Victor

That's great news! Keep up the good work, Miriam!

Thank you! I'll be sure to ask about that. If you could find out from your friend if that's the one, that'd be very helpful!!!

Thanks, tbhounds -- I'll ask about that on Monday when we see the surgeon.

Thanks! Will do. I'm sorry about your Daisy. Thank you for sharing this. They put Gilgun on Benadryl, too (50mg twice daily). I'm sorry your cat has a mast cell tumor, too. That's helpful to know about Palladia and cyproheptadine. The ophthalmologist thinks they may be able to preserve the eye and the eyelid with some reconstructive surgery. We are worried about it, though, especially since they'll want to get clean margins if possible. That's good to know about Diamondback. Thank you!

Our 6.5-year-old boy Gilgun had an FNE on a recurring lump beneath his eyelid today (see below), and it turns out it's a mast cell tumor. We have an appointment with oncology for staging next Monday (10/30) and opthamology could do surgery the following day. Does anyone have experience with excision and/or treatment of a mast cell tumor in this location? Sadly, we first noticed an inflamed bump there about a year ago, but it went away and our vet didn't think it was anything to worry about. It came back again in January, but it went away and we thought it must be a sty. Most recently it flared up in September and it's been more prone to flaring up since then, which is why we saw the opthamologist today.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm not a vet, but things that come to mind based on my experience with a greyhound with similar symptoms are lumbosacral stenosis (LS), stroke, meningitis, and degenerative myelopathy. I would get him to a neurologist as soon as possible.

I'm sorry to hear your girl has developed noise anxiety. Our girl Joy is petrified of small engine noises: lawn mowers, leaf blowers, vacuum cleaners, etc. We tried Prozac, but it made her more anxious, especially at higher doses. Xanax unfortunately didn't help her either. Earlier this summer I read about Zylkene on Greytalk, and we've been giving her that with some success. She still vocalizes and tries to escape the noises, but at least she doesn't tremble with fear like she used to. We've been giving her 450mg once per day (mixed with her breakfast): https://www.chewy.com/vetoquinol-zylkene-behavior-support/dp/121055 @KF_in_Georgia: Thank you for the information on BuSpar. I'll ask our vet about trying that next summer!

We put out Damminix Tick Tubes each spring and fall: http://ticktubes.com The effect isn't immediate, but we've definitely noticed a decrease in ticks over the years. ETA: The tubes contain permethrin-treated cotton balls, so you wouldn't want to use them where your greys could get at them. We put them outside our fence. Also, our greys wear muzzles with poop guards in the yard.

That's interesting -- I hope it's not being discontinued! We get it from our vet.

Nutramax makes a chewable B12 supplement called "Cobalequin". Each chew tab has 1,000mcg of cyanocobalamin.

In their April 2017 newsletter, UW Veterinary Care announced the following clinical study: They have a number of other oncology studies, too: https://uwveterinarycare.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/April-2017-SA-Patients-Needed-for-Clinical-Studies.pdf

Bravecto is another good option. We've been using it for several years now, and it does a great job of killing any ticks on our greys that we miss (we live in the country, so we always check them over after they've been outside). You only have to give it once every 3 months, too. It's important to give it right after a meal to avoid GI irritation. Two of our dogs eat it like a treat as long as we break it in half first. For our picky eater we break it into 2-3 pieces and give each piece like a pill. ETA: We prefer Bravecto over Nexgard, since Bravecto kills ticks within 12 hours, whereas Nexgard takes up to 48 hours. I believe this is an important difference when you're worried about the transmission tick-borne diseases!

Thought this might be of interest:

We've found that i/d kibble works quite well for bouts of soft stool. Could she have eaten something she shouldn't have? Or might it have been stress induced? A course of metronidazole can be very helpful for clearing up stress-induced colitis. You might also consider doing a GI panel if it happens again.

Our boy Gilgun has pancreatic issues, too, and soft stool has also been a problem for him. Recently we switched him to Royal Canin gastrointestinal low fat kibble, and it seems to be working well. He no longer has soft stools and he seems to have more energy, too.

You're welcome! I hope it helps him if his vet thinks it's safe to try! It's worth noting that this is a much higher dose of cimetidine than would be used for acid suppression. According to our vet, 5-10mg/kg is the normal dose for dogs for acid reduction. Joy weighs 26.8kg, so the 800mg/day translates to ~30mg/kg. (The dose used for warts in people is 20-40mg/kg.)

I just heard from Dr. Jenifer Barker, who initially diagnosed Joy's concerns. She has two cautions that I thought I should share: "Cimetidine can cause heart arrhythmia's and respiratory distress is some dogs." "Greyhounds with early renal issues can progress more rapidly with long term use of Cimetidine." Also, I noticed the link to the research article in my post isn't working. Here it is again: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14693487 Eur J Dermatol. 2003 Sep-Oct;13(5):445-8. Cimetidine treatment for viral warts enhances IL-2 and IFN-gamma expression but not IL-18 expression in lesional skin. Mitsuishi T1, Iida K, Kawana S. Abstract Cimetidine has been shown to improve various types of human neoplasms and more recently it has been shown to be effective in treating recalcitrant or multiple viral warts in some reports. However, it is not well understood why cimetidine is effective on those kinds of viral warts. We investigated 55 patients with multiple viral warts treated only with oral cimetidine for up to 4 months to examine the efficacy of treatment. The patients were divided into two groups: group A received oral cimetidine (<20 mg/kg/day) and group B received the drug (30 to 40 mg/kg/day). In addition, using real time PCR, we measured mRNA levels of the cytokines interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-18, and interferon (IFN)-gamma taken from selected punch biopsy specimens before and during treatment. As a result, 34.5% (19/55) of the patients had a dramatic clinical improvement or complete remission (CR) of their viral warts and 23.6% (13/55) of the patients had partial responses (PR) within 4 months of cimetidine therapy. IL-2 and IFN-gamma mRNA levels were significantly increased and IL-18 mRNA levels were decreased in tissues of effectively treated viral warts. Our results show that the higher dose of oral cimetidine was more effective in treating multiple viral warts, that cimetidine activates Th1 cells to produce IL-2 and IFN-c and that their expression correlates with wart remission. These results suggest that cimetidine is an effective treatment for viral warts. In addition, based on the decrease in IL-18 mRNA elicited by the drug, IL-18 might be expressed by keratinocytes infected with HPV.

I don't think other acid suppressants have the same effect. It seems to be only cimetidine that works for treating viral warts. Joy's corns were really bad last winter, so I don't think it's the temperature that's affecting her corns.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I think we may have found a cure for our greyhounds' corns! Our 9-year-old female, Joy, has had terrible corns for the past year or so. It got so bad that she was lame on one leg and could barely walk even with pain medication. We tried everything (hulling, duct tape, Gorilla tape, Burt's Bees, O'Keeffe's, azithromycin, ichthammol, lysine, Kerasol), but nothing helped. Then we ran into a pediatrician at a greyhound event, who told us how he treated his greyhound with cimetidine (brand name Tagamet), which has been used in humans to treat viral warts (see, for example, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14693487).He gave his girl 400mg cimetidine every 12 hours for 6 weeks, after which he reduced the dose to 200mg every 12 hours for 4 weeks. He didn't start to see an effect until 5 weeks of treatment, but now she's completely corn free! We're just past 5 weeks with Joy, and I'm thrilled to report that her corns are much better! In fact, they've all but disappeared on three of her paws, and the worst one is shrinking. We're still hulling it, but each time the size of the hulled corn is smaller. And Joy can walk again without pain medication! We still use booties to protect her paws outside (a combination of Therapaws/Slicks/Neopaws in the summer and Voyagers K9 in the winter), but she can walk and run inside without any booties at all. I can't begin to express how grateful we are! If you wish to try this treatment, my only caution would be to check with your vet first. He or she may want to do blood tests to make sure your grey's liver and kidney values are okay. You might also want to do followup blood tests partway through treatment to make sure your pup is tolerating it okay. We haven't noticed any ill effects, but every dog is different. Also, since cimetidine is an acid reducer, it could potentially affect digestion and/or absorption of other medicines. In any case, if you have a greyhound who is suffering from corns, please discuss this with your vet! Here's the link for generic cimetidine at Walgreens, which is what we're using: https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-cimetidine-200-acid-reducer-tablets/ID=prod6022304-product

It could be the nails on her outer toes are too short. Our boy has this problem; if we dremel the nails on his outer toes too much, they'll dig into the tissue on his adjacent toes. It's a challenge to keep his toenails just the right length -- not too short and not too long!

I agree with sending the photo to the vet. It's most likely due to the blood draw, but they should know that they're causing bruising like that. After we discovered an enormous bruise on one of our boy's necks, we started telling vets that we do not want any blood draws from the neck. Besides the bruising, I can only imagine how frightening it must be for a dog to have blood drawn that way. And what if something went wrong with the draw? I shudder to think about it.

Our Joy is also petrified of lawn mowers. We tried L-theanine, but it actually made her anxiety worse.

There's no way of knowing how healthy your greyhound will be, so I'd get health insurance for him or her as soon as you adopt. If you wait until you have a problem to get health insurance, that problem will be excluded as a "prior condition". We've had amazing experience with Healthy Paws, and I highly recommend them: https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com Good luck with your adoption!

You may be able to get Detachol adhesive remover from your vet. It works well for removing sticky bandaging. Mineral oil is another over-the-counter option.