WalterWallerson

Ernie has a history of seemingly random eliminations in the house. Today he peed on another bed to the point that I think it's ruined. This isn't the first bed he's peed on. Ernie turned 6 in June and I've had him for 3 years. In that time span he pottied in his crate, the floor, in front of the door, on walls, on different beds. After testing he was put on a thyroid drug that didn't seem to help or hurt much at all. His elimination was determined to be because of anxiety and emotional distress and he was put on prozac. In the last couple weeks, he peed twice in the house and today he ruined a bed. What makes today the most interesting is that my fiancee witnessed the incident and indicated that Ernie was not visually distressed in any manner. It was an entire bladder of pee. To try to anticipate a couple questions, I don't live close enough to drive home from work during my lunch to let him out and I am very uncomfortable having someone else in my home. Ernie has shown me that he's capable of holding it and these accidents tend to be clustered. I cannot be a stay at home mom. I am out of ideas. I'm going to call the vet to get him checked for a UTI but if it's anything like the past, it hasn't been a factor. Ideas? Suggestions?

I don't think Ace is typical at all. I'm sorry that was your first experience. Try your best to let this new little lady be herself and adapt as necessary.

yay this is great news!

At the request of a friend, we are getting the vaccine. I haven't seen any side effects and we are due for our second shot next week. If you are worried, get the vaccine.

CHEESE SLICES! who can resist cheese?!!!

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to skip the splint and go right to amping.

look for a personality that fits this list rather than a gender. can't recommend this enough

yes a 30 minute walk in the morning & night and weekend hikes are perfect - my Walter would love you I think if you are picky with a good personality you will find the right hound for you. Pet your cat before you go to meet the hounds.

I have Healthy Paws. I use the app to submit my claims. I really like them, fast, good customer service and pay quickly. I have 90% coverage & a $250 deductible for both of my boys. I haven't had to use it for anything substantial yet - thank dog.

When Walter met Ernie it was pretty similar to what you described with your boy meeting another boy. I actually viewed this as a good thing because they are pretty great buddies now. They can share a water bowl and occasionally snuggle with each other. It worked out just fine for us.

During the first month I had Ernie home he took every toy into his crate and took a nap with them. I took a long time for him to play with toys, even with Walter showing him. At the very least, you are probably very entertaining to her!

No brain MRI, it's currently too expensive for my budget

So things started to change with Walter on Friday night. He flopped into the slumber ball and hit the couch in the process just enough to wake me up. He was panting a lot and very trippy from his nose. I waited about a half hour and then I took both dogs out to go to the bathroom it was at this point that I noticed that the slumber ball had urine on it both guys went out and empty their bladder. the next day he's clearly agitated most of the day I have waited giving him a Prozac because I wanted to see if he could relax and calm down. At 10 p.m. Walter ushered us into the bedroom to go to bed at 11:30 p.m. he woke me up panting in my face he was clearly very very agitated. I cut him and tried to calm him down a little bit and that midnight I went back to bed at 12:30 he woke me up again this happened again at 1:30 and at 2:30. each time I was able to calm him down and get him to fall back asleep and then I would return to my bed. My bed is only a few feet from his bed so it wasn't like I was in a different room or anything like that. At 2:30 a.m. I stop going back to my bed and slept with him on the floor until about 6:30 a.m. Sunday he was pretty cranky, and yesterday we went to the vet to have blood and urine analysed his blood came back just fine and his urine had elevated levels of protein in it which the vet did not seem concerned about at all I will attempt to upload pictures of the blood work as I have the test results. The neurologist told me that this was an "old wives tale" along with ice cream after a seizure. Not too sure what to think now, to be perfectly honest.

We went to the neurologist Tuesday, Dr Eagleson at VSEC in Levittown (PA). He said it could be a couple things but most likely seizures. We were given an internasal med (despite me asking for rectal valium) and I was shown how to use it. No daily meds since the episodes are so far apart. It is also unusual that he's having them - Wal is a little old to develop seizures, and Dr. E thinks he might have a weird brain. He also said the ice cream/blood sugar thing isn't that big of a deal. Dogs that have been seizing long enough for their blood sugar to drop typically do not make it. He wanted to do an MRI, I said no. He said I should consider the MRI if the seizures increase/become cluster or get longer. He also said that if Wal had a brain tumor, he'd be gone by now and that kind of made me feel better. Basically I'm bracing for the next seizure, I have meds to slow/stop it and hopefully things don't escalate further. I posted back in September and I just wanted to say thanks for all the responses and feedback because it was really helpful to review before I went to see the neurologist.

This is the third one in the last year. This was the longest and involved him pooping, too. I just read the article about ice on his back so I'll have that ready to go. He turned 9 in November.

damnit i was really hoping not to see this

You know it's funny you ask because he got it that morning after breakfast. When I spoke to Riverhound/Rachael we joked that I'll never give heartworm & leave the house ever again - even if it was just a coincidence. I still don't really know what to do.

he did not make any mess in the house. I fed him vanilla ice cream afterward as was suggested after his last episode to help increase his glucose levels and then I took him outside where he peed a medium amount. not that i can find. I feed the green Iams bag, costco/kirkland dog treats and Trader Joe's peanut butter greyhound cookies. None of them list rosemary :/ We go to NGAP in Philly. They recommended that if it happens again, he should be medicated. I'm not really on board with that since they are happening so far apart. They did tell me I should go to VSEC (link: http://www.vsecvet.com/) the next time it happens so I think I'll be making an appointment there or Red Bank Veterinary Hospital which was also recommenced for being great with this type of stuff. (link: http://www.rbvh.net/ ) I'm kind of located smack in the middle of the state of NJ (Howell) right off 195 so it makes navigating to these places a bit easier, I just need to know where to go. We did not go to the vet yesterday because the last time we went, they were like, Why are you here?

About seven months ago I think Walter had a seizure. I was able to video the aftermath. Today, Walter had a similar episode. This time we were both much much calmer and I think I videoed the entire episode. The episodes are very far apart, the first one was November 2014. Second episode was February 2016 and this is the third episode (Sept 2016). I need to figure out what this is and how to move forward in treatment or something. For reference I've had Walter since June 2011. They appear to be slowly happening more frequently. Link to video:

When I first brought Ernie home, he wore martingales and he used to yank my arm off. It wasn't fun, I began to resent him, dislike walks etc. Please don't get to that point, sure you can manhandle him now but God forbid you hurt yourself or strain something - you can't keep this up. You said you don't want to manhandle your new guy, so don't. Get a no pull harness, I borrowed one initially but I won't bother with anything else for Ernie. Ernie isn't food motivated so I redirect him using the harness and we've made a lot of progress. It also really helped this summer, we were outside when neighbors set off fireworks. The harness kept him from bolting and it also kept him safe because if he had been in a martingale he probably would have injured his neck. I highly recommend getting a harness. You don't have to use it forever, but at least for the short term you have a solution that doesn't hurt you (emotionally) or your new guy (physically).

I am by no means an expert, and I hope that smarter people than me chime in. I think it would be good to try other anti anxiety drugs. Ernie was on xanax which wasn't helpful, and now he's on Prozac which has been helpful. I've had Ernie now for about a year and a half, in the beginning I was able to manage his SA. We moved Oct 2015 and it got WAY out of control (a lot of poop & pee in the house, on two occasions he ate it and smeared it EVERYWHERE.) From my experience, I suspect Hank is going to have a hard time with moving. Since he's clearly having a lot anxiety right now, I'd investigate more/stronger drugs, and I wouldn't bother attempting to decrease his dosage anytime soon because he is so destructive. At this point, like a child, he is reverting to old behaviors and they are potentially really damaging to him. I think his safety should be the priority, and while I typically don't promote drugs, this might be the fastest option. Seconding what everyone else said, he may just not be the right fit for your household and trust me, I know how hard it is to have that conversation.

What if you gave her a larger PM snack? Ernie needs a large crunchy bone. When I run out, I substitute a few (2 or 3) smaller cookies. It could be that the snack isn't large enough. I'd also recommend a snack immediately when you & puppers wake up.

general Walter update: I went to work Friday. Friday morning everything was business as usual. Walkies, breakfast, cheese snack, avoiding kissing me goodbye because I was leaving for work and both boys get muzzles. I checked in on them during the day (we have a webcam) but honestly it made me really anxious because if I watched him have a seizure, there is nothing I can do about it because I'm at work (teacher) about 35 minutes away. he was sore thursday night and Friday morning, so he got a rimadyl with dinner thursday & breakfast Friday. He does not appear to be in any discomfort at this time, but previously he was lifting his left leg/paw so I am assuming it was a sore muscle. the only other odd thing is that he has not been fiesty and saying TAKE ME OUT I HAVE TO PEE and WHERE IS MY DINNER WOMAN. this isn't necessarily concerning because he does get excited when I put his coat on, and he is eating dinner normally, but he hasn't been asking/demanding which is odd. Today (Saturday) we slept until 9:30 which is insanely late for all 3 of us because again, normally Walter is waking me up at the latest by 8:30. Don't get me wrong, I needed the sleep because I've slept very poorly the last couple nights but this is not typical. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I guess the good news is that the episode, whether it was a seizure or not, is very short, lasts less than a minute. the bad news this time was that he hit the wall at least twice and his head is a mess. its traumatic for both of us i suppose because you know, instinctually that you shouldn't run head first into a wall, and i couldn't get there fast enough to stop it. the last time this happened was November 2014 so I could wait another year and a half for this to happen again, if it has to happen again. for the mean time we are resting at home with no real answers besides if it happens again we should record the duration, time & date and be aware that seizing for that long will raise his temp. (thanks for nothing ngap!) thank you MP thank you for posting this thank you

NGAP was basically a waste of my time. She couldn't tell me anything, she didn't mention this - which I read an analogy about a path through trees in the forest. I find myself more & more dissatisfied with NGAP each time I go and I'm seriously considering why I still go back. I keep telling myself its because they know greyhounds but at this point, I'm probably better off going anywhere else. They saw me on very short notice, but they also couldn't tell me anything. I mean, nothing. She tested him for lyme, and they are running bloodwork.

it lasted about 20 seconds. i was trying to get Ernie away from Walter when it first happened because I was afraid Ernie would hip check him thinking it was play time. he seems to be in pain, can i give him a rimadyl or will that make it worse?