her nose to flip it over - bowls, plates and anything else - she is obsessed with flipping food over. It's very odd. She acts like she wants to eat, but she doesn't... My husband thought it could be her teeth. They aren't great, but the vet couldn't find any major infections/bad teeth - just overall gingivitis. But, at her age, I'm not going to risk her never waking up just to have her teeth cleaned, especially in her condition. I don't want to take her to the vet every week, but the drinking a lot of water is a new thing (past day or two) which makes me think there is something going on with her kidneys? My head is telling me that she's slipping, but my heart is trying to find something that could be wrong that we can fix. What do you all think? We've only lost one grey before, and he died in his sleep from heart failure when he was only 8 (and he had no symptoms). I just don't know if this is all normal or if I'm losing her. I'm feeling a bit desperate.

We live in NC, so lots of bugs here, too! We have our house treated quarterly by a local company that uses "low-impact" natural and/or organic bug spray. It's basically plant-based spray that is as close to non-toxic as we have found. It even smells okay, not like chemicals. The dogs have never had any issues with it, even when we have to keep the windows closed (though I normally open them for a little bit, even when it's cold/hot here). You might want to look for a similar service in your area. They also gave us tips on our to "bug-proof" our house to discourage bugs from getting in to begin with, which was nice.

I'm so sorry that you have to go through this -- Sobe is a lucky boy for having found you, and you're lucky to have found him. It's not everyday you find a heart-dog...my thoughts are with you and Sobe.

Our girl has started doing this (she's 13) and she was recently diagnosed with heart disease (coughing is a symptom) - however, we also decreased her coughing quite a bit by adding humidifiers in our home - the air is just really dry because of our heating and I think it was just drying her throat out. Hopefully it's just something simple - but I'm glad to hear you're going to the vet for a definite answer!

I certainly hope Spartan is okay and that your sister can work something out with the animal hospital in question. I live in Charlotte and I am 99% sure that I know the hospital you're referring to -- we took one of our grey's there because he had heart issues and they offered specialist services (for cardiology). I know your sister is probably frantic right now and not thinking about any of this, but if it is a pre-existing condition that they should've known about, definitely do talk to management there. They've always been professional when we've dealt with them. Please wish her the best and know that we're all sending our prayers to her and to her precious pup. Greyhounds are not really considered "specialty" dogs (at least not in my experience) and they're typically pretty darned healthy, but of course, there are the unfortunate exceptions (like our boy with such awful heart problems). Please let us know how they are doing and send me a PM if you're in need of a good vet in Charlotte, we're very happy with where we currently take our greys.

Thanks, everyone! I'm going to buy the Joint Health & Fresh Factors right now - she's been on Cosequin DS (chewable tablets) 3x per day, but I'm happy to switch if you all have had success with the Springtime product. Also, my vet does do acupuncture - I'll call them next week to see if we can start her on it. I'm just trying to help her in any way possible and hopefully prevent this getting any worse.

Our girl just turned 13 a few weeks back and though she is in great shape overall, she has been showing some signs of hind end weakness (tripping over her back feet, her hind legs flailing out when she "runs", some hesitating on the stairs, etc.). Nothing too bad, but definitely showing some weakness. We had her checked at the vet about a month ago and she isn't showing signs of pain. Vet said her joints/muscles/legs "felt" good and she had all her bloodwork, etc. done. All is good. Our vet said she was in "excellent" shape - especially for a 13 year-old dog. So, my question is -- what else can we do for her? She still gets 2 daily walks, though we don't go near as far as we once did because she tires quickly - and we let her set the pace. She still (even though we discourage it greatly) likes to hop around when she gets excited and she hasn't cried/winced in pain at all. She gets glucosamine/chondroitin supplements and fish oil supplements. Any suggestions on how we can help her? Supplements? Food? Exercise? Therapy? Stretching? Is there anything I can do for her?

Thanks, all. We've been using fish oil caps - he's funny though and he'll eat all his food and spit them out. So I started splitting them open and putting them on his food -- but he hasn't been eating well over the last few days - I think the antibiotics are making his tummy upset. I had NO idea that skin infections were so difficult to treat. It's crazy!!!

My boy is finally healing from a staph infection on his face (we've been battling this for months). However, I have noticed that he is still scratching (and I'm scared he will rip his face up, so we are still using an e-collar) - however, I think part of the issue now is that is skin is just dry & flaky. We have been given so many shampoos, wipes and ointments to use that it looks like his skin is just plain dried out! What can I use to gently moisturize his skin? Bag balm? Vaseline? Is there something better that will be totally non-reactive but that will help condition his skin a bit?

Thanks, all! I called the vet and she said if we don't see improvement by Thursday (giving the wipes a full week) that she would probably prescribe antibiotics for him. He was on antibiotics when we first adopted him, so I think she is waiting to see if this works, first. Do you all thinks that oral Benadryl might help with the itching?

Hi there - nope, can't put a bandage on it since it's spotty over the whole left side of his face. I actually take the e-collar off during the day and put a bootie on him (and keep him in my office with me, as I work from home) to keep him from scratching. If he does scratch before I can catch him (I'll rub his face for him), he has the bootie on to protect the skin. I also change the bootie everytime he does touch his face (just not sure about re-infection?).

Our boy had a large open sore on his face when we adopted him (from trying to get his muzzle off, apparently). For the past 2 months, we've been battling this! At first we tried putting a bootie on him to keep him from tearing his face up more, we also tried EMT gel & spray, Neosporin, medicated "anti-itch" pads, a prescribed shampoo and finally an e-collar. We took him back to the vet last week because it went from open sores (from scratching) to hair loss, dry/crusty skin with redness and some pus... turns out he has a bacterial skin infection. Our vet prescribed him some medicated wipes that we've been applying 3x per day (also using the e-collar to prevent scratching). My question is -- how long does this take to heal? It's just on the side of his face, a relatively small area and the vet didn't feel like she needed to prescribe antibiotics at this point. She said to use the pads 3x per day for a week, and then 2x per day until they are gone (30 pads in the jar). We've been using the wipes since Thursday afternoon (2x on that day) and we've been using the e-collar for a week & a half. He seems just as miserable and itchy and it kills me to have to keep him from scratching. I think he's actually developing issues (training-wise) since we have had to stop him from scratching so much! Poor guy. We've just never dealt with this before, so we weren't sure when we could expect to see some progress or if there was anything else we could do for him?

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I wasn't thinking of going against what the vet ordered - I will do whatever they tell me to keep her safe, I was just wondering. Thanks, all!

Hi all -- if a dog is just going under local anesthesia and not "going under" - why would they have to fast the night before? I've had two surgeries myself and was always told to fast for fear of, well, vomiting while under which can cause choking since there is a tube down your throat. So if a dog is going to be sedated with Xanax to relax, and then given a local anesthesia to take a punch biopsy (we found an ugly spot between our girl's toes) - then why would she have to fast? I've already told my vet that I'll only have her go "under" as a very last resort (due to her advanced age) and she has successfully had spots removed with light Xanax sedation & local before...just wondering why I have to fast her when she already has eating issues? Any thoughts?

Our ex-broodie is the sweetest, most gentle, most wonderful dog you will ever meet. Our boys have been two of the silliest, happiest and funniest dogs you will ever meet. I love girls & boys!

Our vet recommended that we don't give our 13-year-old girl a Bordetella vaccine -- due to her age and because she's never boarded, doesn't go to doggy daycare, etc. But, we just adopted a 4-year-old boy and we had him vaccinated. We would like to get him involved in lure coursing, and we'd like to take him to doggy daycare once a month or so, just to give him a fun day (he loves to play and our 13-year-old doesn't, hah!). My question is -- if he were exposed to the Bordetella bacteria, could he carry it home and give it to our girl - even though he wouldn't be infected because he is vaccinated?