LBass

What a beautiful loving tribute to your handsome special boy. I never met him and yet the world feels a shade or two dimmer because he is gone. I'm so sorry for your loss. --Lucy

I would love to have Sago palm--such an attractive plant--but have known of its serious toxicity to animals and so I have and will refrain from indulging my desire to grow it. I certainly wish more growers and nursery owners would add toxicity warnings to plant labels for the safety of animals and humans alike. When I am planning plantings for the yard or thinking of getting a new houseplant I always spend some time on line first to research for safety for the hounds and for my cat as well.

Piper has been diagnosed with this autoimmune disease. For him, there are collections of white cells at several points on his spinal column, affecting his ability to use his hind end and now his front end as well. Currently he is being treated with high doses of Prednisone. Last week he had his first treatment with Cytosine. There was a slight improvement immediately after the initial Cytosine treatment but not much else in the ensuing week. He saw the vet yesterday for blood work to make sure his immune system was not being suppressed too much by the Pred/Cytosine combo. Per the vet, he's good to go for the next monthly Cytosine treatment and I scheduled scheduled that. I understand that treatment may not be successful. I understand that if it is successful, improvement will be slow. However, I'm having a hard time getting a sense of how slow is "slow" and when does "slow" dwindle to "its not working". I'm wondering if anyone here has dealt with GME before and can share insights and experiences. --Lucy

NancyB Tag Collars Here are the NancyB tag collars I've been so pleased with. I've got style one. These have enough heft that you can grab a collar in a emergency. Three hounds have been wearing them for about a year with no snags or catching on anything. I like the colors of velvet as well. There is a color to accentuate any hound.

I have my 3 hounds in tag collars by NancyB and like them very much. They are satin lined velvet ribbon with no rings at all. They are sized perfectly for the flat engraved "tags" from Boomerang Tags. How annoying! I can't post the link from my work computer. I will do so from home this evening. --Lucy

I've got 3 hounds on Kirkland Lamb and Rice and have also happily use the Chicken and Rice. All 3 have shiny coats and nice firm poop.

This. Through almost weekly visits from March through June trying to resolve MoMo's corn issue, I was so grateful for my vet's thoughtful policy of not charging the office visit fee for follow up visits. I'd pay for bandaging supplies and meds but that was it.

Sending all good healing thoughts and prayers for your girl Gee.

Sending warm good thoughts for Bandit and for you. I hope the vet will find something treatable so that Bandit can have more happy active years with you. --Lucy

Chris, I'm so so sorry. Dorie Greyhound was clearly a special soul and I know that the memories of that specialness will be something you treasure. --Lucy

I'm so very sorry that your lovely girl is gone. Your tribute post and its photos moved me to both smiles and tears. I'm glad she found her special home with you and Burke. ---Lucy

I get Piper's Pb at Costco. Costco also had by far the best price on Gabapentin when I tried that for Piper. I do get his KbR from a pharmacy in California by mail. I generally order about once a year and get two bottles (liquid) at a time. Very reasonable.

Linda, I'm so sorry Molly is gone, and in such a sudden shocking way. I am glad that you were able to be with her--I am sure your presence was a huge comfort to her. --Lucy

Long distance hugs to you and Dorie. I so hope that the test results will point the way to an effective treatment plan. --Lucy

What great news the Dorie is home! I hope the results of the biopsy/scoping will be back soon with some answers.

Oh Chris, this diagnosis sounds frightening and I am sending warm healing thoughts to you and Dorie. I hope the vets will be able to get her stabilized. Having a diagnosis after a long spell of mystery can be such good news but this PLE sounds quite serious. --Lucy

I lived in the Charleston area for years but that was over 12 years ago now so I am not a great resource for current information. I do know that the emergency clinic there that is paired with a specialty practice is very good, as is the associated specialty practice. The vets I used were very good but their office is in Summerville and that may be more of a trek than your Mom wants to take from Mt. Pleasant. They have one of the nicest boarding facilities I have ever used. Westbury Clinic

This is not going to be a particularly helpful reply but your question made me laugh, so I thought I'd share my experience. Momo naturally hops into the car eager to go. Piper puts his front legs up and waits for me to lift his rear. Spirit used to make me lift his front end up and then boost his rear in. He started jumping in on his own during Sandy Paws this spring when it dawned on him that he could score the favored spot in the car if he hopped right up before the others beat him to it.

None of mine have been as resistant as your girl but this is what worked for me with the two who fought trims and the dremel: I bought nasty doggy junk food treats. They like Pupperoni. I break the treat sticks into tiny little pieces. My sister came over to help. She held each dog by the collar, sat behind their heads, and plied them with a steady stream of Pupperoni pieces while I buzzed the nails. They were pretty well distracted by the treats, so they let me do much more than usual to their nails without fighting. I didn't worry in the beginning about doing all nails or even about trimming that much. The focus was on making nail trimming a reasonably positive experience. As they got used to that (3 sessions with my sister treating them), I made a point of getting all nails, though maybe not going as short as I wanted. I was soon able to switch to doing their nails alone. I have a container full of Pupperoni pieces and give treats randomly between or during nails/feet. Good luck with finding a method that works for your girl. --Lucy

Sending healing thoughts and prayers for you and Steak and your poor frightened kids. What a ghastly time you are all having. I hope the vets will come up with something to get this cluster episode under control sooner. Lindsy, unfortunately I don't know the half life of oral valium as compared to the rectal dose other than to say its significantly longer. Perhaps the timing of Piper's dose is a bit of a guide. He gets it every six hours along with the extra Pb. Since the usual dose time for Pb is 12 hours and we're halving it to get and keep his levels extra high, I'm thinking maybe valium is about the same? --Lucy

I'm so sorry Steak is having such a hard time right now. Cluster episodes are exhausting and frightening. I apologize if I'm about to post something that doesn't relate to Steak but I want to share something I learned with Piper. I've not read through this thread as carefully as I should before posting. Every summer like clockwork Piper, whose seizures look much like Steak's video, would have a horrible cluster episode. Usually he had 10-13 seizures over a 36-48 hour period. His seizures were usually several hours apart. I dutifully gave rectal Valium (at the correct dose to help) after each seizure but nothing ever stopped the clustering until it seemed to have run its course, leaving us both exhausted. The more I read about rectal Valium, the more I began to realize that it is great for seizures that come very close together--say with in 30 minutes to an hour of each other. The quick absorption you get with rectal administration gets the drug right in there to block the next seizure. However, with seizures occurring farther apart than about an hour, the effectiveness of the rectal Valium is gone by the time the next seizure rolled around. My vet and I talked about this, he consulted a neurologist, and they came up with a different approach to stopping Piper's clusters. Now after each seizure I give him 1 1/2 grains of Pb and 10 mg of oral Valium. I give that same dose of both meds again avery six hours until he has been seizure free for 24 hours. These extra "cluster busters" are given on top of his regular dose of 5 grains of PB and 400 mg KBr daily. Since starting this protocol 2 years ago Piper has gotten through 2 years, including 3 summers, with no cluster episodes. Unheard of in the previous 5 years. Treating seizures is so individual and I know that what works for my dog may not help Steak at all, but I always want to share this hard won insight in to the wonderful usefulness but also the limitations of rectal Valium. Especially when things aren't working. Sometimes it is just time to try something else to see if it helps. Piper is about 72 Lbs, for comparison. Sending all good thoughts and healing prayers for you and Steak. This is such a rough condition to manage. --Lucy

Oh what a shock. I"m so very sorry for your loss. --Lucy

I find myself in just that situation with my 10 year old Piper and have been trying various add ins to his kibble with reasonable success. I like the sound of this doggy meatloaf and will give it a try. Thanks for sharing it. --Lucy

With Piper, I honestly am not sure whether it is the heat, longer daylight hours or something else, but I have noticed consistently over the last 8 years that he always has more seizures during the summer. In the past, I could count on at least one of his horrible cluster spells--13+ seizures over a 1-2 day period--every summer without fail. Eventually my vet found a combination of meds to give Piper when he has a seizure that has, blessedly, stopped him from clustering at all for the last 3 years. I've noticed that the "cost" of that control is that his single seizures come much closer together during the summer months. Sending both you and EZ good wishes for seizure control. --Lucy and Piper