XTRAWLD

Oh my gosh, poor girl. Things happen. I remember when we went to see some greyhounds before making the decision to go through the adoption process. The group told us (who had 5 greys in the house that came to greet us), "OH they are never underfoot"....uh huh. LOL I can't tell you how many times we've almost fallen and broken a hip because Kasey is RIGHT THERE. She'll be ok soon enough. HUGS.

Exactly...Kasey usually comes running, and Ryder runs in the other direction!

Hmm, I notice giardia came up in your post. Ryder was diagnosed with it too when we got him, and he's an aquaholic too. I will put together something more extensive and post when I have some time tonight.

I find this kinda funny actually, but I will have to fix it eventually. I discovered why Ryder now stands at the other side of the kitchen or goes to the other side of the house when I'm in the kitchen fixing meals. He's afraid of the freezer....or to put it better, what might fall out of the freezer. The second that door opens, he's gone. He doesn't even have to be in the same room, he knows the sound of the freezer door (which apparently is different than the fridge door) and he gets up and walks to the furthest corner of the house. I keep Burpdog cookies in there, and I take out the bag to show him good things come from there, but he wants nothing to do with it. Being away from the kitchen in the middle of meal preparation isn't a bad thing at all, but I do not want to have a fearful dog in my home. I'm sure there have been occasions where a box or tupperware has fallen and crashed to the floor scaring him. He is a dog that is scared of big bangs as it is, I'm sure you may have heard the stories of crazy pulling when he hears a bang on our walks, and me trying to work with him through those fears. I will try to open the freezer in his presence and try to keep him in the vicinity for starters with lots of reward and praise, but has anyone had to overcome something similar? I feel bad.

What a tribute.

Ryder learned his boundaries and manners pretty quick from Kasey. Kasey snarked at him a few times and put him in his place. He is the party police too, and I feel bad that Ryder can't have any fun, but to be honest, Kasey is the reason why Ryder calmed down so much so fast. I took Ryder to obedience class about 10 months after we had him because I wanted to start agility....long story short, I could have taken him much sooner, and in hindsight, I should have. If you feel like a class would benefit you - by all means, go for it. It will help with her energy level as well.

Did anyone else enjoy the statement "He comes when our parrot calls him" other than me? Congrats on finding your new buddy - and like everyone else says - THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS!!

Amazing. Thanks for the story. Glad it wasn't more serious. Love the milkbone payment for the teeth though.

I hear you when it rains it pours. And things usually happens in threes and if that's the case, you are already there and it can only get better from here. Hang in there Pam.

Thoughts for her here too.

I have nothing to offer but support and hugs. Your poor boy!

It took me a while to figure out how to walk 2 as well. When getting out of the house and when needing a free hand, I put two on one wrist and then as we start walking i usually like to keep one on one wrist and one on the other. When they tangle or "cross lines" I switch hands (which some days happen a lot!) They generally do like to sniff and do their own thing in different directions and I find this method works best. The movement of one will not affect the other/vise versa, especially if one gets excited and bolts! This also helps when one dog wants to do #2 and the other is waiting because I don't want anyone near the other when #2 is done to prevent any stepping in poop! I have added a caribiner to one leash to secure poop bags to, so I'm not juggling poop and switching the leashes to other hands at the same time. On days that I'm rushed or it's really cold out, because Kasey is a friggin' princess, I take them separately - sometimes it really is just faster that way. I hate dragging Ryder along when he's done his business and I'm just waiting for Kasey to do his thing, and poor Ryder is freezing and waiting or better yet, getting drenched in rain. Ryder is a quick business do-er so it just works that way more efficiently sometimes. To each their own!

Ryder is an aqua-holic. I've asked here about it, but for his age and because he doesn't have other symptoms, he seems to just love drinking water!

I love that where one went, the other followed.....up the stairs...back down. Nice to see them get along that way. My boys dont care about eachother! I thought getting a second one would give our first one company, but he's fantastic as a single. I will have to give the second one some alone training though, since he's always home with someone, whether its us or the first grey. When the day comes and he's a single, I dont want to deal with SA at that time thats for sure. I know the second one appreciates the company of the first, but not the other way around. Thanks for the vid.

We have a crocodile here too. We also use the easy method. No treat until he is calm and grabs nicely.

To update on Kasey - our vet communicated with her circle of grey friends and basically here is a short synopsis I have compiled based on responses from 4 other vets. Symptoms: Same as Kasey Diagnosis: Esophagitis Solution: Pepcid (no response to treatment. Switched to Ranitidine) Symptoms: GI rumbling and discomfort. Solution: Z/D trial, which resulted in significant improvement, then added in famotidiine Symptoms: Same as Kasey Solution: Hypoallergenic food trial & Metoclopramide. Pursue rads and some baseline bloodwork Symptoms: Same as Kasey Diagnosis: Postprandial regurgitation, caused by delayed gastric emptying due to some sort of inflammatory bowel disease. Lymphocytic plasmacytic enteritis common in greys. Solution: Limited Ingredient Diet While he currently is not on a Limited Ingredient Diet, he is on a food that fits his allergy requirements. We will be switching food on the weekend and are continuing treatment with Pepcid (famotidine) and the Sucra syrup. We will also be cutting out the Green Lipped Mussel additive for joint wellness (perhaps he does after all have a reaction to shellfish), and also eliminating the fish oil entirely. I hear less belly grumblings, but maybe that's because I'm more aware. He seems to be happier, so in the very least he is experiencing some relief. Thoughts to some of the diagnosis and solutions of similar symptoms?

For oral dosing, Pepcid is also easier to dose with the tablet sizes available, especially for small dogs. For example, the Zantac dose range for a 66 lb dog would be 15-60 mg twice daily. Zantac comes in 75 mg tablets, some of which are irregularly shaped and difficult to split accurately. Yes I discovered that when I was at the store yesterday. I found 10mg pepcid after searching the shelves after only being able to find 20mg. They also had chewable versions, which I almost got instead, but it had added calcium and something else and because the vet said make sure it only has famotidine so here we sit. Would giving the chewables be ok too? So far I think he's doing better. No major episode, but he did struggle a bit last night when eating for the first time since starting this. He also seems a little more spunky this morning and we didn't hear his stomach gurgling last night like we usually tend to hear. Hubby sais last night he would like to try to get Kasey off pred to see if he'll be any better....I'm hesitant because when he goes for longer than a week without pred he really makes a mess of himself scratching at his ears. I dont want to see him constantly scratching and being bloody again. - he just suffers. But all the carpet is removed from our house and we have a good handle on his food intake not containing his allergens. Just not sure about it all.

Cute. I wonder if he sits cause he's not sure what else to do. Ryder sits for us at the most odd times....he just likes to sit.

Sit might be a switch for barking for sure.....Kasey only barks standing up. When he does "bark" it's when we ask him to speak in a sitting position, otherwise he HAS to be standing in order to bark his hello's to us when we get home....usually right in Ryder's ear too!

Umm, she said it's not cheap but it wasn't expensive either and looks like the invoice says $37.50 for 120 ml. I asked her why she chose Pepcid over Zantac for example and she said chose pepcid out of familiarity because she used a lot of it in the IV formulation at the intensive care unit. She said I could actually use either one, but I'll go for the Pepcid. She was actually also surprised that a vet didn't give us an antacid for use with prednisone because pred can cause GI ulceration. Reducing the acid in the stomach will help to reduce the risk of ulcers. This makes total sense, but I never discussed this with any vet for the past years Kasey has been on it. Oh gosh, what underlying damage could there be do you think? He's been on low dose pred since 2008 (like 10 mg once a week). Would Pepcid take care of the ulcer itself if he had one as well as the acid reflux?

From my research and after being through it (although every dog is different) by throwing him a couple cookies before you think he's going to hurl will only re-establish his stomach knowing food will be coming to him at 4am and continue to create acid. The idea is to get him to a 7am feeding for example, by stretching out the times you are feeding, not to be given food at odd times. I didn't see anything about 4:00 a.m., I must have missed something. I thought it was when the alarm went off and they were getting up, just not fast enough. Or sorry, I took your statement out of context then as well. I was giving 4am as a suggestion for example, I wasn't tying it to an alarm specific time. Ha...maybe the alarm sound is his chucking trigger!!

From my research and after being through it (although every dog is different) by throwing him a couple cookies before you think he's going to hurl will only re-establish his stomach knowing food will be coming to him at 4am and continue to create acid. The idea is to get him to a 7am feeding for example, by stretching out the times you are feeding, not to be given food at odd times.

Because of Kasey's allergies we have to pick and choose his food and most often the common element is fish. We have tried various fish based bags to varying degrees of success. If it's not something that works well on his itching, it's bad on his bowels, or vice versa, very hard to win. A really good one was Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish. He ate it for months and it was really good for him before we agreed to try a few others out. When a dog that has an appetite for food all the time suddenly starts declining it, I agree that it is something to worry about. I don't think dogs that are food motivated just become "bored" with food. I hope he's feeling better with the switch.