Victor

My pleasure! Here's a PDF of "Lumbo-Sacral Syndrome in Sporting Breed Dogs—Cauda Equina Syndrome" by Dr. M.R. Herron: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JlAnHWD5gL6IxwbOamftN4KLn3It6J9F/view?usp=share_link

It sounds like Buddy is suffering from lumbosacral syndrome. Has your vet tried Depo-Medrol injections? They make a huge difference for our 12-year-old boy. Here's the information on them: http://www.greythealth.com/lumbosacral.html

Thank goodness you caught it! Has she had a 4DX test recently? Could be due to a tick-borne disease: https://www.mspca.org/angell_services/immune-mediated-thrombocytopenia-itp-in-dogs/

You might ask your vet about Pregabalin. It works similarly to gabapentin but with fewer side effects like ataxia.

Thank you for posting this!

Our vet recommended starting with Incurin and switching to DES if Incurin didn't do the trick. For our 10-year-old girl, the Incurin didn't make much of a difference, so we ended up switching to DES, which has helped immensely.

I would avoid Seresto collars. They've be linked to the deaths of thousands of pets: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/03/02/seresto-dog-cat-collars-found-harm-pets-humans-epa-records-show/4574753001/

One of our girls was licking excessively due to urinary incontinence. After ruling out a UTI, our vet had us apply Desitin to help calm the skin and give Estriol to help control the urinary incontinence. The Estriol helped but not enough, so our vet switched the prescription to DES (a nonsteroidal estrogen derivative) and that has worked quite well. The other thing we do is encourage her to go outside more often to urinate.

Try to get in touch with Midwest Greyhound Adoption. They're located in Sugar Grove, IL, and they're very good about helping greys with medical issues. You can e-mail them at midwestgreyhound@gmail.com or call (630) 466-4022. Give Magic a hug for me!

I found the following: “Data from recent pharmacokinetic studies indicate that twice daily dosing is probably more effective than the traditional once daily dosing in dogs“ https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/gabapentin-and-amantadine-for-chronic-pain-is-your-dose-right/

The Dremel 8050 is ideal for nail maintenance. It's currently on sale at a number of Lowe's stores. There's an attachment for the Dremel called Diamagroove that is expensive but works really well. It's a good idea to trim frequently, since long nails can predispose greyhounds to corns.

It's a new procedure pioneered by Dr. Mike Guilliard. You can read about it here: https://www.mikeguilliard.co.uk/copy-of-dysplasia-article-1 People are reporting successful outcomes with corns that haven't responded to other treatments. I don't know of any vets in Florida who perform the surgery, but Dr. Guilliard is willing to consult with other surgeons.

Our Gilgun has chronic pancreatitis, and we've found Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Low Fat kibble to work well. Royal Canin also makes low fat GI treats that Gilgun likes. You have to be really careful with the fat content of foods and treats, since it doesn't take much to cause a flare-up. Also, when Gilgun was first diagnosed his cobalamin levels were really low, so they had him come in for cobalamin injections every week or two. You may want to ask if that'd be helpful for Myrtle. Also, it's a good idea to do a GI panel on a regular basis to monitor Myrtle's pancreatic and cobalimin values. Hope Myrtle feels better soon!

What a cute photo! You can tell she's ready to go home. For our boy with pancreatitis the key was switching to Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Low Fat kibble and canned food. The canned is actually lower in fat than the kibble, so you might want to start with that. It's important to adhere to a strict low fat diet, even with treats. If Mazy's cobalimin is low, she may also need cobalimin injections (or supplements) for a period of time. If Mazy hasn't had a GI panel done yet, that would be a good thing to do so that you can track her progress. Good luck!

My 7-year-old greyhound boy was hospitalized last night because of Galliprant. He developed loose stools which turned into explosive black liquid diarrhea. He was also vomiting mucus with blood. They started him on IV fluids and GI protectants at the ER. The vet says he's doing better today, but he still has diarrhea (it's brown now instead of black). We had used Galliprant previously without incident, but only for short courses (2-3 days). This time he was on it for 2 weeks and he had a minor procedure (a punch biopsy) that required fasting overnight. He did have a meal before we gave him the dose after the procedure, though. If you try it, just be watchful for GI issues. If you see any, stop the Galliprant right away and take him to the vet. p.s. Gabapentin might be a safer alternative.

Did the vet culture the urine? An infection may not show up in the urinalysis but show up in a culture. Also, did the vet do susceptibility testing? That would show which antibiotics are effective against the bacteria, if there is in fact a bacterial infection. As far as whether an ultrasound would show a problem, it depends. For example, if there's a kidney stone the ultrasound should show that.

When our boy Gilgun was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, the vet put him on Royal Canin's Gastrointestinal Low Fat kibble. It has done wonders for him and he loves it too (we mix the kibble with warm water). He also received cobalimin supplementation until his cobalimin, folate, and PLI returned to normal. If Felix can't tolerate a kidney diet, perhaps this would help his pancreatitis?

I would advise against it. We think Grizzly Salmon oil is what led to a pancreatic flare up in one of our greys, who had chronic pancreatitis.

Our Joy is an obsessive licker. She has a routine where she licks her forearm, then her knee, and then her belly. She will repeat this routine over and over on whichever side of her body is facing up. We found that 20mg of Clomipramine (Clomicalm) per day helps control her licking, although we still have to interrupt her now and then by putting a light cotton blankie over her. (The "Touched by Nature Organic Receiving Blanket" on Amazon works well for this.) Joy is also an anxious girl (she's petrified of the sound of lawn mowers), so maybe that's related. We didn't get her until she was 7 (she was a brood mom).

Just wanted to post a quick update. Gilgun had his sutures removed on Wednesday, and the ophthalmologist said his left eye and eyelid are looking good! His left eye still looks a bit smaller than his right, but it's not nearly as noticeable as it was after surgery. And he's very, very, very happy not to have to wear his cone anymore! Thanks for all your well wishes and advice! Here's a photo from this morning:

Yay, Tanzi!!!!! Keep up the good work!

I have some amazing news: Gilgun's tumor was a grade 1! And, incredibly, they got clean margins!!!!! The only bad news is that his abdominal ultrasound showed that he has "mild bilateral chronic kidney disease". I'll have to start researching that now!

Thanks, everyone! Gilgun is glad to be home, although his left eye seems to be bothering him more today. He's squinting a lot with it. I asked the surgeon about it and he said as long as there's no discolored discharge it should be okay. Poor puppy! Thank you! I'll ask the oncologist about it!

Thanks, greytpups! Thanks, tbhounds -- that's reassuring! Here's a photo of Gilgun after I picked him up today. You'll notice that his left eye looks quite a bit smaller than his right eye now. Hopefully the lower eyelid will stretch some over time.

The meeting with the oncologist went well. They did chest x-rays and an abdominal ultrasound, and they aspirated the lymph nodes in his neck. Thankfully it appears the cancer hasn't spread yet. We met with the surgeon later that afternoon. Unfortunately, the location of the tumor is not ideal for removal with clean margins. The options they offered were to (1) excise just the tumor using a modified V-plasty (a "4-sided wedge resection"), (2) do an H-plasty (which they advised against), (3) do a lip to lid transposition, or (4) remove the eye and surrounding tissues. We opted to start with #1, since it has the least risk and it can still tell us how aggressive of a tumor we're dealing with. This morning Gilgun had the surgery and the surgeon says it went well! Gilgun is in recovery now. We won't know the grade of the tumor for a few days.