hikinghounds

I never noticed the Super Digestaway, or any of the others I tried, changing their need to go. The Super Digestaway is actually enzymes, different than probiotics, that help them digest and assimilate the food better. Within giving one dose I really noticed the gas was gone. On a different idea, last fall my boys were having bad gas and soft stool that wouldn't clear up even with extra supplements. I took stool samples in to the vet and it turned out they had giardia which we ended up having to treat wth tinidazole to get rid of. So, if you try some things and she's still having trouble you might want to consider having her stool looked at.

I give a human supplement called Super Digestaway by Solary. I get it at our local organic store, like a Whole Foods. At our store it's usually about $18 for 180 caps., sometimes $13. It has lots of enzymes. I open the capsule and sprinke one (occasionally .5 capsule) on each meal and mix it in with the food. It's also easy to give as a "pill" directly when needed. I've tried other ones made for dogs, like Dogzymes and some others, but this has been most effective for my boys. It really gets rid of gas and helps firms stools. I've also found that it helps if they have an upset belly, like when they do the licking and wanting to eat lots of grass. I also give Solid Gold Seameal which is more of a general supplement, but also has some enzymes. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the update. I'm glad she is doing well and the vet thinks it's the hypoglycemia rather than something more serious. I hope all the other test results are good too. I know greyhound blood levels are a different, but I'm not sure of the specifics. I hope Dee Dee keeps doing well.

I hope the vet visit goes well. Please let us know what she says. I'm curious about the hypoglycemia from exertion. I've wondered about that too, although the main cause of my boy's seizures are from encephalitis he had a year ago. But a few times I've noticed if he doesn't eat a good meal and/or has been running and playing hard he can be off. I feed TOTW too. Mine can be very picky eaters. I was feeding EVO chicken and turkey but they just didn't really like it. I got a bunch of samples of different no grain brands and flavors and did a little taste test. Some they wouldn't touch, others just so so. They seemed to like the TOTW High Prairie best so I went with it. You might just need to find a food with the flavor she likes best. Glad she did better last night.

The weird episodes you describe sound like they could be small seizures to me. What you describe is very, very similar to what I've seen in my boy who has seizures. I hope it's not, and I don't know how that would be related to food, but you probably want to talk to your vet about it. Good luck, sending positive thoughts to your girl.

Could it be some kind of small seizure? Just wondering because it seems like you said her ears are pretty clean and she's not scratching them. A few times my Zephyr has had small seizures where he tilts or shakes his head a little bit and he gets a funny look on his face. His seizures are from encephalitis he had a year ago. But, he still take seizure meds. because the seizures can still happen even though the encephalitis is gone.

My boys had what the vet suspected was giardia a few months ago. The metronidazole didn't completely clear it. So, she prescribed tinidazole, which had to be compounded for them. It got rid of it and their stools returned to normal.

Fingernail polish remover works really well, if you have some.

I'm glad you probably have a diagnoses and hopefully he'll feel better soon. I use Muenster cheese for pills, our store sells an inexpensive generic. It's great because it's soft but not too gooey and of course they love it. Hugs to Magic. :-)

Since he doesn't want to shake his head I would be worried about an ear or brain problem. Before being diagnosed with encephalitis my boy didn't want to shake his head, had a head tilt, walked off balance, and his neck hurt on vet exam. I would sure want to have that looked at by a veterinarian. I hope you are able to find out what's wrong and he starts to feel better.

What a great life Sara had with you. It's nice that she was able to come home and be with you and Max.

I'm so sorry about this and that you had to let Sara go. It's so hard and sad. You gave her such a wonderful long life and I'm sure she knows how much you love her, and she loves you too. Sara was such a strong special girl to go through all the chemotherapy treatments and beat GME. Sara, you, and your family will be in my thoughts. Hang in there.

I'm so glad it's not the encephalitis returning. If it's LS hopefully they will be able to see the problem area and plan treatment. Maybe some physical therapy would help too. Zephyr has had lumbar area problems too, in fact I was having it looked at and considering an MRI on his back right before the encephalitis hit him. It wasn't too bad, but still causing some problems. In some ways I think being less active from the chemo helped that. After he would play and run hard he used to get some bad pain, but that hasn't happened in a long time and he's had some really good running and playing sessions. At the same time though he got really out of shape during the hardest chemo and summer and needed some physical therapy especially for his rear left leg which is little weaker from the lower back problem. I think the PT really helped. I hope Sara is home with you soon and starts feeling better. I'll be keeping her in my thoughts, Zephyr sends love too.

Sending lots and lots of love and prayers to you and sweet Sara. I so hope it's not the GME returning and that they are able to find and treat what's causing her troubles! This is Caron, we emailed about my Zephyr and your experience with Sara. Zephyr's doing well, he's been done with chemo for almost 3 months and almost off the pred. I've thought of you and Sara often and was going to send you an update soon. You and Sara are in our thoughts.

These are also symptoms of neurological problems in the brain, maybe encephalitis. My boy had these symptoms last year and it was encephalitis. I almost lost him. It's often mistaken as vestibular disease if a vet isn't familiar with encephalitis. I sure would ask about it or see a neurologist quickly.

I don't really know about sundowning, but I thought I'd mention the supplement Denamarin http://www.nutramaxlabs.com/vet/products/Denamarin.aspx that I'm giving Zephyr who got encephalitis last year. The neurologist suggested it when all his meds. and treatment started to effect his liver function. I think it's mainly used for liver support, but when I researched it I found out it's also thought to be a good brain supplement. I thought that was great since Zephyr had encephalitis and I'm sure his brain was still healing. Although he doesn't show any outward signs of brain damage, but he still takes seizure meds. A friend who is a vet said she has suggested it for dogs who have the canine cognitive disorder and older dogs, etc. We changed Zephyr's seizure med. to Keppra and over the months have reduced all his meds. so his liver function is very close to normal now. He's almost off all meds., except Keppra, and we think his liver function will return to normal. Since we changed meds. along with adding the Denamarin I can't say for sure how much the Denamarin helped, or helps because I'm still giving it to him. Zephyr was having these funny "spells" where I wasn't sure what was going on and they started a few months after him getting encephalitis. Occasionally he walked around and seemed confused, like he was maybe searching for something or wondering and worrying about something. I would get him and have him lay down with me and he would settle. Sometimes he'd get up again and want to continue but I'd have him lay down with me again and he then he'd settle. These all happened at night. I thought maybe it was a small seizure, or maybe brain function. I never totally figured it out, but it was odd and of course worried me. I did notice that since taking the Denamarin those have stopped. Again, I can't be sure if it was the Denamarin that helped, if it was just natural healing, or change in meds., but I thought I'd let you know about it. If you think you might try the Denamarin search the Internet for the best price. It's kind of expensive, but you can find it for a lot less than full price on the net. I'm so glad that Avril is doing well overall and is a sweet happy girl.

It's the Help Em Up harness, http://helpemup.com/ It has a combo front and rear harness. You can also use it with just the front or the rear harness, it unclips in the middle. They used them at the neurology center my boy was at last year.

I really liked the rear harness, it helped a lot with the stairs. My house has 6 or 7 stairs to the front and back doors. :-( Going up I could lift his front up first and then the rear, so I didn't have to lift him all at once. Going down stairs, or just downhill, I could hold the rear to make sure he didn't get going too fast or just guide him better. It made it easy to lift his whole body at once and also made it really easy for two people to carry him if needed. I think it would work with an amputee, it has lots of ways to adjust the pads and straps. They make a boy and girl version. The boy version just has sort of curved bar/pad to prevent chafing or messes rather than a straight pad on the belly. When I went to get mine from a physical therapist he was out of the boy version in his size and he told me boys were usually fine in the girl version. I needed one fast, so I got the girl version and my boy didn't have any problems at all, no messes either. :-)

Try the Help Em Up harness system http://helpemup.com/ I used it with my 85 lbs. boy last year when he couldn't walk and then needed support to walk due to neurologic problems. The neurology center had them and I got one when he came home. I'm small, 5ft 3in about 115 and was by myself, it let me help him get up and down stairs and support him. Couldn't have done it without the harness.

Awesome!

I'm so happy to hear she is doing well!

I'm so sorry that this happened to you and Avril! I hope that she heals quickly and the seizures go back to being controlled. Zephyr was attacked by an off leash pitbull once and it was one of the scariest things. Any dog attack is so scary. It happened right in front of our house on Christmas Eve as we left for a walk in our normally safe neighborhood. He was able to slip his collar and run down the road to people that were coming to help, so luckily he only had small wounds. Unfortunately, I think my emotional wound was worse. It was a visiting dog to the neighborhood and normally a nice dog to people and the owners other dogs, but still off leash and just charged us. I carry pepper spray now, a larger can that sprays in a cone. Take care of yourself too, this is such a horrible thing to have happen. I've thought about you often since Avril got sick with encephalitis. I'm so happy to that she has been doing well. I will be sending lots of love and healing thoughts that she recovers quickly.

I've been getting most of Zephyr's meds. at Target. I'm in Arizona. They have been a lot cheaper for most things. Also for others in AZ there is prescription card that anyone can get for free and really easy, whether you have insurance or not, called Arizona CoppeRx Card and it's works in addition to insurance for prescriptions for people and pets. My favorite Target Pharmacy lady told me about and I have saved a lot. Once they have it on file the discount is automatically made. You can apply online, just do a search for Arizona CoppeRx Card. I should add that Zephyr's medications are actually all human meds. too, I'm not sure about the pet specific meds, but it's still great.

My greyhound Zephyr came down with encephalitis in March. It's a long story, but I'm very lucky to have him. He had seizures when he got sick and some during recovery, but has been on meds for that and it's been going well. When he first became sick they could only do an MRI because his brain had too much inflammation and it would have been too much risk to do a spinal tap. In July he went back for a repeat MRI and a spinal tap. The MRI was completely normal, but the spinal fluid still showed some abnormalities. Based on the spinal fluid results we continued treatment. My neurologist told me, and I read, that the spinal fluid actually gives much better information for diagnosing things. I was nervous with the second MRI and spinal tap, but Zephyr had no problems. If the MRI is done first I think it will show whether it's generally safe to do the spinal tap. Best wishes for Lucy. Seizures are horrible and it's so scary to not know what's wrong. I should add that this all developed quickly for Zephyr, less than 2 weeks, and he was showing big neurological symptoms when he went to the neurologist and he had to have this done to save him, it was an emergency situation at that point. Caron

Sorry to hear that Jacey isn't feeling well. I hope things start to clear up and she starts to feel better.