Finnsliz

I don't know how old Slinky is but my elderly Wink suffered from the same symptoms. We could barely touch her back without her attempting to scratch and act all twitchy/ticklely. The vet put her on a short course of prednisone /valium combination and that seemed to relieve her of those symptoms.

I am a teacher and have brought 3 hounds (adopted) and 3 fosters into my house during the school year. I just follow the routine that they will have from day one. I always crate new dogs as I feel it eliminates many worries, especially if you are taking 2 hounds at once. (space/treat/toy aggression, potty accidents, counter surfing/shoe destruction, etc) Knowing what I know now, if I were going to adopt a greyhound I would get 2 at the same time. This I totally agree with....

Well maybe crazy runs in the family. I just noticed Pop's dad is Oswald Cobblepot, so is Wink's! lol

I was going to mention the possible vision and confusion as well. My 13.5 year old gets "stuck" at times. It could be from her hind end weakness or vision issues, or confusion. Whatever the cause, she IS stuck in place and we usually just help her through whatever barrier it is. We have a dog door she still uses, but sometimes she needs a little verbal encouragement or at times physically assisting her. Her coordination is not consistent. We always assume she is needing some sort of assistance.

We had a puppy come into our home with 2 female greyhounds. One of them reacted with total acceptance the other put the pup in her place every opportunity she could. There was mild growling and snapping that the puppy was very respectul of. We didn't intervene, because the puppy reacted appropriately and stopped the behaviors that were bothering to the grey. We we didn't leave the puppy alone with the dogs until she was about 9 months old and her relationship in the pack was clearly established. She has grown up to be super dog and we attribute much of that to her "upbringing" with the greyhounds. Your puppy is way too young to be harassing a mature dog who is used to his own space. You need to watch the puppy's reactions to the grey's corrections. If the pup is not respectful of those corrections you may have a lot of trouble on your hands. Expose them in short periods and monitor them at all times. It should get better as your puppy matures.

How is she reacting to his growls? If she was reacting appropriately to his warnings by stopping her behavior that is what you want to see happening. Good luck with the settling in period.

Happy Birthday Phene, ...such a stunningly handsome and sweet boy. I am typing this with Wink's 13 1/2 year old head on my lap and feeling very lucky.

I'm so sorry Judy. :hugs

These boys take such a huge chunk of our hearts when the go. Hugs to you and Paul Dee. I'm so sorry.

You didn't happen to get your Daisy through Amazing Greyz did you?

My dogs have always dropped weight when the weather gets cooler. They are also far more active with the cooler temps

Bill and I were so sad to hear the news. We are so glad we got to see him last month at the reunion still looking so handsome. You were a wonderful guardian to him through all of this. Thank you for loving him so well.

Corns suck! Once you start seeing part of a clear margin I found that soaking the foot in Epsom salts for a few hours can help bring the corn to the surface . I used paper towels saturated with Epsom salt solution in the bottom of a sandwich sized baggie. Place the baggie with the paper toweling on the corn area and cover the baggie with the Therapaw. Leave it on for a few hours. The area around the corn becomes so softened that the corn usually can be hulled out very easily. I used to just pull them out gently. This was the most effective treatment I found. Unfortunately they usually do come back When you actually see what comes out you will not be surprised at why they cause so much pain. The ones I got were shaped exactly like a diamond, round on the outside with a sharp point at the end and hard as a rock!

At my vet which was on the North Shore of Massachusetts that visit would have been around the 150$ range. This is a pretty expensive area of the country in general.

Here you go Robin. These were taken at my sisters getaway (Maine) in May. Thanks for the link. Wink and Loca will forever be associate in my mind as well. Wink and Loca circa 2004

Wink is my first greyhound I have had the privilege of seeing through her twilight years. At 13 she is developing some issues with mobility, vision and mild confusion., She remains her ever sweet self. Mobility- She is rapidly losing control of her back end. Progressive atrophy of the muscles in her hip area makes her very ungraceful when traveling in any direction, but straight ahead. Some knuckling under of her rear feet has started although she can stillslowly correct them at this point. Her tail doesn't wag anymore She can still hop on and off her couch and has no elimination issues. She has this "barking in my face" behavior, (this is NOT out of character ) which escalates to several times in the evening. It has always meant "I want to go out" so I continue to let her out when she does it but I know she is not needing to go out as often as she is telling me. It seems she needs more calories to maintain her weight. She has never turned her nose up to any food, but started walking away from her kibble especially her AM meal. She has dropped some weight and I don't want her missing any meals at this point so I added wet food to her kibble and she eats that. Yesterday AM she managed to eat around all her kibble, I didn't want her missing any calories so she got the entire can of wet food in the AM and at her normal half and half mixture for supper. Woke up this AM to a huge mess in the dog's room.... even after letting them out at 2:30 this AM because she was barking. I am hoping it is just because she had too much wet food yesterday. I have cooked up a huge pot of rice and meat which she will be eating for a few days. She is still happy and her regular sweet self. Had her annual physical in July with no issues noted. Anyways.. I guess my point of all this is ...Any advice from those experienced in the elderly hounds? She will go gracefully and with dignity. I pray God tells me the day before she experiences any pain or the anxiety of not being to move on her own to let her go.

I think she will be fine. She sounds like a young dog that has been raised on a farm and just not used to all the attention she is getting. It's not that they don't get attention on the farm but that they live a "dogs life", usually in acre sized pens running and playing all day. If they were deemed not worthy for the track then they miss out on the hands on attention that the others get through the training process. She will blossom and learn to love her new life. You can adopt a bouncing outgoing dog from the kennel, take him home and he turns into a shy fearful dog. I had that experience with my first. It's all about letting them settle in and adjust. I don't ever tell adopters taking dogs home that what they see at the kennel is what they will get at home. I always tell them it will be a journey of discovery... that their dog will become who they are over a period of time. I have adopted 3 greys and long term fostered 1. NONE of them turned out to be like their "kennel reputations". but they all turned out well Fingers crossed that she passes her cat test. She looks and sounds like a real sweetie.

Could be a corn. If so the soaking in epsom salts will soften and define the margins. An easy way to do this is to really soak a few paper towels in the water/epsom salts. Fold the sopping paper towels and put in the bottom of a baggie. Position the baggie over his foot so the paper towels are at the bottom and tape at the top to keep in place. Then put a sock over it. (I have a therapaw which works better, but a sock will work in a pinch.) This will also help if it is a foreign object and wont hurt if it is anything else. If it's a corn it is not a medical emergency, just pain management issue.

That is incredibly beautiful....

no worries, mine have swallowed them whole and lived

Oh Nancy I was so sad to hear that news. Thank you for giving him such a wonderful home. He was such a sweetie. We loved taking care of him at the kennel.

I'm sorry Deb. He was such a handsome boy.

Oh Jayne, that is so sad. I am so sorry, she was too young:)

We have mice as well in our 1875 house. I found a recipe to use of equal parts baking soda and sugar. Place in a shallow dish along the walls . According to the site I found this on, mice can't expel gas (from either end) and this harmless mixture will kill them. Don't know if this is true or not, but we tried it and no mice, but that could be pure coincidence... Nothing worse than sticking your arm into the dog food container and having a mouse jump at you first thing in the morning. Although it does get your blood flowing

Little Miss Winkie will be 13 in July and has been happy and healthy on her Purina One or Exceed (Sam's Club) or Kirkland feed. All have basically the same ingredients and we have no difficulties switching between the 3.