o_rooly

It looks like it might be an infection... has the vet done a skin scraping?

Looks like an allergic reaction. The bumps look a lot like hives (google " boxer urticaria " and check out the images). Is that a big bruise on his elbow? :\

Morphine is an opioid, and not all greyhounds, but some, react adversely to opioid drugs. My Aston was given an opioid (hydromorphone) to treat pain for a severe UTI, and from about an hour later to until the drug wore off (~6 hours?), he exhibited some of the strangest, most distressing behavior I've seen. He was walking with stiff, fully-extended legs, like he was trying to lever onto his tiptoes; his back was constantly arched like a "halloween cat" (which otherwise would not have been possible due to pain associated with his back issue); his eyes were bulging; and he was EXTREMELY paranoid. He couldn't make eye contact with me for more than a few seconds -- he would cower away; he couldn't trust his breakfast, and couldn't trust my outstretched hand with stinky food It was horrible to see, and I can't imagine how it felt. I figure the walls were probably scary and melting for him. This from a dog who never batted an eye at anything aside from fireworks in the 4 years he'd been in our house. Like I said, this doesn't seem to be a *prevailing* reaction for greys, but it sure is awful when it happens. It seems that vets don't cross opioids off on of possible drugs for a patient unless the patient has reacted poorly to a drug previously.

I was in this place on July 27. Thinking of you and your sweet girl, and I, too, wish peace for both of you.

There are no words. Kebo, you are so very loved.

Did someone say hoo-hoo in another thread? I think sooooOOOOoooo...

Since Houston is young and you've already checked on the medical side of it, I mostly concur with going back to Housetraining 101. However, there's the flip side that says that you are this close to having him "litterbox" trained... In the last 1.5 years of Aston's life, he was very prone to UTIs, and thus very prone to peeing indoors, even if we only left him for a half hour (due to discomfort associated with UTIs, he could not physically "empty out" on walks, no matter how long we walked him before leaving ). Ninety percent of the time, he would leave a puddle just in front of the glass sliding door leading to the backyard. We bought washable human bed pads on Amazon and laid them out in that area, and voila! if he had to go, he peed on those, and we would throw them in the wash with hospital-grade laundry deodorizer/sanitizer, no harm, no foul. Once we were FINALLY able to pinpoint the swarming bacteria at the root of his issues and knock it out, he VERY rarely peed indoors -- he would tend to hold it by choice up to 11 hours on his own (declining trips outside in favor of staying on the couch ). However, we left the pee pads out, just to give him the option if he wanted to go while we were out, even for a short time. He continued to only pee on the pads, *if* he went indoors. Without a dog door, I felt better knowing that Aston had a reliable indoor place to go, so that he wouldn't feel that he HAD to hold it if we were away. (and yes -- unfortunately, he did feel that he HAD to hold it -- we have the deep scratch marks on the sliding glass door *handle* to prove it. ) Edit to add: In case you're interested, I bought these bed pads. Went through a ton of washings, and came out great. They've priced them way down, too.

I am so very, very sorry. George was rarer than one in a million. He was so very fortunate to have you, and you, him.

Just look at those glowing marshmallow toes. Congratulations

Aston's ashes came home today, encased in a pretty little brocade box. I set the box and his pawprint in a quiet place on our dresser in our bedroom, and then left the house to take my wee parrot to get groomed. I returned to find that my husband had left for work, but while I was away, he had collected items and placed them around Aston's box to make a small shrine. We miss our sweet buddy.

No words.

Pam. If it's any consolation at all.. I am waiting for a call to pick Aston's ashes up. The crematory left a message on Tuesday saying that Aston was with them now, and I lost it. My husband and I both wanted Aston's ashes to come back to us, so you can count us in with you. There are no words, just know that I and a few other GTers are also deep in mourning right now. For the first time, I don't have to say "I can only imagine" in a Remembrance thread, and it is the worst feeling.

I can't say how much everyone's kind words mean to me, and my husband. Thank you so very much. The tears come and go in waves, but there is a constant pain in my chest and stomach. I haven't had to ingest this much Pepto Bismol since my first heartbreak at age 19. This is perhaps only the second time my heart has completely broken, and I'm even a grownup now. with safeguards against that kind of thing. I know how very fortunate we were to have as much time with him as we did. And we tried, we really did, to buy him as much *quality* time as we could. I'm trying to keep in mind that this was really a best-case scenario given his age and health problems, but tell that to my body. and my mind won't stop asking questions, and I've already told it the answers.... so. many. times. I know that these are familiar feelings to so many on this board, and I'm rehashing old news. But I am so grateful to this community for being here, and to Jeff and Trudy (and Wendy!) for putting the effort in to keep it running.

Limps can source from so many things. How long has the limp been present? We adopted Aston at age 6, with a very prominent limp -- he almost three-legged it to avoid using his hind left. Past medical records passed on to us by our adoption group indicated that the poor bug had been stuck with a bum leg since he left the track at 2 years old. Vet examined him and took xrays, found no hip anomaly, and assumed it was an old meniscal tear or other "old" injury, even though this didn't show up on the xray. Prescribed meloxicam. No difference. Washed that out and tried Deramaxx. No change. Started giving him glucosamine via Cosamin DS (people version of Cosequin DS). No difference. Turns out it was a VERY hard-to-detect corn in a toe pad. That limp didn't disappear until I found another vet who was a) willing to recognize that corns can cause that severity of limp, and b ) willing to perform a minor surgical procedure to dig the entire thing out, which ran deep enough to touch a tendon. His limp only disappeared after that (unfortunately, he was 10 by that time ). Could be a back issue that causes a tweak, could be a hip issue, could be a foreign object sealed in somewhere. From my experience with Aston, I'm leery of vets who are willing to peg it on one thing right away when test results aren't definitive. A visit to a chiro might be a good idea, IF they take xrays beforehand to make sure there are no actual spinal anomalies happening. As for NSAIDs, my understanding has always been that it's good to keep a steady stream of the dosage going to keep ahead of inflammation... but only if it's tolerated well by the dog. I've been warned by another vet since Aston's meloxicam regimen that the tablet form is dangerous due to the difficulty in obtaining exact dosages, vs. the liquid (as mentioned above). It really comes down to just watching for side effects, though, and talking to the vet immediately if you notice signs of GI upset or irritation/bleeding. Other (OTC) anti-inflammatories you could try are: --Fish oil. I used Carlson's liquid fish oil for Aston, since it's highly concentrated. Helps my own joint pain melt away, too. Stuff is great, but it needs to work up a bit to get ahead of inflammation. For me, joint pain goes away after ~4-7 days of taking a teaspoon a day. --Spirulina powder. Bonus: It smells like fish and butt. Or fish butt. Aston LOVED it. --Vitamin E? I think. --Turmeric powder/capsules --Springtime Fresh Factors -- opinions on this supplement vary on GT, but it seemed to help Aston, for what it's worth. The fish oil and vitamin E are reputed to be blood thinners at high doses. Aston didn't have a problem while taking a relatively high dose of Vit E (1000IU 2x daily) + his two teaspoons a day of fish oil, but it's worth checking with the vet to see what's safe for Houston. Signed, This Post Was Going to be Short

You're welcome! And yeah, that In-N-Out sure is handy.

Simply put, his body was getting ready to go; he wasn't. It was awful, for us, but I think (or at least, strongly hope) that for him, it was just a whooooole lot of those awesome alligator cookies and therefore the best day ever, and then nap time.

I just tried to PM you, but then realized that you don't have enough posts yet! So -- if you haven't yet picked a vet for Coe, I highly recommend AAECP (aaecp.com). Drs. Chan and Mo took incredible care of Aston The facility operates on both a daytime and after-hours/emergency basis, which is (unfortunately) quite handy, and reassuring. We got to know the place quite well over the last 10 months.

Connie...

It's so different when you can understand the pain firsthand. There are no words. Thank you for your kind words. I am so, very, sorry.

I think gracegirl said it best: "If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever." Five hours ago, we had a dog. We now have a collar, and our memories. This is very foreign (my first dog) and heartrending, and numbing at the same time.

Yeow. Hope he didn't garner any pressure sores during his stay. Aston is so prone to dings and rubs over his bony points; we have tile floors, and I try to keep rugs and beds all over the place. Please give Coe some scritchies for us.

Some other non-RX options (per my vet) are: --Spirulina --Vitamin E I am giving Aston both of these in his food, along with a highly-concentrated fish oil (Carlson's liquid), with my vet's supervision. I believe higher dosages of fish oil and vitamin E can cause blood thinning, so that's something to keep in mind (I'm not sure what the minimum dosage is for this effect). I know the fish oil helps ME a ton in reducing joint inflammation, so I can kinda vouch for that one; the others, for me, are in the "cant-hurt-might-help" camp as long as the vet is OK with it. The spirulina seems to help Aston wolf down his medication with his food; it smells like fish and butt, or maybe just fish butt. I am currently out of Fresh Factors by Springtime, but have noticed they do give him more pep. Not sure which ingredient(s) are responsible for pep. As far as Rx meds -- you might be able to increase the tramadol. Aston takes 100mg twice daily to curb any pain associated with his back issue, and he also takes 300mg gabapentin 2x daily. I don't know for sure whether these are helping him, but have been afraid to subject him to a weaning-off just for exploratory purposes; these meds aren't expensive through Costco. I believe gabapentin is also in the cant-hurt-might-help camp. Hope this helps! Please give your sweet dog scritchies for us.

I live just a bit east of you, depending on traffic. Coe is adorable, and such a lucky guy! I LOVE his name. Looks like he's adapting so poorly to the sweet life... poor, poor hound. Aston's also had a rough time of it. Here he is on his awful new bed. my husband and I fight over the Costco dog beds. I don't have any experience with Hemopet.. Aston came from GreySave. They're a great group! Do join their gatherings and pic-a-nics, they're amazing folks. Great community!

Both Frontline Plus and K9 Advantix II eventually failed for Aston. He was then turned to Comfortis, and now Trifexis (Comfortis + a HW med). I put a Preventic collar on him if he's headed to tick country. I suppose no method is perfect in very bad flea seasons. Aston got breakthrough fleas (and a resulting tapeworm infection), I believe, after we switched to Comfortis. I now give it to him every 4 weeks exactly instead of waiting until the "same day of each month" (i.e., June 4, July 4, Aug 4). Hopefully that will help