sarabz

We brought home Kirby (L Invisiblewoman) yesterday. He'd only arrived in NJ from Florida on Saturday and came with no known history of injuries. Last race was 3/5/16. He seems body sore and limps around. At first I thought it was his right front shoulder but his hind legs seem a little weak. I'm definitely bringing him to the vet to do a fecal and a general checkup, but anything else I should think of? Have also of course asked my adoption group. Thanks!

So sorry

We use Bravecto with no problems. I split the dose in 2 and give with food 24 hours apart. I use Heart guard too, so give Bravecto mid month and HG on the first. We did have a flea problem last summer but nothing since switching to Bravecto. My dad has 3 goldens on it - they live in a heavily wooded area and no tick issues, ever.

Bella likes to readjust and flap her ears at 4 am but we keep her crated at night so she doesn't have a choice but to go back to bed. Sometimes she'll whine at 5 am because she wants to come up and sleep on the bed until DH gets up.

Well, whatever the issues, the supplements and Deramaxx have definitely made a difference to the spark in her eye and overall well being - she seems much more comfortable than she was. We do keep her trim and she gets 2-4 walks a day of varying lengths even though we have a fenced back yard - we tend to only use the back yard for quick potty-ing and take her on walks for her mental and physical health.

We do, on the advice of our vet, break each dose in half and give it over two days with meals to keep stomach upset to a minimum. We haven't had issues but it is a simple precaution.

Bravecto has been working beautifully for us. We switched when Bella caught fleas days after a dose of Frontline.

When we first got our girl, we crated, then baby gated. We had fewer problems with her having the run of the apartment then when we did both of those.

I just wanted to belatedly chime in here. We were giving our Bella supplements in powder form and didn't seem to be seeing much of a difference, in addition she was getting some horrible gas. We added in some Deramaxx at our vet's suggestion and when we ran out of the supplements, discontinued those. She's been a little creaky and stiff in the past few weeks and before we up the Deramaxx dosage or added in another painkiller, we thought we'd try joint supplements again. Realistically I know that a week is too soon to be showing direct results but wow, she has been bouncing around like crazy recently - doing zoomies inside which we haven't seen in a while. We're using Fresh Factors and Joint Health. We do have to break them up into smaller pieces for her to eat them.

I am so very, very sorry.

I have been in tears reading this thread, about to post and then read this: Said more eloquently than I could have. I also know we're not there yet, but sooner rather than later, we will be there with our 11 year old and facing similar decisions. Many hugs to you.

So very sorry.

When we adopted Bella we were living in Manhattan and both worked within walking distance of our apartment. The first two weeks we traded off coming home at lunchtime to give her a potty break. By the end of the second week we were having to wake her up to take her out, so she obviously didn't desperately need to go. Now at 11, she routinely goes close to 10 hours and is perfectly fine. In fact, on the one day a week that I am usually home, she typically can't be bothered to get up to go out in the middle of the day unless I'm pretty insistent.

I want to say I'm sorry but I'm laughing so hard at this Glad you got it figured out.

Yep, there are several pigeons in NYC that learned how fast Bella was

3greytjoys, your previous post was all about greyhounds and why it would be bad to adopt a grey with a young child. My point was that greys are dogs first.Your statistics are good information for anyone with dogs and kids to be aware of but not greyhound specific. A case study of 341 patients isn't really statistically significant given the numbers of households worldwide with children and dogs. Kids are curious and meant to explore. Sometimes they explore in ways that result in painful or awful consequences. If you're going to quote statistics, what are the numbers of children who have been injured by a common household item? By falling off of something? By ingesting something? My point is that as a parent and dog owner (and generally as a human) one can't constantly live in fear of the "what if"s. What if you get killed in a car crash tomorrow, which statistically is significantly more probable than a child dying from a dog bite? Does that mean you never should have driven or ridden in a car? I'm sorry you had the experience that you did. No one is going to change how you feel, and that is perfectly fine. What your comments seem to say to me is that you never learned why you experienced what you did. I'm not saying your fears are not valid - just that you other post was all about greys and then this one full of stats about dogs bites in general. Some of what you've quoted here is preventable through mindfulness about the kids and dogs, includin the reactions to 5 to 9 year olds being treated as puppies by dogs.

Yet more evidence that there are a lot of dumb people...

In my opinion, having a senior grey and a 2 year old, I think you're making a lot of assumptions that aren't universal. At the end of the day, greys grow up differently from most other breeds but in many ways that's great - they've been handled and socialized since birth, in most cases by people who are professionals or are at least not stereotypical "backyard breeders" just looking to see if they can make a buck by breeding their dog, resulting in poor health, lousy temperaments, poor socialization, etc etc etc. Greys are, after all, dogs - no dog should be subjected to rough treatment from a toddler. Some dogs actively encourage it - my dad has Goldens and one loves when my son is all over him, the others don't. My son knows the difference and treats the three dogs differently. Toddlers aren't safe in kitchens or outdoors or really, around anything - that's why they need to be watched and directed. I would no sooner leave my son alone in a room with Bella than I would leave him alone in the kitchen, especially now that he can move stools to reach into drawers or on counters. But all of that has nothing to do with Bella being a greyhound and everything to do with her being a dog. I make sure that I am looking out for her health, comfort and safety just as much as my son's when they are interacting. Also in my opinion, any dog should have his/her sleeping space respected, and no toddler should be in control of a leash. That's just basic common dog sense - not because greyhounds are special. In fact, we are talking about adding a second grey to our family and our adoption group is supportive.

I'm so very sorry

Yep - same here. Bella gets 2-3 walks a day, plus turn outs for business in our fenced yard.

This. ^^ We work with Bella on "wait" but she's twice Colin's weight and sometimes knocks him over, especially when everyone's in the mudroom together trying to get out the door. It happens. I knock him over sometimes when he's underfoot. He gets picked up, hugged if needed and we move forward. We do NOT make a big deal of it or punish Bella. We do NOT punish her the couple of times she's growled at him - in part thanks to GT, we know that's her warning sign and to not take that away from her. Instead, we teach HIM that HE upset HER and she is absolutely right to say "hey, that's not ok". Once she sleep startled when he got too close to her bed and scared him. That's ok, too. I'd rather him be a little cautious about approaching her and translate that to other dogs than feel that it's ok to run up to every dog and hug them.

Pam, to this I will say that my son can indeed do different things with my dad's Goldens than with Bella (they are fine with him being all over them when lying down, Bella won't tolerate it, as one example). I'm actually not convinced that this is better, as Bella is treating him to teach dogs more respectfully. He goes out of his way to not step on her or bother her while she's laying down and knows that her bed is off limits, for example. She's growled at him a couple of times when he's pushed these rules, whereas the Goldens are constantly making noise, and one even growled at him while they were playing (none of us are quite sure what triggered that). I feel like he's learning more clearly about dog language from Bella. But that's just my experience.

We have a 2 year old and have been diligent about making sure he doesn't bother her on her bed, pats gently, etc. No issues.

We paid for insurance for three years and under the policy we had, we wouldn't have recouped much of the $1,500 spent at the e-vet last year (which would have been into the 5th year of premiums, and the total premiums for that time was definitely over $1,500). So it's a gamble - if there's something catastrophic, its worth it. If you have a healthy pet, maybe not so much. Wow, Tricia, your story is very impactful.

I have to brag about Bella. We can leave food on our coffee table, leave the room, and she will not touch it (that didn't used to be the case, and an expensive plate of DH's cheese was involved). Really proud of her.