greyhoundparty

Oh thank you! I was hoping the same, that without other CHF symptoms that it’s not that. I read that a hounds cough is troubling if it’s while at rest, so that’s why I’ve been worried. Last night it did sound worse than this but that video was the best I could capture the other day.

My biggest concern with the FT surgery was anesthesia but besides that the healing was super easy for my girl! It did take a few months for the corns to fully fall out from the deep roots but once they did it was an amazing change in her walking abilities. She was very hobbled by corns before surgery. Her pads after surgery were finally soft and normal.

She coughed twice again last night in bed when she moved around. 😕

I finally figured out how to post the YouTube video thanks for the suggestion! 😁

Ok I hope this works!! Thank you the gagging part is usually more drawn out and dramatic but this was as good as I could capture since it comes on quick and ends quickly. I tried to post a video here so everyone can hear/see but the file size was too large even for a 2 second video. Thank you all for your help and hound wisdom!

I tried to post a video here so everyone can hear/see but the file size was too large even for a 2 second video. Thank you all for your help and hound wisdom!

Ok I will ask the vet, although they didn’t mention it as a possibility since it happens only when she’s at rest (getting up from laying down and changing sleep positions).

I wish it were that! But nope it’s definitely a cough hack. It’s like one of those giant mouth open wide greyhound gags where they look funny (wish I could post a pic or video here to show what I mean).

We got the flexor tenotomy done and yes the operated toes never have had corns come back. But her opposing toes did get some corns. Overall though she is so much more comfortable after the surgery than before. 7 corn toes total, never went away, always came back, until the FT procedure.

Since her teeth are terrible maybe she has a lot of mucus or saliva to cough up after laying down? I sure hope that is it! 🙏

Hi all, I need some knowledge from my greyhound community, please. My girl, age 9, does this weird cough/gag (always just a single cough/gag) and it’s only when she’s in bed. It usually is when she goes from laying down to rolling over/moving around so it’s like the motion of getting up causes the cough. Going from a roaching position to laying down usually causes it. It happens several times a week now for the last year or so? All bloodwork looks normal and exam is normal. Heart sounds good according to vet. Her teeth are terrible, though so vet said it could maybe be that. Anyone have a suggestion of what this could be or what I should do next? I fear heart related stuff but want to find out from other grey owners if they’ve experienced this. thank you! ❤️

Ok, so thanks for clarifying that each tablet IS actually 100 mg each, so he has her taking 2 Doxy in the am and 2 in the evening...so that's 400 mg. total per day. So that is a fairly adequate dose, I suppose, given the UGA info and other sources I've heard from. I was afraid he would put her on too low of a dose, but if it is 400 mg. daily Doxy I guess I feel better about it comparing her dosage levels to other similar cases. Her doctor was saying that the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever was only SLIGHTLY elevated in her lab tests, but I told him that even a slightly elevated level concerned the heck out of me, so that's when I convinced him to put her on Doxy. His theory was that it would not improve her condition or help her and my hypothesis was (obviously) the exact opposite and hopeful. I think right now she seems somewhere in the middle....better than before Doxy, but not 100% spunky and happy like normal. Perhaps there is some residual effects in her system from having this condition that cannot easily or quickly be reversed just by a course of Doxycycline. I guess I expected some kind of amazing, immediate miracle. You all are such help and support, thank you SO much!

The bottle says Doxyclycline 100 mg, give two tablets twice per day so does that mean EACH tablet is 100 mg or that the dosage of 100 mg. was for TWO Doxy pills, therefore she'd be taking only 200 mg. daily instead of 400 mg? I get so confused with conversions and all that stuff. Thanks for helping me sort it out. She's been on the prednisone non-stop for the last two years since she first fell ill. We've titrated back up and down over time to adjust, but currently she's doing 40 mg. daily. It does seem to keep the outward symptoms of her illness away, especially the higher the dosage of prednisone. However, with her confirmed RMSF tests, I insisted we do a course of Doxycycline so I wanted to check with the experts here at Greytalk to make SURE that dosage was high enough to knock out any infection or tick-based evils. With this current medicine regimen, she seems to feel pretty well, with hardly any outward symptoms of relapsing Meningoencephalitis. However, one concern of mine is the weakness and atrophy of her rear leg muscles and alongside the spine area. That was something that seemed to get better about a year after her treatment began, but now her poor little back legs seem SO weak, she struggles to hold herself up to pee but I let her do it herself to hopefully strengthen those muscles. The muscle area alongside her spine is disturbing, as it seems to get atrophied so quickly when she has a relapse. I'm thinking I could take her back to swim therapy to strengthen those muscles back up, but I don't know if it would be too stressful on her system. I just want Bina to be able to live a long, happy, fully mobile life. I read a post on Greytalk where someone was talking about their grey and once they gave them the course of antibiotics for suspected TBD that her dog was like a puppy again, all healthy, happy and well. I was hoping for a rapid and radical transformation in Bina once we started the Doxy, but I'm not sure what to think now. Thanks for the support, everyone! I truly appreciate it with all my heart! "Danielle, sorry to read she is having more trouble. Poor baby, she's really gotten a bad deal with this." Thanks for your concern, Laura. Her neurologist told me he lost his own, personal dog to GME and that he treated it aggressively as possible and he still lost her within two months. So he says we're doing pretty good, given all the circumstances (which still sounds scary to me, nonetheless!) Did you get those pics of Sir Luke I sent you in the mail and did you find any ones that you didn't already have that you loved, he was SO photogenic! I think you'd love to meet my Teddy, he is a total goofy boy and reminds me of a much less distinguished version of The Great Sir Luke. Hopefully in time Teddy will grow to embody the type of wisdom and gentlemanly style that Luke had.

Update on my girl: I convinced the doctor to put her on a course of doxycycline since she was tested twice positive for RMSF from two different labs. Her bottle of Doxy says 100 mg and to administer 2 pills in morning and 2 at night, so does that mean it's 100 mg Doxy per tablet or per dose (a dose being 2 pills at once = 100 mg?) If they are indeed 100 mg. Doxy each tablet, he's got her on Doxy 100 mg pills, two pills in am and two in night, so that's 400 mg daily, correct? Along with Prednisone 20 mg in am and 20 mg pm, so daily total of 40 mg. Prednisone. She started the Doxy 9-9-10 and he said she'll be on it about a month at least. Question: Is this dosage of Doxy high enough to treat a TBD like this? Some veterinary doctors I've read about said "The dosage we recommend on Tick List is an aggressive one: 5 mg. of doxy per pound of body weight given every 12 hours for 8 weeks." So, my girl is about 65 lbs, so if she's getting 400 mg. Doxy daily does that seem like the right amount? Sorry I get SO confused with numbers, math, dosages, etc. Any help from fellow Greytalk experts would be GREATLY appreciated and thanks in advance!

Thank you all for your kind help! I've been reading a lot this weekend to learn more about all of this so I can help my baby get better. I really appreciate the support and information from you all!

Why is it such a hot button topic? Do you mean that people tend to disagree on whether or not to give antibiotics when titer levels are elevated? Thanks!

Oh, thank you so much for that information! Very interesting, as my girl shows the same symptoms as your boy; she is very sensitive to heat, has a lack of stamina and tends to stumble and limp when she feels bad!) It has been sad to not know what exactly is causing her symptoms (besides idiopathic meningoencephalitis, as her neurologist explained) and how to help her, but I feel like I'm getting some great insight with advice from greytalk people! If you (or someone else) could explain more about "how prednisone has a way of taking the breaks off latent TBDs" that would be great. I assume you mean the prednisone helps to lessen the outward symptoms of TBD but doesn't actually "cure" anything, is that correct? So, do you think there is any downside to me just going ahead and treating her with doxy? (besides tummy upset, which is no big deal compared to the scary neurological symptoms!) Maybe I should do tell the vet that I want to give her a course of doxy just to make sure she's ok, as long as the only potential side effects are GI related. Are there other medications that are given for TBD besides doxy or does doxy cover all the possible TBD (i.e. ehrlicia, rocky mountain, lyme, etc.)? Here are her titer results that were done two years ago: Ehrlichia= <1:20 Lyme= Negative Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever= Negative My question is this: why is the "referenced range" on Ehrlicia different on her two different test results? Wouldn't the "reference range" stay the same and her values change? The test from 2008 says "Ehrlicia reference range is <1:20 and that her results were <1:20. The test from last week says "Ehrlicia reference range is <1:80 and her results were <1:80" I am not very familiar with tick titer levels and how to interpret them, as many of you on greytalk are, from your experiences. Any insight or information is VERY appreciated! I want my girl to get well ASAP!

Hi everyone, I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but I want to get all the details in here so I can get the helpful and insightful advice from the greytalk experts! Two years ago my girl greyhound who, at the time, was undergoing a serious neurological emergency that was determined to be meningoencephalitis from an undetermined cause. She underwent MRI, CT scan and all kinds of testing at the time, including a "tick serology" test from her normal vet, which they said was "negative". At the time it was such a life-threatening emergency I didn't think anything more about the "negative" tick test and we started going to her neurologist instead of the regular vet immediately. She's had symptoms reoccur and then go into remission over the last two years since she had her emergency diagnosis. So with the advice of her neurologist, we go up on the prednisone dosage when she shows signs of relapse, as we have been doing over the last two years. Fast forward to today, she recently relapsed and started having the neurological symptoms she had before; lethargy, weakness, ataxia, squinting eyes, third eyelids up when her eyes were open, just being "out of it" etc. I asked her neurologist if we should do a tick titer test now and he said we could, but that the one done 2 years ago by her normal vet was "negative" back when she first got sick. I said had him run the tick titer test again now anyways. So it came back with results that I don't know how to interpret. The neurologist tells me that the "slightly elevated levels" of tick borne disease just mean that she was exposed to the disease at some point in her life but doesn't necessarily indicate a current infection. He also said that since she is showing improvement currently with increased prednisone dosage that if she did have a tick borne disease, she would not be getting better with the prednisone. Regardless, I want to be very proactive about this to protect her health, so I asked him if we should just go ahead and do a course of doxycycline (or whatever other medication to knock out any possible disease). He said we could do doxycycline, but that it causes GI trouble and that instead we could just check her titers levels again in a month. Her Details: Currently she is 7 years old and we have been managing her symptoms of neurological problems for the last two years with prednisone. Here are the tick results from last week: Ehrlichia= <1:80 Lyme= Negative Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever= 1:128 (High) I am picking up the detailed results from her tick test that was done 2 years ago when she first got sick and I will update the post with those results as soon as I get it. So, the question is to you all: What should I do? Any recommendations or suggestions are very appreciated! Thank you all in advance for your help and advice! Danielle

Ok, thank you all for your advice! I think I will go take him for a dental ASAP and then hopefully keep on top of upkeep with more vigilance. His teeth just tend to get dirty so much easier/quicker than my other grey, who is a girl, but probably because she's much more of a "chewer" than he is. Hopefully he won't have to get too many teeth pulled or anything too scary!

Hi everyone, I have a 6 year old male who came to me with not-so-perfect teeth. Now I've had him for a few years and his teeth look bad even though I've tried several different things to keep them clean over the years, none of which he seems to like. He doesn't act like his teeth bother him now, but I know he hates having me in his mouth to brush. I'm scared that if I take him to get a dental that he'll remember that I took him and hate me for it. And I'm also scared that the anesthesia or procedure could hurt him. And I'm afraid of him having to get teeth pulled. Ok, I guess I'm afraid of everything! I just don't want him to be in pain at all and want to figure the best thing for him to be healthy and happy. My question for all you knowledgeable greyhound owners is this: A. should I get a dental done on him NOW and then try to keep his teeth clean as I've done for the past few years? OR B. should I try a few new things first to see if I can greatly reduce his stinky breath and tarter first, then get a dental later? I've tried: Petzlife Oral Care spray Bully sticks DentaTreat (powder food additive stuff) Texas Toothpicks CET chews (although not for a while, so I might get these ASAP!) Merrick Flossers (really helped scrape teeth clean but he caught one on his lip once and it scared him) Brushing with dog toothpaste and toothbrush Wiping with gauze Using Q-tips soaked with peroxide at the gumline Raw turkey necks (which worked great, when I first got him he loved them b/c they were food, then he stopped eating the necks or anything raw, for that matter) Thanks in advance for your advice (and reassurance!) Danielle