jshell

Vet just came (yay mobile vet!) and said she appears fine. She's down a pound from when he last saw her, but still at 57 pounds (Betty's high average until she got up to 61 pounds recovering from last year's sudden drop down to 42!). Got some I/D wet and dry food and metronidazole. Going to try that for a week or so. Also got some de-worming pills. Since we have a history of inflammation, vet says it could be allergies causing the seasonal-affected soft stool, as they're causing an inflammation to flare up. A neighbor with a Chihuahua said her little dog goes through the same thing about this time every year too. Forgot to ask the vet if I should keep giving her Imodium along with the metronidazole... Whoops.

Apparently I don't have the post count, yet, to get DM's. Or PM's. Or whichever they are. Soon! Hopefully. Hopefully by sharing cute'n'funny pictures and not health/diet posts... Just called the vet and have an appointment sometime tomorrow. The poop is just not coming together and it's been about 4-5 days now. (This morning looked kindof good and Betty slept through the night without any emergency "gotta go!" moments, but the evening walk was still rather wet).

I don't think we got last year fully diagnosed, as a lot of things were happening, including vestibular syndrome. The underlying causes seemed to be very high blood pressure (now under control) and lack of albumin proteins (fixed last year). I haven't seen any worm-related materials, yet, but I'll keep a look out. We've had tapeworm problems in the past, and Betty had roundworms when I first adopted her.

I may have to try that if I can get the canned food easily. Betty's been on a mix of dry (prescription diet G/D) and wet. The wet we've settled on is Pedigree+ Healthy Digestion. It's not the greatest, but it's not bad. And the vet ok'd it. Poops have been a mix of 1-2 solid turds and some goopy bits, but nothing too liquid. We tried California Natural Chicken and Rice canned, but while that was premium ingredients it would lead to very runny poop. The funny thing is that for top ingredients, the Pedigree+ that we've been using is similar: just worse (water instead of broth, chicken by-products). Maybe we need to try something like this.

Betty Joan has been going through a diarrhea patch since wednesday evening / thursday morning. It's not explosive; not that pure-liquid stuff. Some poops are a bit more firm than others. Sometimes she goes hours without needing to go out, and then will have those big "I need to go out NOW!" dances over a few hours. Otherwise she seems mostly fine - she's been playful with other dogs, she runs down the hall back home. She's eating all of her meals. Can't tell if she's being more lethargic today, or just being tired.. It seems like we go through something like this in the spring and fall, but I never keep good enough records to confirm this. I keep thinking "I should write this down so I can see when this happens in the future to see if there's a pattern!" but never do. Not sure where I would write it and remember where to find it later anyways. We had one of those weeks where it went from upper 70's to lower 40's, and this onset happened right in the middle of that. I seem to recall Betty having these seasonal things during similar weeks. Betty did get really sick last year around this time with digestive problems, but they were much more severe than what we're seeing now (vomiting, explosive diarrhea, not eating, and massive weight loss). I'm hoping this isn't going into a repeat of that. I'll call the vet if conditions don't improve or worsen in a couple of days. But until then, I'm just wondering if anyone else's hounds seem sensitive to the big seasonal transitions?

We didn’t do x-rays. The e-vet said that it’s a difficult area and even with an x-ray it was unlikely that we could do much. I’m suspecting a fracture, but just don’t know. My own vet (over the phone) reiterated that the pain meds are the best to do right now. Betty’s confined herself to bed rest automatically. We finally went poop, and she was so uncomfortable and sad walking on the grass, but does OK on hard surfaces. She seems to be doing a tiny bit better there, but it’s all still a pretty serious limp.

I came home yesterday to find Betty Joan limping pretty bad. I soon noticed that she had completely lost a nail on her back left foot and that her front left foot was very sensitive (she was avoiding pressure on the front more than the back). I’m suspecting an overturned baby gate (not gating anything in, but was just leaning against a wall upstairs until it was knocked over at some point yesterday) and my ski boots (they were knocked over, and are cruel and malicious hard plastic things with metal straps and velcro and crap) were involved. We went to the emergency vet and got the missing-toenail foot bandaged. The front foot just seems heavily bruised underneath, particularly on one toe. Betty was quite vocally sensitive to it yesterday, but hasn’t been today. However, she’s still limping on it pretty bad. The swelling is in the toe, but the bruising underneath seems a little more wide spread. It’s unknown if something was pulled or crushed. The e-vet said best bet was to try to let it heal and that it would just be sensitive for a while. Betty's on rimadyl and tramadol. Walking outside is rough as the cold dead grass doesn’t feel too good under that hurt foot, so we’ve only got pee so far today. Any thoughts on what else I could do to help heal or take care of that toe? I made a quick cold compress but Betty would get a bit fidgety if I put too much pressure on that toe. Should I try to do a warm compress? Try soaking the foot in warm water? We might have epsom salts around... I’ve got some boots around. Since Betty’s already walking funny on that foot, walking funny with a boot wouldn’t be too bad and maybe I could get her on the grass long enough to go potty. On the concrete and blacktop, she’s willing to walk on that foot (just very limpy), but on the grass she just starts hopping. Poor thing.

Betty Joan seems to be doing fine on the Wellness Foods' Turkey and Duck and Sweet Potato (or something like that) Stew. It's just that California Natural. Which is very weird, as the ingredients on the California Natural are pretty good, and not too dissimilar to some lower quality wet foods that I've tried where Betty's done well.

Betty Joan is currently on three foods at breakfast and dinner - a prescription kibble (science diet G/D), a low-quality-but-damn-she-loves-it kibble (Purina Beneful), and something canned. I've been experimenting with the canned food, trying to find something of good quality and simple that I can preferably get at the local pet boutique (walking distance, and between work and home). I also have a Target nearby with the usual selection of supermarket kibble. I don't drive, so I'm trying to stick to those locations. Anyways, a food that I like is California Natural's chicken and rice dinner. It's a single-source kind of food, which my vet prefers after some major digestive problems earlier this year. Since I tried it, however, Betty Joan's stool has been a bit soft. There might be one large solid turd and a couple of other fairly solid ones, and then the rest is kindof loose and light brown, similar to what you see when on longer walks and the dog poops two or thee times, with each one being less and less well formed. Is this a problem with the soft food in general? Or might it be a transition thing? We've been trying this for about a week. Maybe two... (I also tried some Pedigree+ 'digestion' food, which isn't of great quality, but it did seem to produce better stools). Or might it be a problem with the food and/or its ingredients? I seem to remember similar effects when I had tried transitioning Betty to a full California Natural Lamb and Rice kibble a couple of months ago, but there were some other issues with her at the time (and she's not a fan of that kibble anyways). I'm wondering if I should keep trying some different foods (she only gets about half a can per feeding). Last night she got half a can of Wellness 'Turkey and Duck Stew' (Turkey and/or Duck being parts of some of the prescription food and pill pockets she's on), and again had soft stool this morning. None of it is diarrhea style, just soft (and hard to pick/clean up nicely). Or should I stick with this and try adding pumpkin? We see our vet again in a week to check Betty's blood pressure so I can ask him more specifics about her diet then. In terms of health, Betty's at a good weight (at the top range of where she should be, actually) and seems more vocal than ever and pretty playful. She eats all or most of her food in this combination. She tends to do a good job sorting out and leaving some the G/D prescription kibble, but seems to eventually eat it all up; and at dinner, I put Forti Flora pro-biotics on that remaining kibble and then she eats it all. Thanks in advance.

Our morning routine is to have breakfast first, then I shower and get ready for the day, then we walk. It's usually about a 20-30 minute gap. If my dog Betty is uncomfortable or eager to go out, she will start walking and pacing while I'm in my final stages (ie, getting shoes and socks on). I make sure that she goes pee right before bed so that we do have some time in the morning. I try not to make the gap between breakfast and morning-walks too long, and have found that the shower provides a nice space. I try to put at least a 15-20 minute gap between walk and meals. Our evenings are like yours: walk first, then dinner. Betty is pretty insistent on getting dinner (even when her appetite is a bit messed up, like it is currently), but I like to give her time to (a) cool down from the walk (especially if she did any running or playing right before we get back home), and ( keep some control (reminding her that dinner is on MY schedule, kindof!). Dinner for her is usually a half hour or so after we get back from the walk, but some nights (like when I have class) I'll feed her within about 10 minutes, but still give her some cooling down time. I initially had the gaps between meals and walks out of fear of bloat or similar issues, but I've learned that's not so common (but still scary!). Since then, it's become a nice part of our morning and evening routine. Plus it seems to keep her from getting or carrying over too much excitement from one activity to the other (ie, not going "ok, I ate, now lets go lets go lets go lets go!").

So I’ve landed on the following formula and it’s been working pretty well so far: 1/2 cup Beneful dry, 1/2 cup Avoderm dry, 1/2 can Prescription Diet I/D wet. Betty eats almost all of it, leaving about 10 pieces of the Avoderm kibble behind. Much better than the practically untouched bowls or 1/2 cup of left-behind-food like late last week. I’m mashing the wet food into the dry a bit more and that seems to help. I used to do that, but had gotten a bit lazy with it. I reviewed this with my vet yesterday when I stopped by on my own to get a few more cans of I/D. I’m glad to see these results as our enalapril dosage is going to go up to 30mg a day when he visits later this week, so if it is enalapril causing this it’s good to have found a combination that seems to be working. I’m just glad to see her eating again.

I tried both options . I mixed in some Beneful, for better or worse (I really don’t like its ingredient list after spending a good part of the year learning about such things) and dry I/D, going with about 3/4 cups of each. Betty picked out ALL of the Beneful, leaving most of the I/D! I had just boiled some hot water for hot chocolate and used it to heat and soften the I/D kibble and Betty seems to have eaten about half of that. I’ll consider that a minor victory. At least I won’t have to wake up to the screeching squeaking sounds of an empty greyhound tummy like I did this morning! This definitely helps. Vet doesn’t come until Friday, but this (and some new wet food) should help get us by until then. Thanks!

Betty Joan was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure. About a month ago, she was off the scale (over 300). She was started on Enalapril, 10mg a day (single dose). The drug seemed to work without any noticeable side effects - in a followup a couple of weeks later, her blood pressure was averaging around 240 (we want it somewhere near 120, if I remember correctly). At that time, the vet said to double the dosage to 20mg a day (two doses, one at morning and night). That was just over a week ago. Betty’s appetite has nearly disappeared since then. This seems like a pretty high dosage, and I’m hoping it’s temporary. She is still interested when it’s time for breakfast and for dinner - she’s quite insistent about dinner time, actually. But she doesn’t eat much, particularly of the dry kibble. Some days she eats more than others. She digs around and around and around and moves things around with her nose and even puts food into her mouth, but a lot of it then falls out the side of her mouth. She may be taking in an average of 1 to 2 cups equivalent of dry food a day, maybe a little bit more, in comparison to her usual 3. We are experimenting with new dry foods after intestinal problems earlier this year; she’s often been finicky with any dry food that isn’t Purina Beneful, but she’d usually eat it. I don’t want to go back to Beneful, but am starting to wonder if I should get a small bag and mix it in to see Betty’s response. We have a vet appointment scheduled for this coming Friday for another blood pressure check. I’ve let our vet know about the appetite situation. She seems normal otherwise: stools are normal, no vomit, energy level is pretty close to normal. Betty hasn’t seemed to lose any weight. In fact, she’s probably still weighing the most she’s ever weighed, after losing 20% of her weight earlier this year when sick. Is there anything I can do until that appointment to make sure she’s getting her nutrients? I’m planning on getting another case of the wet I/D food tomorrow since I know we don’t have any digestive issues with it; I plan on giving her more per day since she seems more interested in the wet (but this morning when I gave her a full can, she was slower with the final 1/4 of the can than the rest).

Some kibbles are coated with probiotics. I’m not sure they’re coated with enough to help situations like this, but I’ve noticed it on some of the higher end dog foods. Dogfoodadvisor.com typically mentions whether a food has them, or not, at the bottom of their write-ups.

Somewhat related to this discussion, then, is the question of the Meats to Veggies ratio. Which is brought to mind as we're now evaluating Acana's grain free kibble, which claims to be 60% meats (well "premium animal ingredients"), 40% fruits and veggies, and 0% grains. The same company also makes Orijen, which is 80% meats to 20% fruits and veggies (or 75% to 25% in their 'senior' dog food). Orijen brands itself as "nourish as nature intended". Should I be looking at this? Betty's had protein problems in the past, but I understand that unless the dog is very active they don't need quite so much meat/protein. I mainly thought of this after reading through some of the comments about vegetables, and I find it (mildly) interesting that the Acana and Orijen put these percentages right on the bag. The food is a bit expensive, but three weeks of dog food still seems to be less than what I can blow over 1 or 2 Sundays at a sports bar during NFL season. My main concern is avoiding the gastrointestinal / low protein issues that Betty has had in the past. I'm still exploring, trying to find the best option (also might be looking at limited ingredient foods too).

That's a good reminder. On our last visit, I found out that my vet is familiar with track hounds. I don't think he worked there, but he spent some time there in school and even had a greyhound himself. He'd previously given indications that he knew about racing-related injuries and wear'n'tear, but it was only recently that I found out how he knew about that. I guess as long as he says Betty Joan is looking good that I can trust his judgement. He's a mobile vet (he has an office but we just have him visit us as I don't drive), so stopping by for quick weight checks isn't an option. A mobile vet who has personal experience with greyhounds and track dogs but works in the Salt Lake Valley, far from the racing world. I feel pretty lucky to have him.

What is the ‘tuck’?

I’ve been experimenting with some more ‘premium’ foods for Betty Joan after a rough summer apparently brought on by severe inflammation in her gastrointestinal system and severe lack of albumin proteins. We’re off the prescription diet that saw us through the rough patch. There’s a nice boutique and dog wash nearby with a good selection of premium foods and we’re currently checking out a couple. Both foods being evaluated are touted as “grain free”. This “grain free” concept is new to me. Any strong reasons to prefer it? My main reason for picking these two foods is that they both have good reviews on Dog Food Advisor and their ingredients are MUCH better than what I was feeding Betty before all of this happened (Beneful). Thanks.

Betty Joan is a smaller Greyhound, and has typically weighed between 53 and 58 pounds for the six years I’ve had her. This past summer she got really sick (hypoalbuminemia) and dropped down to 42 pounds! And had a stroke/vestibular syndrome incident, and went on prednisone. Anyways, at her most recent vet visit she was up to 60 pounds! She looks and feels really healthy for her age of 8. Now I worry about the line where I might still be feeding her too much. We’ve recently switched food. Her main food used to be Purina Beneful; during the summer she was mostly on Prescription Diet I/D. Now we’re trying out various high quality foods to try to prevent any further gastrointestinal / protein loss related issues. (Currently trying Nutra Source grain free lamb, which Betty is finicky about at breakfast; and starting to try Acana Grasslands, also grain free, which Betty currently loves). These new foods feel a bit more dense, so I’m trying to find that new balance of how to feed her. Hopefully our next vet visit won’t be for a few months as everything is settled and we’re in the final stages of weaning off the prednisone. So after all of that the basic question is: What visual / physical signs can be used to tell if they’re getting to be too fat? Where do Greyhounds start to put on the bulk? I’m not worried about Betty being 60 pounds, but I don’t think she should be too much more than that. Thanks.

This sounds like something I went through with Betty Joan a few months ago. If your vet hasn't tested proteins, I would check that. Betty Joan's ultimate problem appears to have been hypoalbuminemia - her albumin protein levels were basically zero. This had apparently been going on for a while, and culminated in some vomiting and weeks of diarrhea and quick drop in weight (53-58 pounds normally down to 42). That was followed by a neurological incident (stroke or vestibular syndrome, still not quite sure). Betty has recovered - she was weighed today and she's up to 60 pounds! When our vet had confirmed his earlier suspicions of low protein levels, Betty was put on prednisone (steroids). She's also spent most of the past few months on Prescription Diet I/D dog food. We've just recently stopped using that.

Wanted to add that in recent discussions with Dr Whitty I’ve found out that he’s had long experience with Greyhounds. He knows their track life and he’s also had one of his own. He’s been very good for us and I can’t recommend him enough.

New update! This past week, we were able to start tapering off by cutting down from one 20mg pill every 12 hours to one pill every 24 hours. Right before the tapering off period began, there were an increasing amount of bed-wetting incidents. Some of this on a canvas/outdoors dog bed which kept the urine out of the stuffing. Some of this was on my bed. Fortunately, that bed's mattress is encased in waterproof / dust mite proof / bed bug proof lining (partially just to double protect the feather bed topper), and I've been sleeping very light the past few months (no blankets), so damage was minimal and easily washable. Still, it was frustrating. And the bike rides home from work in the middle of the day were also starting to really wear me down, even though the distance is relatively short. So now we're in the one pill per day scenario, and I've decided to keep giving Betty that pill in the evening. And so far, it's working out rather well. The stronger side effects are in the evening, but that's when I'm home (this summer has decimated most of what's left of my social life). I'm now able to leave Betty home during the work day. I try to limit my work time as much as I can and get home around 7.5 hours after leaving in the morning. But she's still left a good amount of her water untouched. When she was on the two prednisone pills per day, she'd go through a bowl and a half, easily. Now she's going through about half to 2/3 of a bowl. In the evening, after Betty's had her pill, she's still chugging the water down like cheap beer. I've also noticed good results in her shape and weight, finally, and even more spunkiness is back in Betty's character - barking at bunnies, doing play bows for visitors and neighbors, etc. And she even seems a little less restless: when I would be outside with her, hanging out with the neighbors, Betty would not lay down in the shaded grass, but would instead stand about impatiently. She would try to lay down, but would stand back up pretty quickly. In the last couple of days, she's started to take the opportunity to relax in the grass in these situations. We've got about 3.5 more weeks at this current dosage level. I'm just happy that the change in dosage has made the side effects so much more manageable.

A quick follow-up to help others who may search for similar things in the future: The prednisone seems to have done its job combatting the inflammation in Betty's bowels and her albumin levels are back up to normal range. We're still on the prednisone full dose (have not yet started tapering). The side effects are still pretty strong, but not quite as strong as they were earlier. Panting and trembling around breakfast and dinner time is still pretty strong. Urination still big. Water consumption has changed a little bit, with much of it being consumed in the evening. I tried leaving Betty home alone for a couple of full work days, but realized she was wetting her bed (during the day) and am resuming mid-day visits. Muscle wasting does not seem like it's that big of an issue, but it seems like there's definitely been some loss. This may also be related to all of the lost proteins and other fun events we've experience in the last couple of months. One side effect that seems to have gone away is a warm nose and hot breath. We've got about a week and a half to go before we start tapering down her Prednisone dosage. I can't wait. But these pills, while frustrating, seemed to have done their job. I'll try to follow-up again when we get into the weaning-off period just to document how that goes. (Edited to add note about muscles).

A quick recap of Betty Joan's story from the past couple of months: at the very end of April, she suddenly went into pure liquid diarrhea and vomiting, just a couple of days after I had gotten back from a 5 day trip. We got the vomiting under control but the diarrhea kept up for about three weeks (like clockwork - each Tuesday it would appear to be getting solid again, and then it would regress). She had also dropped weight from 55 pounds (in early march) down to 42. Some of that weight loss may have been due to running around doggy day care, but a good portion was definitely whatever was affecting her. Our vet expressed concerns about some low protein levels he was seeing in some of Betty's lab results. Ultra-sounds showed a lot of inflammation in the intestine and some even on the gall bladder. By the end of May, Betty was doing much better. Except for some odd incidents on our walks when she would suddenly be dragging one or two of her feet. It started on her left side, and later occurred on her right side. On the first of June, I came home to a girl who could barely stand and was very wobbly. We had our first emergency vet experience and I was in total shock. My neighbor drove me and I had to have him start telling the vets what had happened as I could not speak, I was just holding on to Betty and bawling. I left her at the e-vet overnight and she had improved by morning and came back home, leaning heavily to her right side. She couldn't handle stairs and kept dragging both of her right feet, grinding one of her poor nails down to almost nothing over the next couple of weeks. But she got much better! A week and a half later and she could do stairs again. During a follow-up visit from our vet, he wanted to do another full blood panel. Betty was still very low on albumin - it was almost zero (I think... I know it was way way way way way way way way down). Our vet said that this was probably due to what had happened to her back in May, and then contributed to the neurological incident in early June. He raised the specter of lymphosarcoma (sp?), IBD, etc. We could do a full scope-up-the-butt and biopsy, or start her on prednisone to go after the inflammation. So we've been on prednisone (and tylosin), putting up with the annoying side affects (panting, heavy urination, etc) for the past couple of weeks. We had a follow-up vet visit today to do some more blood chem work. And, finally, some good news! Betty's albumin levels are 2.8, back in the norm! We've got two weeks of prednisone at full levels to go, and then I can start weaning her off. I can't wait for her to be off this pill, but it seems to have done the trick. In the middle of all of this, Betty Joan turned eight. I'm re-sharing her birthday portrait and then am off to feed her a big happy yummy delicious dinner. Thanks for everyone's help through all of this. It's hard to believe that just a month ago my poor beautiful girl was re-learning how to walk. Now she's dancing and prancing again! Birthday Girl! (8 Years Old) by pet sounds and villains, on Flickr

Normally Betty would get three cups a day, dry: two meals of 1.5 cups each. She's a relatively small girl. Last vet recommendation (after she dropped pounds from the mid 50's in weight to low 40's, and then started to climb back) was 3 1/4 cups a day. Now she gets a cup of Prescription Diet I/D dry in the morning plus one can of I/D wet, with the can being equivalent (I'm told) to 3/4 cup dry. Then dinner is the normal 1.5 cups (sometimes a little more), which I do with a mixture of 1 cup I/D and a half cup of Purina One Beyond (Betty Joan is not a fan of the dry I/D). Also started giving her a fair amount of treats. I forgot that I used to give her a peanut butter filled kong every day and have started doing so again. Our next vet visit is next Tuesday and hopefully she'll have put some weight back on. I just can't tell. Sometimes she looks like she is slowly bulking back up, sometimes she looks like she's just holding onto her new, lower weight. She doesn't seem to be losing any more though.