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Chad and Jesse

It's very hard to say. In your case, I would probably use Dr. Couto's consultation service and have him review the films. I've heard of situations where vets incorrectly advised people that "your dog couldn't possibly have cancer- he'd be limping more" or "he'd be in more pain than this." There are many dogs in varying stages of osteo who barely limp or don't limp at all. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not osteo.

Kim, this breaks my heart, but what an amazing mom you are. I hope that day doesn't come for a very long time.

Maybe some others will chime in, but I want to say that unless they're really high (like three times the normal reference range), it's not anything to worry about. We did a bile acid test for Henry, but only because he was having seizures at the time. I wanted to be sure his seizures weren't connected to liver disease.

Henry's are in the "higher" range, but it's never really been bad enough to medicate. Did the vet seem worried about it? Your next step would be a bile acid test, but unless she's showing other symptoms, I wouldn't be too concerned. You could try a liver support supplement like Denosyl or Denamarin. Neither of them are cheap, though.

Ditto. Praying it's nothing, but I've known several osteo dogs who needed two and three films before anything was conclusive. I'd get a second opinion on the x-rays just for piece of mind.

I agree. I also saw a setup like this with a crate + ex-pen and thought it was genuis.

Thanks all! As for Truman's littermates, the only one we keep track of is his sister. She is also very anxious, but more in a timid, fearful way. It definitely depends on the lines. Truman is a gorgeous dog- would have shown well. He's just very high strung personality-wise. We love him, though!

Very similar to Henry's recovery. We went back to the e-vet twice to have his abscess drained. Hoping the new antibiotics kick this right out.

My suggestions would be... 1. Make sure the trainer uses positive reinforcement methods only. It helps if the individual is educated in dog behavior and current behavior modification techniques. Ask them where they got their training, and if they're certified with any professional dog training organizations (AABP- American Association of Behavior Professionals, APDT- Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and CCPDT- Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers). ANYONE can call themselves a quote unquote "dog trainer" and open a business, but the good ones are usually accredited. I'd stay away from anyone who uses words like "dominance," "alpha," "bossy," "pushy," etc. Obviously, you don't want anybody who uses prong collars, shock collars, or choke collars either. 2. It would be ideal if the trainer had some degree of experience training sighthounds. Greyhounds' bodies work a little differently, and they're a bit more challenging to motivate than other dogs. I've had some decent non-greyhound trainers in the past, and as much as I liked some of them, they all seemed to have a lot of unrealistic expectations of my greyhounds. Once, we had a trainer who owned mini-schnauzers trying to teach the Greyhounds 101 class. She didn't understand that our dogs weren't comfortable sitting 30+ times in one class. I'm not saying that greys are "less trainable" in any way, but it does help to have someone familiar with the common greyhound idiosyncrasies and quirks. 3. There are some trainers out there who have specific experience working with fearful or fear aggressive dogs. I've read through some of your other posts and think this would be a huge benefit to Biggie. Having someone who can pick up on subtle cues, fear thresholds, deescalation, etc. would be key in his case.

Just wanted to pop back in and say that Truman is fine. We were a bit worried because when he finally settled, he slept for a VERY long time. He was out cold. I had to keep checking to make sure he was still breathing. But when smacked the Meez and growled at me this morning, I could tell he was back to normal.

You're kidding...

Andrea, you are right on some level. He's always been an anxious dog, but started getting exponentially worse after Henry was diagnosed. He would have panicky meltdowns when I took Henry to appointments by himself. In addition to the compulsive licking and just being generally snarky toward us and other dogs, he started acting very jumpy and jittery all the time. Doesn't want to be touched certain ways. It's frustrating. Since he came home at 15-weeks-old, we have done as much socialization and obedience as can be humanly be expected from a dog owner. So even though we've made a lot of progress through positive reinforcement training, we hit a point where we started wondering, maybe some of this is inherently just the way he is. What more can we expect from him? I do believe that a lot of his anxious behaviors are genetic, especially with being an AKC pup. The Prozac had been giving him some relief without making him a zombie. The licking had stopped completely. I would like to get him back in classes, but I'm not sure he could handle the stress at this point.

Ugh, so sorry to hear about your girl, Chad.

Yeah, I give Henry his pills in a glob of peanut butter and spoon it on top of his kibble. He must've spit that one out and left it in his bowl. Then I'm guessing Truman swooped in and ate it when Henry walked away. It probably still tasted like peanut butter. I'm definitely going to be more diligent about making sure Henry actually swallows his pills from now on. It was a good thing that I kept a medi-minder organized so I knew exactly what pills were given, and we were able to narrow it down from there. Giselle, the dosage for his Prozac is 40mg, and the Trazadone is 100mg. But the vet explained that it's less of a Seratonin 'overdose' per se. Some dogs are just sensitive to certain psychotropics or combinations thereof. There's no way to test for it to make a definitive diagnosis. But according to the toxicologist, his symptoms should have improved in 8-12 hours when the Trazadone's half life ran out. Everything was pretty diagnostically consistent with SS. Even at this point, 27 hours later, he is still acting a bit ataxic and weak, but he is starting to come around. He ate and drank this evening and has been resting a lot. It could be up to 72 hours before he is completely back to normal. It certainly was a very scary experience, though, and hard to watch your dog act that way. It was like watching a partial seizure go on for hours upon hours. The pads and underside of his feet were bright red from standing and pacing for that long. Trumie's antics definitely got the better of him this time.

It's already been a year? Wow... time flies. Remembering Tempo in all his hole-digging, ball-fetching glory.

Thanks everybody. I think we finally got some answers. Dr. Hill, our regular vet, called in a phone consult to a veterinary toxicologist. They suspect Truman has Serotonin Syndrome. A few weeks ago, he was prescribed Prozac to help with anxiety and compulsive licking. Backstory- he started showing a lot of anxious behaviors following Henry's cancer diagnosis and treatment. We decided to try SSRIs to help with the adjustment. The Trazadone pill combined with the Prozac sent his system into Serotonin overload. Luckily, we did all the right things by hospitalizing him and pushing fluids. At this point, there's not a whole lot else to do. They could give him medication to sedate him, but he's sensitive to a lot of those kinds of drugs. Also, sedatives could potentially drag the symptoms out longer. Although still "not himself," he had improved somewhat by the time we left the vet's office. His heart rate and temperature came down, and blood pressure was normal again. Both Dr. Hill and the toxicologist recommended bringing him home and waiting it out for another day. If he gets any worse, we'll head back to the e-vet for more fluid therapy. In the last few hours, he ate a small amount of food and FINALLY laid down to rest. He's sleeping peacefully on my lap.

We're at the vet now. No change. Waiting to see what comes next. I wondered that too, but his behavior was really bizarre, going from room to room sniffing and pacing. It wasn't his regular nervous behavior.

Last night, around 2AM, I took Truman to the e-vet after he started showing fairly severe signs of ataxia. Pacing, sniffing, restless, uncoordinated, unable to settle, dilated pupils. He looked really bad, and I was hoping it wasn't bloat. Got him to the e-vet. His temp and CBC looked normal, but blood pressure and heart rate were through the roof. No other signs to indicate bloat. After talking to the attending, our best guess was that he got one of Henry's Trazadone and was having an adverse reaction. They treated him as they would for toxins, pushed fluids and activated charcoal. The attending called this morning and said he still seemed anxious, but that it was probably anxiety from being in hospital around so many other dogs and people. She said it was probably best that he came home, since he was refusing to eat for them (which I thought was very weird, he loves food). We picked him up about an hour ago, and since he's been home, he's still acting very strange. Pacing, panting, very unsteady on his feet, refusing food and water. For about 15 minutes, he was just going from room to room sniffing. I'm a little worried at this point, because if the underlying cause of this was the Trazadone, it's been 16+ hours since he would have ingested it. Shouldn't it have worn off by now? If he got more sedatives at the e-vet, though, I wonder if he's reacting to those? My worry is that something is majorly wrong. I'm going to call the e-vet back and our regular vet, but I'm just wondering if anybody has had experience with these symptoms? Anything I should be looking for? Help is appreciated.

Infection is extremely common in rear amps. As Wendy mentioned, the incision is closer to their rear end, exposing it to more bacteria. Henry had an abscess that looked very similar to what you're seeing with Nell. It started just like that, looking like "road rash." Scabby and black with blood. Then two holes opened up, and it began draining a lot a lot of pus and clear fluid. Henry's surgeon cultured it quick and changed his antibiotic to a combination of Cipro and Ampicillin. Then, I had to flush the area a few times a day with sterile gauze and chlorhexadine solution. It cleared up in less than a week. Hoping her doctor responds quickly before it turns into something worse. Infections in these guys can get real bad real fast.

What a great story. Welcome home, buddy!

Wendy, I think you're right. We had pretty much the same experience as you and Twiggy. We scheduled Henry's amp pretty much based on the x-rays alone. We only got a definitive answer when the tumor pathology came back, which was several weeks later. Even though Henry's cancer didn't turn out to be osteo, I don't regret deciding to go forward with the amp. It was the right move.

Any chance that it could just be weather related? My guys have a dog door- free access to go outside at any time. But when the weather is real severe, one occasionally goes a few feet away from the dog door. That might explain her hesitance to go out with you?

I agree with Chris. My dogs still chase the kitties when they run, but that's all they do. When the cat stops, they stop. They aren't fixated, they don't try to nip or grab. They just see something moving, and their instinct is to run after it. And usually it's the Meezer who's running- same cat that also cuddles with the dogs and pals around with them. If Keiva is okay with the cat at close proximity and ignores them when they're not running, chances are that she's 'safe.' A grey who was set on killing the cat would more than likely be obsessed and unable to exhibit impulse control at other times. I wouldn't be too worried about it at this point. Just give her some more time, and muzzle if you have any feelings of doubt.

I'm sorry... I was hoping it was something benign, but I feel like Dr. Couto is probably right on this one. If you're close to Penn, I'd probably just take her there. Or maybe someone on this board can get you a reference of a grey savvy vet/oncologist in your area. Amputation is a temporary solution. Greys with osteo have the best chances with a combination of amputation and chemotherapy. Sending good thoughts for your girl. : goodluck