quarrystepper

Congrats on the great news! What's your username on instagram? There are quite a few GTers on there as well, and you might find a few to follow on this thread.

They always find the worst spot to play in, don't they?! One of Kali's favorite tricks on walks is to step backwards after relieving herself, right into a pile of her own dirt. Double points if she peed on top of it first. Anyway, thinking warm (non-micturated) thoughts for solving Aston's mystery.

I think the OP said she was going to extend her privacy fence with some temporary measures, so hopefully the time/expense/hassle of a security camera won't be necessary... but I will say I'm disappointed that we won't get to watch a YouTube video of her sleuthing.

An Adaptil (DAP) plug-in absolutely saved us when Brooks had his original bouts of S.A. It came highly recommended from our adoption group and was definitely useful when we brought Kali in directly from the track. So the concept of Adaptil itself is definitely solid. Even if it's not a panacea, there's no harm in including it. As for wearing a collar with the Adaptil product, I'd be sure to ask about whether the collar's chemical composition might cause a skin reaction. Some of the collars used for flea and tick prevention (e.g. Scalibor) have terrible side effects for greyhounds, as seen here.

This is a great thread for exploring my options re: food addition, but here's a question for the masses. If I have two happy, completely unpicky dogs who both scarf their 2 cups at breakfast and dinner, is there any real reason -- aside from occasional pampering -- to add value? I guess this is more of a training question as well, to the extent that adding high-value food to the regular kibble could be a great reward. But honestly, my two hounds don't stop to smell the roses when it's breakfast or dinner time. Even with a stainless steel ball in each dish, they've never slowed down long enough to breathe let alone turned their noses up at it.

One caution about adding water to dry kibble. Some of the premium dog brands use citric acid as a preservative. It begins to break down quickly when moisture is present, and this can greatly increase the hound's chance of bloat. (I've read this from a number of sources, which I'm merely parroting since I'm not a chemical expert. Hopefully I'm not repeating apocrypha.)

So far so good. Seemingly no major physical effects and not lethargic any more than normal. I should clarify that his stool last night was kind of "ploppy" rather than runny. This morning it was more solid but not its normal quantity -- so I guess he is a bit constipated. I'll pick up some Gas-X later today. And I have to board both hounds at the vet for about 4 hours tomorrow while our home gets inspected by a potential buyer, so I'll have them do a blood panel on Brooks while he's in their hands. I found a website that was debunking the "two scoops of raisins" as a myth! That's how I was able to estimate the amount in a big box of RB. Looool.

It took an epic counter-surf to get it down from an upper shelf, but Brooks pulled down a BRAND NEW, unopened box of Raisin Bran (23.5 oz) and scarfed the whole thing while I was out for dinner. Based on the evidence at hand, this was more than two hours ago. Per the conventional wisdom, it's too late to induce with hydrogen peroxide. But ... Google search says there's about 150 grams (~ 1 cup) of raisins in a 16 oz. box of Raisin Bran, so I'm going with 210 grams of raisins in this particular box. Wiki says toxicity is about 19g of raisins per kg. Brooks is roughly 78 lbs (35.3 kg). So in his case, toxicity shouldn't occur until about 660 grams of raisins. So he's about 1/3rd of the way to toxicity. Is my math right? Any cause for concern here? Am I losing precious minutes that should be spent on my way to the e-vet? I also figure he also got about 200g of sugar with this conquest, which can't be good. Not sure what effects to expect there. For some added context, this pup has an iron stomach. He's lucked into (nontoxic amounts of) cocoa powder and full bags of coffee beans in the past with no major issues. He's already had some runny stool since I got home, which I'm guessing is the bran, not the raisins. But he's been busily chewing threw a new stuffie and pestering his sister to play since I got home, so he seems okay?

How gratifying to have the mystery solved, but what a jerk your neighbor is being! I can't imagine how frustrating it must be, having him seemingly lie to your face. I bet it stops now, though, since you've mentioned how much the e-vet bill cost. We have neighbors on one side who have been tremendously rude since we moved in. When we built our fence (the last step before we could adopt Brooks), they actually approached the builders and threatened them with a lawsuit if they stepped one foot over the property line. I'm very pleased that we never had an issue with them related to the hounds. We usually start our walks in the other direction so they have empty bladder/bowels by the time we pass their house on the last leg.

Love coming to the end of a five-page thread and seeing good news! Warm thoughts for you both.

Ain't it the truth! This is what Brooks's teeth have looked like since gotcha day: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ygjq0ovq3nknii/2013-10-28%2008.03.29.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/xo4iilq7aimjtqx/2013-10-28%2008.35.57.jpg *sorry they're so blurry.

Here's a photo of Kali from just a minute ago. She's laying down on her side, so turn your head 90 degrees to the left... and check out that bald butt while you're scoping this out! https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2te5y6u61zc9y4/2013-11-06%2021.57.53.jpg Again, I would appreciate any thoughts on whether this is the "normal" hypertrophic condition that afflicts female hounds or if this looks worse than others' experience. ETA this is just after a light cleansing with a MalAcetic wipe, which didn't produce any discharge. So anything that looks "unclean" is just part of her tissue at this point!

Also glad for this re-topping of an older thread! Kali, our newest, has a very pronounced vulva. It appears as a taut v-shaped fold of skin over the top and an upward-facing, protruding gathering of two folds that point upward from the center to the top. We're still teaching our vet more about greyhound anatomy as we find more online resources to share, so the general response when we had our first post gotcha check-up was "nothing to worry about." Well, except the brownish goopy discharge seemed to be an issue, so we used some MalAcetic HC wipes on a semi-regular basis and it seemed to clear up. Although there doesn't seem to be any infection and she's never had a diagnosed UTI ever since, she DOES lick it constantly and it appears to be inflamed more often than not. Since none of the 2008 photos from earlier in this thread remain active, perhaps I'll take a couple photos in hopes that others who have had this experience can confirm her situation. But as long as it's not infected, I wonder if she needs a surgical solution -- despite the constant licking.

Brooks chipped a tooth recently and was leaving little spots of blood on his stuffies. Guessing that where there's blood, there's pulp exposed too. Yet our vet said "not a big deal" so I haven't done anything. This thread is making me reevaluate that decision! Don't want an infected head, for heaven's sake!

Sorry for this news.

Very sorry for your sudden loss.

I'm 34 and DW is 39. But she never posts so I hit the younger of the two options.

Nothing to add, other than sympathy for having to deal with this! We've never experienced indoor D with either of our current hounds. But my wife had a greyhound about 12 years ago with terrible SA and, until it was solved, she came home semi-frequently to find 360 degrees of stressed doggie D on her carpets, walls, curtains, etc. I am feeling extremely lucky that both our dogs appear to have iron stomachs...

Also curious about this! Brooks has frequent redness (not swelling) in between his paw pads as well, and occasionally some scrapes/abrasions on the pads themselves -- but rarely any significant cuts or corns, thankfully. I wonder if there's a good preventative or therapeutic balm that anyone would recommend...

Sorry this has been such an ordeal! Brooks came to us with all his front teeth (including top and bottom canines) worn down to a brownish-reddish nub. It's actually hard to tell whether they're still even there, or were removed... no one in our adoption group could find actual records from the track. His only teeth that are remotely intact are the ones you can see in the way back when he smiles. He's still a happy pup but I worry what's left will eventually get worse and lead to issues.

I'll give them a call tomorrow. Having another reliable source to verify that we're doing the right thing is helpful. With all due respect to your suggestion re: hydrogen peroxide, I am surprised you've heard to use it so consistently for this situation. I've got a fairly thorough background in first aid for open wounds, having coached rowing for 10+ years (usually simple blisters but occasionally worse) and have always been dissuaded from using HP regularly since it deteriorates healthy cell tissue near wounds while not considerably helping the cells that are regenerating. I would tell rowers to use it one time at the beginning, maybe, but not more than once. I understand that H2O2 has debriding properties (sloughing off necrotic tissue, removing debris) but I am hesitant to rely on it when there are other ways of irrigating the wound (e.g. the epsom salt soak, spraying Vetericyn liberally, or even hitting it with some Granulex although I'm not using that in this instance). The latter two have antiseptic properties as well. I get the idea of promoting scar tissue quickly, but what really casts doubt on that process is how painful the experience of hydrogen peroxide would be for the pup. Granted, my opinion w/r/t veterinary care is wholly uneducated. Would be curious if anyone else would do the same. Will also mention it to the vet tomorrow and see what she thinks... in case this ever comes up again, lord knows it's a distinct possibility with two speed demons in the house.

Thanks all. Good suggestions here. The one thing that has been hardest (so far) is waiting for the area to dry after the soak and before dressing the area. I want to keep the soak going as long as I keep finding loose/stray fur in the wound. You can see a few in the photo from this morning which I obviously missed when I dressed it last night. My other concern is about keeping the 4x4 gauze away from the wound but helping keep his toes separated. That hasn't been easy. Cleptogrey, your suggestion makes sense but I don't know how I'll be able to use gauze to separate his toes and NOT have it touching the wound. There's just too much area that's wounded -- the entire side of his paw pad is exposed. Also, when you say "medicated foot powder" would something like Gold Bond work? I worry that the menthol would sting worse than manuka honey. I am tempted to start letting Brooks go 24 or 36 hours in between each re-dressing, as suggested above, but I think I'll take the VetWrap off again tonight and see if those whitish areas are getting any worse. And also see if it's dry enough.

Just gave him a morning soak. Here's another angle. Looking at this, I'm 99% sure it's a torn webbing. But still nervous about the length. And in reviewing the photos above, very concerned about the brownish/whitish response going on near the top of the tear.

Happy Labor Day, GT! Brooks was out for a romp at the dog park a few nights ago, and came back with blood on the underside of his paw. After a few days of gentle care (which I'll describe below), I'm not sure if we're on the right track yet. Part of my concern is that now, with a clearer view of what's going on, I'm not entirely positive it's ONLY a torn webbing. The split seems too lengthy, and from certain angles it appears that there's some paw pad tissue on BOTH sides of the split. I'm also nervous about whether it's becoming infected (being a holiday weekend and living in the rural country, we haven't had much opportunity for a vet visit yet -- although an e-vet isn't out of the question if this is truly trouble). I don't have enough experience to know, so I turn to you. Here are three photos from when I unwrapped it this morning: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Sorry to say I didn't think to take photos in the immediate aftermath... The affected paw pad is on his back left paw, and the tear is adjacent to the inmost paw pad. The first two photos are taken from the side, with my finger obviously articulating the split to make it more apparent. The third photo is looking straight in from the front. Sorry for the poor quality, my real camera is at work so these are from my phone. I would be happy to take more photos in better light if it would help make it more clear. For the record, here's what we've been doing since it happened: - Immediate aftermath: irrigated for 2-3 minutes (all he'd let me do), trimmed back the fur as best as I could, soaked in epsom salt/Betadine solution for 5 minutes, q-tipped a bunch of triple antibiotic ointment over the exposed area, taped him into a loose athletic sock for the rest of the night, monitored to make sure he wasn't licking it - Next morning (after buying some supplies from the farm store): it was still oozing blood, so we did another epsom salt/Betadine soak, sprayed liberally with Vetericyn, double-folded a sponge gauze 4x4 (also sprayed with Vetericyn) and gently wedged it in between the paw pad and the split skin, added another gauze pad underneath for padding, wrapped lightly with VetWrap - 24 hours: re-dressed - 36 hours: epsom salt/Betadine soak, re-dressed, adding manuka honey to the wound care along with Vetericyn (no idea if these two can or should be combined, but obviously there are proponents of each on GT) - 48 hours: re-dressed - 60 hours: epsom salt/Betadine soak, re-dressed - 72 hours: re-dressed - this morning: unwrapped, took photos If any of this is wrong or counter-indicated, please let me know! I sourced this from the dozen or so threads about split webbings on GT going back to 2008. There is lots of inconsistency in the advice here, no surprise given it's a message board, so I've gone with what made the most sense from a gut level and what seemed to be the most sage advice.

So sorry for your loss.