jaym1

Thanks, all. Vicki haunts him even when not in the room -- they are very attached to one another, but also locked in a weird, dysfunctional relationship! We have them separated as far apart as possible when eating. I'll make an effort to cut down on water in the food. If we add grated cheese (which we occasionally do), they go into a spiral of demanding ever more luxurious things mixed in with their kibble, and within a day or two will refuse to eat anything BUT food mixed with the finest sardines and cheeses and animal organs. But perhaps, too, Rocko is just at the age where he's not longer as rock solid as he used to be with being able to hold it. Or maybe the weather, too, might be contributing. It's just shocking to see this kind of thing from him. Will still bring him to the vet for tests, since this kind of thing is a huge anomaly.

One of our two greyhounds -- Rocko -- is coming up on 11 years. He's definitely been gradually slowing down over the past year, but he is otherwise in remarkably good health, and got his last checkup just a few months back. Anyhow, starting a couple weeks ago, he has peed inside three times, which he has never, ever done in the past. This isn't marking, or leakage -- we're talking about large quantities -- and it usually happens when approaching the times when he normally goes out. I know there are many factors that could suddenly lead to such behavior, and that those factors could be both physiologically and behaviorally based. I will be contacting our vet in Monday to get him tested to rule out infection. But in the meantime, here's my question: we recently started putting water in Rocko's dry food to encourage him to eat. We don't fill up his bowl with water or anything, but we might be talking about as much as a half to a whole cup of water with each two-cup feeding (twice per day). Might we just be adding to much water into his diet, causing this whole problem? In case anyone's wondering, there are a variety of things that sometimes dissuade him from eating, but primarily it's anxiety over the fact that our other greyhound (Vicki) is the dominant one, and when she is right around the corner eating, Rocko is sometimes put off. We thought making the food a bit more mushy might make him more motivated to eat.

Hey - I'm posting this for a friend. Our greyhounds are inevitably going to be spending time together, but there is this potential aggression problem. Any ideas? "I've had my 8 year old greyhound for 3 years. He was on the track for over 4 years before I adopted him. He is very good with all people but has very specific triggers that lead to aggression. He has very severe leash aggression toward other dogs, only non-greyhounds. He growls, snaps, lunges and will bite me or whoever is walking him. The bites are always on the thigh right at dog-head-height and through clothing. They cause serious bruising. I have to muzzle him on all walks. He is an affectionate, obedient, enjoyable pet on all other fronts. I have started him (about 4 weeks now) on a 40mg dose of fluoxetine (he is 80 lbs) and it seems to have taken the edge off the leash reaction. Over the past few months he has spent a lot of peaceful, even unsupervised, time indoors with a friend's two greyhounds who are not aggressive. When a slight mutual altercation begins he will never back down but will fight and attack until we clap our hands and break it up. About a week ago he unexpectedly punctured the snout of a new greyhound when they were introduced in a friend's apartment. Today he inflicted a similar puncture on the snout one of the very familiar dogs during a scuffle over an empty food bowl. This is a dog he plays with and enjoys being around. Does anyone have a dog happy dog with sudden and dangerous aggression to predictable triggers? Has anyone had positive results with treating aggression with fluoxetine? I love my dog but his aggression is dangerous and I sometimes think he'd be better in a situation where he never got exposure to other dogs."

closing in on what would have been the one year anniversary of tempo's osteosarcoma diagnosis and subsequent amputation. he has been gone almost six months at this point, which is to say that despite all the protocols, he only barely outlived the life expectancy for a greyhound who receives only palliative care. still, i am taken aback by how long ago it all seems, which only reinforces the fact that, had he even made the median survival rate of one year, that would have been an ocean of time with him. to anyone trying to decided whether or not amputation and treatment are worth it, keep that in mind. a single year is an incredibly long time.

Keep in mind that while the pain can cause them to act that way, sometimes the various dosages of medicines can freak them out, too.

rocko never noticed anything was amiss. it was actually pretty infuriating at times, because i occasionally felt like he was taking advantage of tempo's slow readjustment, but really he was just doing what dogs do. as to the surgery: i recall them saying i could take tempo home surprisingly fast. maybe it was on the second day, but i wanted them to keep him in. the insurance made that possible.

just keep in mind the fact that the cancer has already happened. there's no getting around that, and nothing you can do to fix that. the question is only about how you will help him through it. since you have pet insurance, you can get him the full treatment, including amputation. because its in a hind leg, he should recover quickly and have a great quality of life before you know it. amputation is really the only way of removing the crushing pain of a bone tumor like this. the other option would be to simply let him go, and that doesn't seem like much of an option to me. tempo was running again after three weeks with a FRONT leg amp, so i'd imagine henry will be even faster on the mend. and i can only assure you that his time post-amp, no matter how long or short, can be just as happy and fulfilling as it was before. if i were to give unsolicited advice, it would be to really concentrate on preparing yourself for the emotional toll immediately following amputation. the first time you see him it will be hard. really hard. when you walk into that room, the first thing you might want to do is tell yourself that he is only going to get better. no matter how hard you prepare yourself, the scar is going to be shocking. this was the low point for me -- seeing the terrible results of the medical decision i had made for tempo. and the week after, when you are adjusting his meds and trying to keep him comfortable, you will almost certainly question whether it was worth it. but keep in mind that after those two weeks, he will recover beautifully, and by the time he's running around on three legs this spring, like nothing happened, you'll know you made the best decision.

i just used my open laptop along with ustream. skype works, too. positioned correctly, its perfect for monitoring. for a rear leg amp with no complications i'd say two or three days post-op. if i recall correctly, tempo was in for four, including his surgery.

unbelievable. the number of participants in this thread whose dogs go on to get osteo is shocking and beyond my ability to understand, if statistics are to be believed. im really sorry to hear this. let me know if you need any advice.

But he had one night where he panted all night long. He didn't cry out in pain or anything, but he just couldn't sleep--despite all the meds--and that's what did it for me. that's what did if for tempo. i'm sure he still would have had some good times left, but terrible times were clearly coming. after two nights when he was up panting the whole time, i decided to let him go. because i did it a little early, rather than a little too late, his last day was beautiful. we went to the park and the sun was shining and i fed him two giant meals of his favorite food, then he went and visited his friends at the animal hostpital. i still look back at the last day with a lot of sadness. but i can only imagine how much worse it would have been had that last day NOT been a good day. the vet was crying when he died, but tempo never noticed. it's very difficult, but it's the best for all involved if you can let them go a little early.

when vicki needed a urine test a couple weeks ago, i assume i was going to do this. but in fact that vet told me he would prefer an unquestionably sterile sample, and that they would get it themselves via needle. which is what they did, e.g., used an ultrasound to locate the bladder, and took a urine sample with a fine needle. it cost about $140 total. seemed like overkill to me, but thats what they did.

i'm really sorry to hear about casper, and hope you can still have lots of time together. i don't want to discourage you, but i think it's only fair to hear both sides. if i were to do it again, i would not have put tempo through his doxorubicin treatments. we discovered his metastases on what would have been his 6th carboplatin treatment, and he received two doxorubicin treatments after that. he did no tolerate them anywhere near as well as the previous protocol, often losing two or three or even four days to exhaustion and nausea. if this had been earlier on in the treatment, i would have said those days were worth it to build up quality time on the other end. but as it happened, once his cancer spread, tempo had so little time left that those days of feeling poor were way too precious to have wasted. i would give anything to be able to see him again for one more minute, never mind one more day, so in retrospect, i wish i had had those days when he was feeling poor to do over. one more afternoon at the park, one more morning wagging his tail when i woke up, etc. i would think it would be worth it to try at least once with the doxorubicin, though. maybe casper will do fine on it, and he will be able to enjoy benefits that tempo couldnt. all dogs are different, obviously, so there's a good chance it will work out ok. if he doesnt do well on that first treatment, though, i'd definitely start weighing the pros and cons.

the organization who did the surgery is in augusta, maine, which is about 170 miles from here. far, but somewhat doable. i am trying to find out about that now. it seems to be healing nicely. it really doesnt seem to be something thats infected -- it literally just looks like the very top layer of stitching or scarring let go. the scar itself has always seemed really taut and solid, so perhaps it just finally gave way? there have been a number of weird bumps, one of which is fairly pronounced, on and around her scar since i got her. my understanding is that some weirdness in this area can be typical, no?

she was spayed on sept. 4th. she wont be licking it since she is still mostly in her cone from the corneal laceration. though even when she's out of the cone (under supervision) she shows no noticeable interest in it.

so, i've had vicki for a month. in that time, she has already managed to sustain a serious (and costly) eye injury, which is finally healing. however, i just noticed that there is an odd wound/abscess at her spay scar. vicki is just two years old, and had her surgery shortly before coming to me. the wound itself almost looks like the scar has sort of separated, though its not deep at all. nor is it really bleeding -- it's more just raw looking. strangely, she doesn't seem to be bothered by it in the least. i just cleaned it and put some antibiotic ointment on it. when she sliced her cornea, i was distraught at the thought of spending thousands i dont have after having already spent thousands i didnt have on my dog who died of osteo days before i got her. the idea of heading back to the ER, unless absolutely critical, is even less appealing now. vicki's insurance kicks in in 5 days. what does greytalk think about the look of this?

she came home today. she was cared for during her stay in the critical care unit by the ophthalmologist. things seem to be looking up, and the tear seems to have stabilized. it still looks pretty gnarly -- so much so that it's tough to look at, to be honest. she's on three different eye drops and three different pills, plus the cone. it's going to be a long couple weeks, but i'll trade that in order to avoid surgery.

they havent mentioned either of these things, but i will definitely ask. thanks for the ideas!

thanks all. it seems to be stabilizing. they're going to keep her there overnight. my understanding is that, because its a 50% thickness tear, the fear is that her blinking eye, combined with the swelling, might move things around enough to tear all the way through, causing the eye to start draining, at which point surgery would be necessary. the best outcome for the conservative, non-surgical course is a complete cure --the eye could just heal itself. but that comes with the risk of a possible complete tear that could result in blindness. the surgical intervention would eliminate the possibility, but would leave her with permanent vision impairment in each eye. so both options have drawbacks. given what ive heard so far, i am going to stay the conservative route. as ive always said, the people who can least afford insurance need it the most. if only i had signed her up on day one, i would be covered. given recent history, though, i was thinking more about diseases than trauma, and since shes barely two, i figured i had a little leeway. lost that gamble big time.

having spoken with the ophthalmologist just now, we are still where we were last night. it hasnt gotten better, but it hasnt gotten significantly worse, either, though the tear has gotten incrementally deeper. he thinks waiting to see if conservative (non-surgical) treatment will work is reasonable, but it's right on the edge right now. the drawback with surgery is that the cut is right in the middle of her eye, and grafting on a new piece of cornea will cause significant, irreversible vision impairment in that eye by creating a cloudy spot where the scar tissue will be.

my dog vicki, who is 2 years old and who i have had for all of three weeks, just tore her cornea last night. how she managed this, i have no idea. it is a 50% thickness tear, and they are currently observing her in the hospital. i am hoping for a conservative course of non-surgical treatment, but she may need surgery. those who follow this forum know that i just lost a dog to osteosarcoma. the cost of that treatment, even with insurance, was financially crippling. i hadnt insured vicki yet, since i literally just got her, and already i am about $700 in the hole, with the real possibility of a $3000 surgery. at that cost, and coming immediately on the heels of six months of osteo treatment, included in a total of 18 months during which my late dog tempo's total medical billing was in the neighborhod of $13k (and i only had him for 18 months), i don't really know what my realistic options are. this is completely ridiculous, but i cant mortgage my entire life anymore to pay for the astronomical and seemingly improbable levels of medical expenses that apparently go along with greyhound ownership. i suppose my question is: does anyone have any experience with non-surgical treatment of corneal tears vs. surgery? thus far the ophthalmologist thinks that may be a viable route, but they are keeping her for further observation. also, how much do surgeries in other regions and at other hospitals typically cost? she is at the MSPCA angell hospital in boston. while the care is outstanding, it is a major research/vet medical center and, as such, very expensive, and i am trying to figure out if surgery at a more affordable practice elsewhere is a viable option. addendum: have the powers that be in greytalk land considered updating the platform so that three-letter words such as "eye," "paw" and the various other important and highly relevant terms that don't come in at four letters or more are actually searchable? i'm sure there are many threads on this, but not being able to search for the word "eye" seems like way to much of a concession to make in order to get a probably not even marginally faster search experience.

here are videos of all 8 of vicki's races (KNC Vicki Gararo). as you can tell, she was. . . horrible http://www.trackinfo.com/dog.jsp?runnername=KNC%20VICKI%20GARARO

i need a second bed

Three weeks ago, my beloved first greyhound, Tempo, died after a battle with osteosarcoma. He was only six. Vicki has now joined my pack of three (me and my two dogs). Full grown at a little over two years old, she is by far the smallest greyhound I have ever seen. She is absolutely tiny, and looks like a whippet, or a borderline Italian greyhound, but she is a firecracker, with boundless energy. She runs the house (and is a little too strong-willed, frankly), even though Rocko weighs in at nearly 80 lbs, and towers over her. She loves to play fetch and chase squirrels, and is a general delight.

one week isn't very long. it's entirely possible this will just go away on its own. but you should approach the situation as though it will not. serious "alone" training (even though she won't be alone), and tons of positive reinforcement and conditioning is the best way to go. that way, if this is a serious, long-term issue, you can begin to tackle it now, and if it's not, then all is well, too. as stated above, you could get one, two, or ten other greyhounds -- that won't matter, as it's your absence, not being alone that seems to be triggering the anxiety. i would also decelerate on showing lavish affection to the dog for now. be a little more stoic. right now she's clinging to you for support at all times, and that can be addictive. you're like her life jacket, and she needs to learn how to swim.

i just wanted to add that if anyone can use my remaining artemisinin (probably about 70 or so 100 mg capsules) send me a PM with your address and i'll mail them out. i obviously cant use them, but if someone else's dog might benefit, i'd rather put them to good use.